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Fanon and the Revolutionary Peasantry — the Algerian Case

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

B. Marie Perinbam
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Extract

Numerous commentaries have been written on Frantz Fanon's theory of decolonisation in relation to the peasants, most of them focusing on his claim that they constitute the most revolutionary sector in the Third World. This article critically re-examines what Fanon said–and what others think he said–dealing specifically with generalisations based on his observations of the Algerian peasantry during the war of independence, November 1954 to July 1962.

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 11 , Issue 3 , September 1973 , pp. 427 - 445
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

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References

Page 427 note 1 Cf. Wolf, Eric R., Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century (New York, 1969).Google Scholar

Page 428 note 1 See, for example, Burns, Emile (compiler), A Handbook of Marxism (New York, 1935), pp. 34, 560, and 622–9Google Scholar; also Lenin, V. I., Collected Works (Moscow, 1964 edn.), vol. 24, pp. 21–26, and 167–70.Google Scholar

Page 428 note 2 Alroy, Gil Carl, The Involvement of Peasants in Internal Wars (Princeton, 1966), Research Monograph No. 24, p. 2.Google Scholar

Page 428 note 3 Staniland, Martin, ‘Frantz Fanon and the African Political Class’; Memo. No. 13,Google Scholar Institute of Development Studies, Brighton, July 1968, pp. 10, 14–15, and 18.

Page 428 note 4 Clegg, Ian, Workers' Self-Management in Algeria (New York, 1971), pp. 80–81, 85, 99, and 100.Google Scholar

Page 428 note 5 Mulumbu-Mvuluya, F., ‘Introduction à l'étude du rôle des paysans dans les changements politiques’, in Cahiers économiques et sociaux (Kinshasa), VIII, 3, 09 1970, pp. 439–42.Google Scholar For similar criticisms of Fanon's hypotheses, see Ledda, Romano, ‘Les Classes sociales et la lutte politique’, in Revue internationale du socialisme (Rome), 22, 08 1967, pp. 594–615Google Scholar and Potekhin, I., ‘Land Relations in African Countries’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), 1, 1, 04 1963, pp. 39–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Page 429 note 1 Handlin, Oscar, The Uprooted (Boston, 1951), pp. 504–24.Google Scholar

Page 429 note 2 Redfield, Robert, Peasant Society and Culture: an anthropological approach to civilization (Chicago, 1956), pp. 124–5 and 137Google Scholar; see also Firth, Raymond, Elements of Social Organization (London, 1951), p. 88.Google Scholar

Page 429 note 3 Mitrany, David, Marx Against the Peasant (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1951), ch. 10 and passim.Google Scholar

Page 429 note 4 Pamietniki chlopów [Peasant Memoirs] (Warsaw, 1936), vol. 2, p. 895.Google Scholar

Page 429 note 5 Weulersee, Jacques, Paysans de Syrie et du Proche-Orient (Paris, 1946), p. 249.Google Scholar

Page 429 note 6 Launay, Michel, Paysans algeriens: la terre, la vigne et les hommes (Paris, 1963), pp. 61–75, 115, and 130–41.Google Scholar

Page 430 note 1 Dovring, F., ‘The Sphere of Agriculture in a Growing Population’, in Monthly Bulletin of Agriculture, Economics, and Statistics (Rome), VIII, 8/9, 1959, pp. 1–11.Google Scholar

Page 430 note 2 Fanon, Frantz, Les Damnés de la terre (Paris, 1961), pp. 84–5 and 91–2.Google Scholar Translations from the French are my own.

Page 431 note 1 Launay, , Paysans algeriens, p. 138Google Scholar; see also pp. 132–40 and 145–6.

Page 431 note 2 L'Echo d'Alger (Algiers), 16 06 1936.Google Scholar

Page 431 note 3 Launay, op. cit. pp. 153–60.

Page 431 note 4 Les Damnés, pp. 40–41.

Page 432 note 1 Soustelle's statement is quoted in Behr, Edward, The Algerian Problem (London, 1961), p. 76.Google Scholar For an interesting collection of anti-French popular poems and epics recited in coffee houses, see Desparmet, J., ‘Les Chansons de gest de 1830 à 1914 dans la Mitidja’, in Rerue africaine (Algiers),83, 1939, pp. 192–226,Google Scholar and ‘Elégies et satires politiques de 1830 a 1914’, in Bulletin de Ia société de géographie d'Alger (Algiers), 1933, pp. 35–54.Google Scholar

Page 432 note 2 Les Damnés, pp. 83–110, ‘Grandeur et faiblesse de la spontanéité’. This section contains most of Fanon's core ideas about the peasantry.

