Colonialism Essay - 1701 Words

Mahatma Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj, Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks; and Gillo Pontecorvo’s film, The Battle of Algiers each respond to different aspects of colonialism and anti-colonialism. Fanon focuses on the effects colonialism has on the psyche of the colonized; Gandhi rejects western civilization and argues in favor of a non-violent approach to gaining independence; Pontecorvo’s film depicts revolutionaries and counter-revolutionaries using mostly violent means in an attempt to obtain victory over their respective adversaries. This paper will describe the works of Black Skin, White Masks and The Battle of Algiers. Then we will see how Hind Swaraj would respond to these works. In Black Skin, White Masks Fanon attempts to understand†¦show more content†¦This does not apply to the black man as it is viewed that he has no culture or history (Fanon 28). Fanon believes that another way black people strive to become whiter is through interracial r elationships with white people. Fanon tells the story of a Martinican woman striving for what Fanon calls lactification or a desire to whiten the race though having a relation with a white man. Through lactification the race is whitened and therefore â€Å"saved† (Fanon 36). This inferiority complex takes root in young children through the consumption of the colonizers media. Fanon talks of comics that are written by white men for white children but are consumed in colonial environments. These comics often display a white explorer protagonist who fights against the antagonists who are usually depicted as black. Since most people identify with the protagonist the black child will come to identify themselves with the explorer only to realize that his is black and not white (Fanon 103-104). Fanon argues that the process of disalienating a black physician is going to be an entirely different process from that of a black laborer. 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