Regenerating Culture: Analyzing Fanon and Early African Conferences

There are many ways to read the writings of Frantz Fanon and since his death scholars have debated how he arrived at some of his conclusions and whether they were grounded in his own personal experience, the experience of the colonized, or rather, the fictional collective experience of the colonized. Though these debates are still yet unresolved, it seems fair to say that his writings, whether grounded in fact or fiction, resonated with millions of people all over the world. His analyses on the process of colonization and namely the complete destruction of indigenous culture illustrate his understanding that imperialism is a destrcutive evil. Though this is an obvious statement to make today, Fanon scrutinized the colonial system for inventing a false pre-colonial history, ultimately subjugating not only the peoples of Africa, but more importantly the minds of the colonized. In his writings about overcoming colonization, Fanon stresses the importance of espousing a rejuvenated, organic, indigenous culture. Responding to his contemporaries who insisted on an incorporation of European culture into African culture, Fanon advocates a complete rejection of European culture and a refocusing on African themes for cultural development. When analyzing some of the texts from Pan-African conferences in the late 1950s and early 1960s, it is possible to see how some leaders of emerging African states also understood culture as an integral aspect to Independence and development of a truly autonomous state. Nearly every resolution from a major conference incorporates a rededication to cultural institutions and learning so that emerging African states would not succumb to a neocolonialism but would rather break free from the psychological colonialism imposed on them. Examining culture as a method to true Independence illustrates Fanons foresight into overcoming neocolonialism and how his contemporaries incorporated his analysis on cultural autonomy into their own governmental or intergovernmental policies. Chester J. Fontenot describes Fanons analysis of cultures, writing Fanon distinguishes between an open and a closed culture in his analysis of the process of colonization. An open culture is one which has been allowed to develop from its own potential, like a growing organism, without being artificially slowed in one direction or another by an external culture. This open culture is an indigenous entity which is capable of many different directions and possibilities. The important thing is that the indigenous culture must be allowed to determine its own goals based on its traditional past. Fontenot is explaining that Fanon understood this to be the natural progression of healthy cultures. A healthy culture would be one that was not prohibited from expressing itself or which was not severely altered because of external forces. In the case of Africa, slavery and subsequently colonialism prove to be the events that stifle the development of an open culture. Fontenot continues, In contrast, a closed culturehas been forcefully altered by external means. The problem with a closed culture is that it is, for all intents and purposes, incapable of organic growth. Its options have been limited by corruption of its natural order. The logical extension of this is that the colonial system has created closed African cultures. By disrupting the natural evolution of power and culture, African cultures were destroyed. Therefore, when the Colonial Powers sought to create a myth that Africans were a people without a history; people for whom time stood still; people who had no writing and who had invented nothing; people outside the march of human progress it was easy for them to perpetuate this because of the centuries of damage that Europeans had already caused to African culture through trade interactions, and specifically slave raiding and slave trading, as this entire system shifted the

Sahelian balance of power in West Africa that had been in place for centuries, if not millennia, to what had historically been the weaker tribes along the coast. Fanon attributes this development to his open-closed culture hypothesis. Fanon elaborates on his open-closed culture hypothesis by discussing what occurs when a member of a closed culture encounters a member of an open culture. This designation here is meant to suggest that when the open culture of Europe imposes itself on the forcefully closed culture of Africa, the effect is that Having judged, condemned, and abandoned his [the African] cultural furms, his language, his diet, his sexual behavior, his way of sitting, reposing, laughing, amusing himself to the oppressed one, with the energy and tenacity of a shipwrecked man, hurls himself into the culture which is imposed upon him. Therefore, through logically inferiorising them [the subjugated] through and through the Colonizer achieves a double victory. Not only is he able to physically overwhelm the native, he also imposes a psychological condition of inferiority upon the native, thereby justifying his right to rule, as a superior being. This process is the complete destruction of the native culture. Neil Lazarus explains Fanon: Fanon does not say that pre-colonial customs were suppressed under colonialism or that they went into decline. On the contrary, he insists that they were obliterated, and that this obliteration was instantaneous. Elsewhere in Black Skin, White Masks, he uses this conception to ground a definition of the experience of colonization. A colonized people, he writes, is one "in whose soul an inferiority complex has been created by the death and burial of its local cultural originality" (18). Again, colonialism is phrased as utterly destructive of pre-colonial culture. Maintaining that native culture was obliterated by interaction with Europeans, one understands Fanons assertions that the Colonized hurls himself into the culture which is imposed on him after being stripped of any original identity and culture. This is just another