Frantz Fanon

Frantz Fanon
Born	July 20, 1925 Fort-de-France, Martinique, French West Indies
Died	December 6, 1961 (aged 36) Bethesda, Maryland, USA
Cause of death	Leukemia
Known for	Black Skin, White Masks, The Wretched of the Earth

Frantz Fanon (July 20, 1925 – December 6, 1961) was a psychiatrist, anti-colonial political theorist, author, and revolutionary from the Caribbean island of Martinique. He is the author of various works including Black Skin, White Masks (1952) and The Wretched of the Earth (1961). Born as a colonial French subject, he eventually travelled to France for his education in psychiatry. In the latter portion of his life, he was involved with the Algerian National Liberation Front (French: Front de Libération Nationale; FLN) in the Algerian independence struggle against the French. He also worked in Tunisia with Algerian independence forces, and served as the Ambassador to Ghana for the Provisional Algerian Government. He passed away in 1961, after being diagnosed with leukemia.

Fanon's political thought deals heavily with the implications and consequences of colonization, focusing considerably on anti-colonial struggles of his time as well as on the effects of colonization on the human psyche.

In 1953, Fanon was named the Head of the Psychiatry Department of the Blida-Joinville Hospital in Algeria. There, via his patients, Fanon gained increased insight into the torture and brutality ongoing under French rule. In 1956, Fanon resigned from his position with the French government to struggle for Algerian independence. He documented French atrocities for the French and Algerian media. According to Fanon, the only way for anti-colonial governments to prevent military coups is to politically educate the army and create civilian militias.