A Dying Colonialism by Frantz Fanon – Review

Rating: 5/5

A Dying Colonialism is Fanon’s exploration of how Algeria’s population changed their attitude towards their colonialist oppressors during the course of the revolution. Ranging from how women were previously treated to adopting western technologies in the duwars, Fanon details the reshaping of Algerian society, propelling them to a new nation. 

I first found this book from the Record & Book fair in my city for £2 within a huge tray of old books.. A copy from the 1970’s with stained papers, some of the back ripped, an old signature on the front page. Remembering reading about Fanon from leftist circles on Twitter, I figured why not and bought the book.

The book isn’t long: 155 pages for my version. There are six essays that each cover its own sociological change or revolutionary attitudes within the background of the Algerian War. Being a psychiatrist, Fanon has close exposure to the Algerian peoples and their mental state in this context, providing a unique close-up of their own view of the coloniser and the behaviour that brutal colonisation instils in the colonised.

Fanon’s analysis of the rapid sociological changes happening in Algeria is, in my opinion, one of the foundational pieces in anti-colonialism. 

The book starts with “Algeria Unveiled”, an exploration of what the veil meant to the Algerian, to the French coloniser, and its role throughout the war. The anti-hijab events around continental Europe today is a reflection of the French attitude towards the veil during Colonial Algeria. It could be argued that, in a way, this piece alone could be seen as slightly orientalist if not misogynist due to its alluding to the veiled women as almost hypnotising. 

Alas, this is possibly the most read essay in the book for a reason. It explores how women were the true heroes of the rebellion against the French imperialists – taking officers off-guard with their unsuspecting attitude and casting aside their hijab as a powerful gesture of their determination in liberating Algeria against the strangling grip of French rule.