Week 7: Blood and Politics

Frantz Fanon, Wretched of the Earth, Grove Press "Concerning Violence" "Violence in the International Context" "Spontaneity: Its Strength and Weakness" pgs, 35-147 (Natalie)

Suggested Film: Battle of Algiers available on youtube.com (Danielle)

Focuses on Anti-Colonial uprisings and the philosophy of freedom and self-determination that animate those uprisings. Focusing primarily on the work of Frantz Fanon, the question of this week is why so many people would prefer violence and even death to the security of colonial administration. The response of those that believe that all individuals seek security would be that the colonial states were not adequately providing that security. While that may be true to a degree, desires for dignity and freedom often motivated those who benefited and lived well, materially, under colonialism to risk and even kill themselves in the pursuit of independence.