By: Charlie Buckreis
Fanon wrote Wretched of the Earth in 1961. WWII weakened pretty much all of the European powers. As a result, a wave of decolonization swept across Europe. This fueled nationalist movements in many places that had previously been colonized by those European countries as they declared independence. Those European countries quickly faced increasing pressure to grant those places independence and eventually, most places did gain their independence. Some through violent revolution, others through peaceful political means. Many of these newly independent nations struggled with economic, social, and political issues, however, due to the lasting impact of the European colonization and imperialism.
Fanon wrote a lot on the Algerian War of Independence with Algeria fighting against French colonial rule. Fanon himself supported the National Liberation Front. He worked as a psychiatrist and activist during this period, and his experiences with that helped to inform his analyses in Wretched of the Earth. He argued that colonization and imperialism inherently oppress and traumatize the native people and that this trauma destroys their identities and has strong negative impacts on their social bonds and relations.