phase in the war on culture that Fanon suggests the Colonial Powers exercised in order to destroy native culture. Fanons mentor, Aime Cesaire, summarizes the problem, writing, In other words, whether we like it or not, we cannot pose the problem of native culture without at the same time posing the problem of colonialism, for all native cultures are today developing under the peculiar influence of the colonial, semi-colonial or para-colonial situation. Both anti-colonialists express the curtailing of native culture and its impending development as being intricately connected to colonial oppression and dependent on colonialisms complete defeat in order to bloom to its fullest potential. Once recognizing the bond between Independence and cultural autonomy, Fanon implores Africans to take the issue at utmost importance. Stressing this importance, Fanon reflects, the demand for a national culture and the affirmation of the existence of such a culture represent a special battlefield. While the politicians situate their action in actual present day events, men of culture take their stand in the field of history. By committing himself to cultural development as a means of Independence, Fanon identifies that colonialism is so powerful because of cultural subjugation. Therefore, the only way to become truly Independent is to overcome European cultural subjugation. Then, the physical structures of the colonial regime will fall because they cannot outlast the will of the Natives on their own land. Describing the extent that overcoming foreign cultural subjugation must be accomplished, he writes, This tearing away [from the Culture of the Colonizer], painful and difficult though it may be, is however necessary. If it is not accomplished there will be serious psycho-affective injuries and the result will be individuals without an anchor, without a horizon, colorless, stateless, rootless a race of angels. The insinuation of the words tearing away is that is must be done completely; otherwise a form of neocolonialism, or in his words serious psycho-

affective injuries, will remain and leave the Natives without an anchor for their own cultural development. Professor T. Owens Moore furthers this point, writing, "The goal of a singleminded consciousness would be to obtain mental liberation. Moore discusses double-minded and single-minded consciousness that Fanon often alludes to. By retaining a cultural connection with the European power, the Native would possess a double-minded consciousness. At some point, the Native would have to identify what consciousness or identity is more quintessentially himself. At this point, the opportunity for Independence may have passed and further stifled the development of an organic Native culture or even allowed for an neocolonial intrusion. Thus, mental liberation, or overcoming European cultural and psychological subjugation, can only occur by a complete shedding of European culture and adoption of a single-minded consciousness. Furthermore, Fontenot identifies how Fanon incorporated this into his own life, further spurring revolution amongst those who read his works. Fontenot writes, Fanons rejection of methodologies is, in a sense, symbolic of his conscious movement from the tendency toward identification with and assimilation into European culture to the urge to assert uniqueness as one of African descent. While Fanon had been trained and schooled in colonial or European schools, his shift from the colonizers Eurocentric methods to the colonized Afrocentric nonmethods signifies his movement towards revolution and development of an organic African culture. Fanon analyzed his own life and saw that the true regeneration of African culture will only be attained if he applies such principles to his professional work. Changing his approach to psychology would help him concretize the call for a neo-traditional African culture. In this sense, Fanon overcomes what Tony Martin describes as Fanons perception of the greatest danger threatening Africa was not colonialism and its derivatives, but the absence of ideology. Fanons ideology of African culture as a means to overcome colonialism provides a pathway towards Independence. In calling for a complete separation of cultures, Fanons ideology also provides a pathway towards preventing forms of neocolonialism, though this was not as successful as the simpler task of regenerating an organic native culture. Considering that Fanon so clearly expresses his opinion that native culture is vital to complete Independence from the grips of colonial domination, it is interesting to compare Fanonian ideology to the Pan-African conferences that occurred during the period of African Independence. Most notable are the ways his thoughts appear in international documents, which state a vision for the future of African statehood. Nearly every conference discusses the Algerian Revolution but for the most part sympathizes and lends support to the Revolution Fanon is actively engaged in. What is more interesting is how Fanons ideas manifest themselves into the African personalities of his contemporaries, namely leaders of independent African states. Following several Asian and African joint conferences, Kwame Nkrumah convened the Conference of Independent African States in April 1958. The Declaration of that Conference reads, in furtherance of our social and cultural aspirations, we will endeavor to promote and facilitate the exchange of teachers, professors, students, exhibitions, educational and cultural and scientific material which will improve cultural relations between the African States and inculcate greater knowledge amongst us through such efforts as joint youth festivals, sporting events, etc.; will encourage and strengthen studies of African culture, history and geography in the institutions of learning in the African States; will take all measures in our respective countries to ensure that such studies are correctly orientated. (581) The statement here is clear: African states will work together to regenerate an African culture.

