The Wretched of the Earth: Chapter 2: Grandeur and Weakness of Spontaneity Summary & Analysis

The masses of a colonial country and the nationalist political party are usually not on the same page. The colonized intellectuals, who make up most of the political parties, are dedicated to their parties, and they often hold politics above what is actually best for colonial society. The colonized intellectuals that make up the political parties are the most politically-conscious of colonial society. They are the tradesmen and civil servants—the urban proletariat—and they make up less than one percent of the actual population of a developing country.

The urban proletariat is the most privileged of colonial society, and they have everything to lose by dismantling the colonial power. They are the taxi drivers, nurses, doctors, lawyers, and they are the “bourgeois” of colonial society. This national bourgeoisie is in conflict with the masses. They live Western lives and work Western jobs, and they see traditional native life as a barrier to growth. The national bourgeoisie also has Western political views, and they see the peasant masses as a barrier as well. They believe the masses are not politically conscious and generally disorganized. 

The peasant masses are “staunch defender[s] of tradition,” and they distrust those who live in cities. They believe city dwellers to be morally bankrupt, and the city dwellers likewise look at the masses with suspicion. The colonialists know this, and they fan the flames of discontent by mobilizing the peasants against the city dwellers and fueling tribal identities. The political parties make no effort to reach out to the peasant masses, and they even ignore and publically ridicule traditional chiefs.

The nationalist parties, as a general rule, are not against a revolt, but they wait for the peasant masses to do it for them. Nationalist parties don’t get directly involved in revolts, and they do not organize them in any way, but they are not averse to a sustained uprising. They avoid the revolting peasant and tell the colonial police they have nothing to do with rebellion. There are no meetings or talks between any of them, and this serves to reinforce the existing distrust between the masses and the nationalist parties.  

The distrust between the peasant masses and the nationalist parties in the colonial period extends into the national period. Therefore, the nationalist parties are tempted to keep “firm control” of the masses, as their opinion of the masses is much like the view of the colonists. They aren’t sure how the masses will react, and they approach them with extreme caution.

During the liberation struggle, the colonial country usually creates a national labor movement, which is another way for those in the cities to put pressure on the colonial power. Like the urban proletariat, the labor unions are made up of the same privileged workers who do not represent the population as a whole. In the colonial phase, the labor unions have the power to inforce strikes, which cripple the local colonial economy. But even during all this upheaval, the peasant masses remain completely unaffected by such political and economic happenings.   

Therefore, Fanon says, the labor unions aren’t exactly in step with the rest of the nation, either. The labor unions are completely isolated from the peasant masses, and they make little headway. Once depression and anxiety set in, in response to the realization that the new nation is going nowhere, the labor unions decide that politics must involve the whole nation, and they move to educate the peasant masses politically. The peasants are not immediately receptive. They are, after all, “the only spontaneously revolutionary force in the country,” and they have thus far been ignored. 

Yet the peasant masses are crucial to the struggle for national liberation. For instance, when the rebels, who have been persecuted by the colonial police, begin to make waves and noise about liberation, they become the targets of colonial repression. They are arrested, convicted, tortured, and released; then they retreat to the countryside, where the peasant masses welcome them. The peasant masses are easily excited by the rebels’ talks of freedom, and the rebels are pleasantly surprised to find that the peasants look at their national struggle in much the same way. They, too, believe their revolt must be violent. They are ready to sacrifice, and, along with the rebels, they “can produce an explosive mixture of unexpected power.”

Rebellion upends political parties. Some political parties in colonial countries secretly align with the colonists and hope that rebellion fails. They see a rebellion ending only in bloodshed, and this causes the political parties to isolate. Before long, the leaders of the rebellion decide to take their fight to the cities, and they are largely successful because of the peasant masses who had been earlier forced into cities. Peasant life is tough, and it is not unheard of for some peasants to relocate to the cities looking for an easier life.

Peasant masses who relocate to the cities often find it hard to fit in, so when the rebellion comes to town, they are more than ready to join in the fight. Some of these peasants move from town to town, unable to find a place, living in makeshift shantytowns. These masses are the lumpenproletariat, and they are the “urban spearhead” of the rebellion. The lumpenproletariat are starving men who have no family or tribe, and they are “the most spontaneously and radically revolutionary forces of a colonized people.” 

In Kenya, during 1950 and ‘51, the British colonial police increased their tactics against the lumpenproletariat. During this time, there was a massive inflow of Kenyans from outlying rural areas, and they began to steal and debauch. Juvenile delinquency is usually associated with the lumpenproletariat, Fanon says. They are the “hooligans,” and they are a serious threat to the safety of colonial society. They believe in violence, guns, and hand grenades, and there are women among their ranks, too. Prostitutes and domestic workers are all part of the lumpenproletariat.

The rebellion, with “a hatred for ‘politics’ and demagoguery,” mobilizes. The revolt grabs the attention of the colonial regime, which also mobilizes and threatens to diffuse the rebellion. But the rebellion cannot be swayed. They are driven forward by a belief that the nation must exist and that all foreigners must leave. In this heightened state of anxiety, the national cause strengthens and gains traction. “[S]pontaneity rules,” and the people are drawn together against the colonial force. If a nation lives anywhere, Fanon says, it must be here. During this time, there is a sense of unity. Old feuds are resolved, quarrels squashed, and political consciousness is infused with faith in the nation. There is solidarity among tribes and villages, and this unity spills over to the national level as well. Pretty soon, everyone is standing up.   

Still, despite this optimism, losses to the rebellion are extensive, and those who live feel a massive sense of guilt. The rebellion, it seems, is destined to fail. The rebellion sees their members taken down by colonial machine gun fire, and they begin thinking that maybe rebellion isn’t such a good idea. In 1961 in Angola, Fanon says, the Angolan peasants were attacked by the Portuguese. Countless Angolans engaged the Portuguese, but the Angolans were littered with machine gun bullets. In the end, the Angolan National Army resorted to guerrilla warfare techniques.  Guerrilla warfare, Fanon says, is fighting on the move. Guerrilla soldiers move from town to town, sneaking up on their enemy in the dark. There is no strategy and no position, and just when the colonial police think that they are close to apprehending the guerrilla soldier, he comes from behind and ambushes the colonial forces.  

The rebellion soon discovers that they must formally form into an army and establish a central authority. They transform the rebellion into a revolutionary war and establish a clear set of objectives. The newly organized rebellion goes about fighting in a controlled and well-thought-out way, but this does not win national wars, Fanon says.

Colonialism has historically found ways in which to use the lumpenproletariat. Any national liberation movement, Fanon says, would do well to pay increased attention to the lumpenproletariat. They can always be convinced to revolt, and they have also been known to take up arms with the colonialists, who are more than willing to exploit the lumpenproletariat.

Racism and defending one’s skin are perfectly good reasons to join a struggle for liberation, but racism and hatred will not sustain a revolutionary war. The struggle for nationhood is not one that can be bridged with one step. It is a daily struggle with suffering that lasts far after the exit of the colonial power. Strength and rich reserves are needed, Fanon says, because “the reserves of colonialism are far richer and more substantial than of those of the colonized.”

Those who embrace the Manichaeanism of the colonizer and believe in black against white realize that “some blacks can be whiter than whites, and that the prospect of a national flag or independence does not automatically result in certain segments of the population giving up their privileges and their interests.” There are those who will profit considerably from war at the expense of those who sacrificed so freely. While a revolution may banish colonial oppression, there is still another system of oppression building. The people of the nation must abandon their simple view of the oppressor, Fanon says, as it is changing right in front of them.