Although Fanon and Žižek are by no means recognised as the trauma theorists – both thinkers provide less interpretation on traumas than violence especially on the contexts from which violence erupts – I insist that both thinkers’ analyses on violence allow trauma to be understood in different perspectives. Note: This article had been published wit International Journal of Zizek Studies (2014) The aim of this article is to examine how violence presupposed in Frantz Fanon’s and Slavoj Žižek’s theses are pretty helpful in urging me as a researcher on traumas, politics, subjectivities, and international politics to revisit trauma. This does not mean it would necessarily be one that is diametrically opposed to all European thought but one that does not have to always refer to Europe for their political existence. By resisting French colonialism they were simultaneously constructing a political system based on their own history and culture. Fanon demonstrates the political significance of Algerian (and African) resistance to French colonialism by showing that their actions were not merely a reaction to European oppression but a significant movement where they possessed agency as political actors. Du Bois Fanon is not merely a supplement to the Western canon of political theory but rather challenges our notion of what counts as political theory. Fanon’s writings are not simple appropriations of Marxist theory but rather reflections on lived experiences. Black radicalism, a transnational movement, has its roots in Western European capitalist expansion and slavery, which is part of the larger experience of the African Diaspora. Fanon belongs to what Cedric Robinson calls the “black radical tradition,” which challenges the traditional “canon” of European political thought.

Another part of my argument highlights the tensions and challenges that theorists like Fanon contribute to the field of political theory. I argue that Fanon’s principle concern was defeating colonialism and uprooting its political-economic structures while creating and renewing an ethical self through praxis, corresponding to an axiology that can be described as a de-centered social democracy. Adam have argued that Fanon advocated a radical democratic approach to decolonization however, I take this analysis a step further by focusing on the moral implications of Fanon’s writings in regards to decolonization. This paper analyzes Frantz Fanon’s book The Wretched of the Earth as an ethical text for how colonized societies should organize in a collective, democratic fashion throughout the process of decolonization.

Frantz fanon's wretched of the earth