Though Fanon may not have believed so fully in Pan-Africanism, this resolution discusses the exchange of national cultures for regional cooperation to overcome the yoke of the colonial heritage, namely the utter destruction of native culture and the manipulation of the African psyche. The identification of what is considered cultural in this resolution is also noteworthy, specifically mentioning joint youth festivals and sporting events. Sporting events, to this day, is a great creator of national identity, so as such its inclusion breeds a cultural development towards a national identity. Upon this authors travels to Ghana, many Ghanaians stated that Ghana only comes together for an important football match. Though this is clearly exaggerated, the message that sport can shape national culture still holds true. Furthermore, sport also gives the opportunity for traditional songs and stories to become adapted for the sporting event, thereby regenerating a native culture in a modern context. Though sporting events may be one outlet for modernizing traditional songs and dances, Fanon discusses the larger trend of updating oral tradition to fit with contemporary trends. Describing the use of stories, epics, and songs of the people, Fanon explains that the traditional storytellers become a part of national native culture by becoming contemporary. This process is essential to national identity, as these storytellers are often the only ones who retain pre-colonial knowledge on a peoples history and culture and, as Fanon writes, The claim to a national culture in the past does not only rehabilitate that nation and serve as a justification for the hope of a future national culture. In the process of bringing the past to the present, which gives basis for a regenerated African culture, storytellers adapt their approach. Fanon writes, The method of allusion is more and more widely used. The formula This all happened long ago is substituted with that of What we are going to speak of happened somewhere else, but it might well have happened here today, and it might happen tomorrow Fanon stresses the incorporation of this class into the national struggle because of the Colonial Powers instant opposition to traditional storytellers, explaining Colonialism made no mistake when from 1955 on it proceeded to arrest these storytellers systematically. It is in response to such actions that emerging African states focus their attention to regenerating African culture. Because the Colonial Powers aimed to destroy all aspects of African identity and culture, including traditional storytellers, the opportunity of Independence allows states to embrace their own cultural heritages. In an effort to create a new national historiography free from the influence that colonization had had on the minds of the masses about their past, African leaders recognized the importance of learning from the traditional historians some of whom had also begun to write down their own accounts of traditional history, laws and customs. Fanons writing about the storytellers adaptations is the same process as states coming together to explore and exchange native cultures. These are all efforts to overcome the shattering of the African left by the Colonial legacy. Furthermore, the inclusion of youth festivals in the Resolution is significant because to a very large extent, true Independence can only occur with them. Their parents may be too engrained with the colonial ideology of African inferiority, too far into the subjugation of the mind, so that the children are the only ones able to actually overcome the colonial psyche. Moore writes of the tensions between a colonized generation and a free generation, writing, The youth today have very few guides from the past because parents were ashamed to discuss the enslavement process that destroyed their mind, their community, and their culture. Therefore, the inclusion of PanAfrican Youth Conferences allows the youth to further free themselves from the legacies of colonialism and develop an African culture. It also may encourage a completely organic African art genre, which cuts across regions, to further regenerate a native culture. By using local pre-

colonial primitivism as a basis for art, the mixing of arts breeds a new national or regional pride and identity. Furthermore, it begets others to embrace their local art and create more, further regenerating the African personality from the psychological legacies of colonialism. The youth act as the inheritors of Independence but also as the freedom fighters for a successful development of culture, which ensures true and permanent Independence opposing the temptations of neocolonialism. A more notable conference occurred at the end of 1958, also in Accra. The All-African Peoples Conference included Africans from countries not yet independent and people not representing official governments. Rather, it was a meeting to organize how to prevail against colonialism and free the peoples of Africa. Among the numerous commitments to human rights listed in the official Resolution, culture also appears as an important element. The resolution reads, Be it resolved and it is hereby resolved by the All-African Peoples Conference that the Conference:(b) urges the organization of regional conferences respectively of political parties, trade unions, youth organizations, journalists and writers, womens organizations, etc. (588) Fanon understands these developments as cultural events that promote a regeneration of native culture. Furthermore, the conference types are all expressive of open cultures, the central component for a regeneration of native culture for Fanon. His reaction comes from his observation of Asian countries who had once been colonial subjects. He writes in response to the conference, Asia is now liberated from colonialism and territories like China, afflicted, it