Page 433 note 1 Les Damnés, p. 95; and Fanon, Frantz, Pour la révolution africaine (Paris, 1964), p. 64.Google Scholar

Page 434 note 1 Fanon's notion of collectivity and spontaneity in a revolutionary situation are diffused throughout much of his writings, but particularly in Les Damnés, chs. I-III. Although L'An V de la révolution algérienne (Paris, 1959),Google Scholar is the least polemical of his works, the spontaneity/ collectivity theme is implied throughout as Fanon describes the reactions of the Algerians to their struggle, notably that of the women in ch. 1, ‘L'Algerie se dévoile’.

Page 435 note 1 There was an element of truth in Fanon's assessment of bourgeoisie and proletariat ambivalence towards the colonial power. During the war of independence, none the less, many separated themselves from the colonial régime and became revolutionary leaders.

Page 435 note 2 Les Damnés, pp. 37–8, 45, 83, 110, and 116.Google Scholar

Page 435 note 3 Ibid. p. 46.

Page 436 note 1 Ibid. pp. 85–6 and 103–4.

Page 436 note 2 The idea of setting the non-revolutionary image of the peasantry upside down did not originate with Fanon. Both the Fifth (1924) and the Sixth (1928) Congress of the Communist International recognised this as a necessity ‘in backward countries and in certain colonies’; Handbook of Marxism, pp. 1039–40.

Page 437 note 1 Les Damnés, pp. 89, 101–2, 104, 109–10, and 146.

Page 437 note 2 Cf. Woddis, Jack, New Theories of Revolution: a commentary on the views of Frantz Fanon, Regis Debray and Herbert Marcuse (London and New York, 1972), p. 62.Google Scholar ‘Fanon… placed his faith in the spontaneous revolutionary attitude of the peasants and scorned the alleged conservatism of the urban workers.…all his arguments have the effect of stoking up mistrust between workers and peasants, and of setting one against the other.’

Page 437 note 3 Les Damnés, pp. 68, 70–1, 79, 95–6, 101, 104, and 107.

Page 438 note 1 Ibid. pp. 101–2 and 196–8.

Page 438 note 2 In his study of the Mau Mau in Kenya, Robert Buijtenhuijs has given Fanon credit for qualifying this idea: ‘Third-World peasant masses are perhaps the first to think that only violence pays— the Mau Mau combattants demonstrated this. However, to be ready to use violence does not mean that one has a consciousness of revolution [une conscience révolutionnaire] in the sense that we have used this term, and Fanon himself explicitly recognised it.… Fanon does not deny the fact that ‘the spontaneity’ of peasants has to be under a leadership cadre, and that the ‘availability’ of the rural masses ought to be raised to a higher level. When he criticises the nationalist intellectuals, it is not because the revolution has no need of them, but because they do not play their proper revolutionary rôle.’ Le Mouvement ‘Mau-Mau’: une révolte paysanne et anti-coloniale en Afrique noire (The Hague, 1971), pp. 414–15.Google Scholar

Page 439 note 1 Nghe, Nguyen, ‘Frantz Fanon et les problèmes de l'indépendence’, in La Pensée (Paris), 107, 1963, pp. 23–36.Google Scholar

Page 440 note 1 Les Damnés, pp. 109 and 151.

Page 440 note 2 Ibid. pp. 85–7, 109, 140, and 146. However, Fanon was also ambivalent about rural traditional leaders. He knew that, in some instances, they owed their position to the colonial power, and that in forming a screen between the young westernised nationalists and the bulk of the people, ‘they were also protecting their interests’, preventing ‘modem ideas from dislocating the indigenous society which would call into question the unchanging nature of feudalism.… [and which would] even take the bread out of their mouths.’ Ibid. p. 85. For a similar discussion, see Pour la révolution, p. 65.

Page 440 note 3 This remark was made to Francis Jeanson, and is quoted in Geismar, Peter, Fanon (New York, 1971), p. 18.Google Scholar

Page 440 note 4 Sorel, Georges, Réflexions sur la violence (Paris, 1921, 5th edn.), p. 182.Google Scholar

Page 441 note 1 The most famous exponent of this view-point was, of course, Ferhat Abbas, who became President during 1962–3 of the Constituent Assembly of the Independent State of Algeria; see his Le Jeune algérien (Paris, 1931), p. 15.Google Scholar

Page 443 note 1 Quandt, William B., Revolution and Political Leadership: Algeria, 1954–1968 (Cambridge, Mass., 1969), chs. 3–7.Google Scholar

Page 444 note 1 See, for example, L'Autogestion: un systéme et non une expérience (Algiers, 1967),Google Scholar published by a dissident group, F.L.N.; Chaliand, Gérard, L'Algérie: est-elle socialiste? (Paris, 1964)Google Scholar; Boudiaf, Mohammed, Oú va l'Algérie? (Paris, 1964)Google Scholar; Guérin, Daniel, L'Algérie qui se cherche (Paris, 1964)Google Scholar; and François d'Arcy, Annie Kreiger, and Marill, Alain, Essais sur l'économie de l'Algérie nouvelle (Paris, 1965).Google Scholar

Page 444 note 2 Clegg, , Workers' Self-Management, especially ch. 3.Google Scholar