“Black Skin, White Masks” by Frantz Fanon

One of the most important texts devoted to racism, translated by Urszula Kropiwiec, has just been published by Karakter. Biennale Warszawa has institutional patronage over the book. You can buy it e.g. in Karakter online bookshop.

This is the first Polish translation and publication of the legendary essay that became a weapon in the struggle against racism and an important reference point for post-colonial studies worldwide. The main topic of the book is the impact of racism on human psyche under the conditions of colonial dominance. Fanon analyses the ways in which race is constructed and explores various aspects of the relationship between Black and White. Referring to historical and literary testimonies, to philosophy and psychoanalysis, and above all, to his own experience, Fanon proposes the thesis that the brand of colonialism has all the marks of collective neurosis and that it should be considered how to cure such a state. It shows how the mechanism of superiority and inferiority created by colonial repression is reproduced in conscious and unconscious behaviours, attitudes and fears. It also ponders how to find a way out of the constantly winding spiral of stereotypes and prejudice. Published in 1952, the essay lost nothing of its angry, prophetic power, and it remains one of the most important texts on racism.

Frantz Fanon (1925–1961) was born in Martinique. During World War II, he fought in the Free French Forces alongside general de Gaulle. He studied medicine, philosophy and psychology at the University of Lyon. In 1953 he started working in the psychiatric hospital in Bilda (now Al-Bulajda) in Algeria. When the Algerian War of Independence started, he became involved in the National Liberation Front for which he was deported by French authorities. He lived in Tunisia, and then in Ghana where he served as the Algerian ambassador. Throughout his life, he wrote books and articles on racism, colonialism and exclusion which became an inspiration for numerous liberation and civil rights movements.