seemed, until now with an absolute wretchedness, are creating a new kind of civilization, an authentic one, which concerns man and which opens limitless prospects for his enhancement. Citing the Asian example, Fanon explicates how a culture can successfully overcome the destructions of colonialism to create a new pride in national identity and culture. The open culture hypothesis fully supports his assertions, which is probably the reason he writes opens limitless possibilities, alluding to his hypothesis of cultures. Furthermore, one can read the Resolution as describing activities which bring the masses together. For Fanon, as well as any revolutionary, this is clearly essential to Independence. The gathering of people allows for a successful, complete Independence, not only the political appearance of one. Fanon writes, "To take part in the African revolution it is not enough to write a revolutionary song; you must fashion the revolution with the people. And if you fashion it with the people, the songs will come by themselves, and of themselves." By creating regional conferences, African governments guarantee a fuller African revolution, in which the exchange of regional ideas is possible. The incorporation of the masses is the only way to fashion the revolution, which will then lead to cultural developments such as nationalistic, regional, or humanist songs, plays, and dances. Fanons ideology of a regeneration of native culture is clearly relevant to these meetings of African people. No government document is more explicit about African culture than one that comes from meetings between the Heads of State of Ghana, Liberia, and Guinea in 1959. In their attempts to create a Union of African States, Nkrumah, Tubman, and Sekou Toure emphasize that rehabilitation and diffusion of African culture [as] an imperative duty because it is one of the essential elements in the struggle against Colonialism. This is echoed in Fanons writing, in which he states, A national culture in underdeveloped countries should therefore take its place at the very heart of the struggle for freedom which these countries are carrying on. Thus, Fanons urging of national culture becomes a central point of the struggle for Independence. Though his texts date later than these conferences, his ideas are key factors in properly understanding the process of overcoming Colonialism. In his writing, it is clear that simply

removing the Colonial regime does not guarantee freedom or Independence. Fanon, as well as other African leaders, recognize that true Independence must come with a complete separation from the Colonial influence. Otherwise, native culture will be stifled and Africans will be drawn back to the European culture that engrained their inferiority into the African personality. Alternatively, the complete separation will allow for a regeneration of native culture and healing of the African personality. Beyond these conferences and meetings, the Second All-African Peoples Conference held in Tunisia in 1960 most directly names some of the issues that overcoming Colonialism presents to the regeneration of native culture. Resolutions from this conference discuss the elimination of falsehoods concerning the history of Africa due to foreign and colonialist influences and the teaching of African civilization and culture in schools and universities. They also recommend national broadcasting of African cultural, musical, and folklore programmes, further modernizing the medium of traditional storytellers. One excellent example of this is the 1994 Burkinabe film Keita: The Heritage of the Griot directed by Dani Kouyat, which updates the Epic of Sundiata into a contemporary setting dealing with tradition and modernity in West Africa. Though this example comes from nearly a generation after Independence, it is evidence that decisions made at the Conference still influence culture today. Furthermore, the movie captures the essence of what Fanon writes about, namely rejecting foreign influence for an authentic and organic native culture. It also illustrates the modernization of a traditional story and genre (griot storytelling) to express itself in a new West African culture. This movie stands as a success from overcoming colonialism from the Fanonian perspective on native culture. Further analyses of international conferences would illustrate the extent that Fanon ideology was considered and incorporated into state policy during the era of African Independence. It has been shown here how Fanon captures the pulse of the leaders of the time to create an organic native culture. Though he may have disagreed with many about the nature of Pan-Africanism, his voice exemplifies the struggle to recognize national culture as intricately woven into the struggle for freedom. In recognizing that Colonialism was not just an economic or human rights issue, but a smothering and destruction of native culture, Fanon forces the issue of culture to the forefront of the Independence movements. Though his writings here came from a later date, the point is that Fanon was able to express the proper issues for the redemption of the African. National selfdetermination could only be successful if it accompanied a national native culture. Because precolonial culture had been destroyed, it was up to the youth and artists to rejuvenate or regenerate a national culture, rooted in the past, but conscious of the present and future realities facing African nations. In his observations, Fanon speaks for the struggle of every subjugated person throughout history who must deal with the notion that non-Western society is inferior to the progressive, idealistic European powers. Because Fanon so accurately expresses the feelings of resentment and alienation of subjugated people, his writings on regenerating an organic native culture become the mouthpiece of revolution, independence, and freedom.