1. Dr Frantz
Fanon
1925 – 1961
Black History Month 2011
Cashain David

2. The greatest use of life is to spend it
for something that will outlast it.
William James

4. Martinique

5. • French Antillean colonial society was divided into
several levels, according to caste and class.
• At the top were the grands blancs, or békés, the white
Créoles who had made their fortunes as planters, with
their wealth from sugar cane and slavery continuing
through generations.

6. • The largest and most powerless color/caste group
on the island has always been the noirs, the black
people who performed unskilled or low-skilled
labor. After the abolition of slavery, the békés
enticed over 25,000 Asians~ mostly from China
and India ~ to work as “coolies” on the plantations
alongside the “noirs.”

7. Frantz Fanon

8. Frantz Fanon
Frantz Fanon was born in the French colony of
Martinique in 1925. After volunteering with the
Free French in World War II, he moved to France
to study medicine and psychiatry in Lyon.
He was an anti-colonial thinker who believed that
by speaking a certain language, a person assumes
all of the cultural values of that society.

9. One of Fanon's more famous
works is Black Skin, White
Masks. In this book, he
analyzes the effects of
racism and colonization on
black men. He also
examines the
colonizer/colonized
relationship from a
psychological standpoint,
and points out that in order
for the black man to
overcome the association of
"black" to "evil", he must
put on a white mask.

10. Post-Colonial Thinking
How has colonial education, science and
technology influenced post-colonial societies?
How have these influences helped form the
identities of post-colonial societies?
How have these influences affected minorities in
various countries?

11. … an individual journey, a common
story …
• “when I was born, I
didn’t know I was
Black”
• …. I discovered it….
• Cashain David 1991

12. Yorkshireman ?
Adventist ?
Carriacouan ?
Black British?

13. Wood may remain ten years in the
water, but it will never become a
crocodile.
(Zairian proverb)

14. Fanon Care
Supporting African and Caribbean
people with Mental Health needs

15. Why the need to provide specialist
care ?
• African-Caribbean
people and in
particular Black people
born in Britain are ten
times more likely to be
given a diagnosis of
schizophrenia.

16. • African-Caribbean's are more
likely to be detained in locked
psychiatric wards and most
likely to be treated with
higher dosages of medication.
• Black people are more likely
to be treated with drugs and
ECT and less likely to receive
counselling or psychotherapy.

17. Fanon Care
“culturally sensitive services in a
community setting”
• Individual, Family, Community
• Black on Black
• From an African / Caribbean Worldview

18. Supporting the whole person
 Social
needs  Physical
needs
 Emotional
needs
 Spiritual needs  Racial Identity

19. The services provided
Day Centre
Fanon House (20
beds)
Women only home (6
beds)
Floating support
service

20. • believed mental illness caused by exploitive imperialism
• believed Western powers dehumanized non-Western
cultures, replaced them entirely
• believed dehumanization caused oppression, crisis,
psychological problems
• the only way to stop dehumanizing process is revolution
and for self acceptance.

21. … emancipate
yourselves from
mental slavery,
none but
ourselves can
free our minds..

22. Concept of Liberation Theology
• Liberation
theology is an
attempt for
liberating people
of the world from
poverty and
oppression.

23. Why Liberation Theology?
• Religion can not be neutral even if
it is secular?!
– Religion exists to save people
from any deprivation and life
disturbance.
– Religion has to solve individual
as well as social problems
– It should by dynamic,
otherwise it will die

24. Black History and church
• Thou Shalt Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself:
• Loving others is a radical act
• Loving yourself is a radical act
• Romans 13:8 Owe no man any thing, but to
love one another: for he that loveth another
hath fulfilled the law.

25. The Fanon legacy
• Connection of oppression
to psychological
disturbance
• Need for active
involvement in liberation
of self and people
• Role model for
contribution of a life to
these principles