Fanon (29 page)

Speak

A university professor, Peter Worsely, describes Fanon's speech as electrifying, "an experience to set the pulse racing ... remarkable not only for its analytic power but delivered with a passion and brilliance that is all too rare." Worsely also writes that he noticed Fanon come close to tears during the speech and afterward asked him why. Worsely reports Fanon's response in the words below, words included in the Macey biography, page 432.

Suddenly he felt overcome at the thought that he had to stand there, before the assembled representatives of African nationist movements, to try and persuade them that the Algerian cause was important, at a time when men were dying and being tortured in his country for a cause whose justice ought to command automatic support from rational and progressive human beings.

***

In 1961, Jean-Paul Sartre wrote a preface to
The Wretched of the Earth
that upset his fellow countrymen more than Fanon's book upset them. Many influential French intellectuals were at least as mad at Sartre for championing Fanon as they'd been when Sartre championed Stalin, a Russian tyrant with the blood of tens of millions on his
hands. "Oh fuck. There he
goes again, our Voltaire, stirring up the natives, Sartre as wrong about the blacks as he was about the reds."

***

These field notes, compiled while I operated undercover disguised as a journalist, trace some of Mr. Frantz Fanon's recent travels, his speeches at various international gatherings, the reception his speeches received, the fellow travelers who attended. I've included my analysis of the significance of his activities and a number of recommendations based upon my observations and concerns. I hope we will meet and discuss my recommendations ASAP when I return to Washington this Thursday. I'm certain we're heading for a full-scale crisis in this matter and should act swiftly, decisively to avert it.

***

Mom,

Greetings. Hope you're fine. Hope the weather's nice so you can sit outside on your terrace. Romeo is growing locks. Not goldilocks. Nappy brown dreadlocks. Even though his mom's fair-haired and blue-eyed. You never know what to expect, I guess. Given the crazy, mixed-up quilt of folks of all colors rubbing shoulders in Pittsburgh, nobody should be surprised sea-green eyes like brother Dave's pop up in our brown, burr-head clan. Why do those eyes make some people want to kill him. Anyway, Romeo's dready cap is flourishing and looking good and tomorrow the three of us fly to Paris. Believe it or not, I'll have a draft of the
Fanon
script (couldn't have done it without you) in my briefcase.

Heard from Romeo's grandmother in France it's unseasonably hot there. I say bring it on. After this long, nasty winter, I'm ready for sunshine and ocean. Other news from over there not so good. Immigrants burning up in government hotels. Algerian kids and kids from Mali, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Martinique burning cars.
Economic woes. People trouble—Muslims vs. Jews, Jews vs. Christians, Christians vs. Muslims, blacks vs. whites, immigrants vs. natives. Some folks shocked France not as cozy for everybody as they believed. Other folks shocked anyone in their right mind could have believed things cozy for everybody. You know how that one goes. I'm afraid the trouble's going to get worse because the loudest, dumbest voices are grabbing this chance to be onstage, stirring up shitstorms the knuckleheads and opportunists and optimists of blind goodwill always kick up. At least the French are starting to take to the streets and to fuss at one another instead of the blah-blah-blah like here that's worse than no talk. Next time you see Fanon, tell him we need him. Need the best of him. Like we need the best of you. The part that says we're all in this mess together, and says
question
and says
keep pushing.
The ice is cracking, Mom, but we're on our way across the pond, whatever. Wish us luck. Will try to write soon again.

Love.

Since the 1960s I have followed Frantz Fanon in the Grove Press translations of the original French publications of his work. I wish to express my gratitude to Grove Press for keeping Fanon's writing available in English. The English translations of Fanon quotations that appear in the text of my novel are from the following Grove Press editions:

The Wretched of the Earth
(1963), translated by Constance Farrington
Black Skin, White Masks
(1967), translated by Charles Lam Markmann
Toward the African Revolution
(1967), translated by Haakon Chevalier
A Dying Colonialism
(1965), translated by Haakon Chevalier
The Wretched of the Earth
(2004), translated by Richard Philcox

Special thanks to David Macey, author of
Frantz Fanon: A Biography
(New York: Picador, 2000), an indispensable source book for Fanon's life, thought, and times.

Thanks to Myron Schwartzman, author of
Romare Bearden: His Life and Art
(New York: Abrams, 1990).

A general thanks to scholars, critics, colleagues, and biographers of Fanon, who will not allow Fanon to be forgotten.