What do you think?
Rate this book
Concerning Violence: Fanon, Film, and Liberation in Africa, Selected Takes 1965-1987
"Concerning Violence [is] a post colonialist montage . . . [an] illustration of Fanon's 1961 anticolonialist broadside, The Wretched of the Earth, abridged and sharpened to its ferocious point."—The New York Times
"By grounding colonial brutalities and the responses to those injustices in the visual, the phenomenon of colonialism attains a larger and more global significance. Olsson's interest is in decolonization—that short yet potent moment at the tail end of an anti-colonial war followed by the transfer of power when the new nation comes into being. This has often proven to be one of the most violent episodes in post-colonial history, and [Frantz] Fanon is its most articulate philosopher . . . Olsson's investment [is] in making Fanon's theory relevant and up-to-date."—The Guardian
An unblinking portrait of the anticolonial struggles of the 1960s, Concerning Violence combines more than a hundred arresting color photographs from Göran Hugo Olsson's award-winning documentary, with passages from Frantz Fanon’s classic The Wretched of the Earth.
Concerning Violence is a powerful commentary on the history of colonialism and struggles for self-determination, whose echoes remain with us today, and will introduce a new generation to Fanon, whom Angela Davis has called “this century’s most compelling theorist of racism and colonialism.” The book features an introduction by Professor Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, author of Can the Subaltern Speak? and other foundational texts of postcolonialism.
"By grounding colonial brutalities and the responses to those injustices in the visual, the phenomenon of colonialism attains a larger and more global significance. Olsson's interest is in decolonization—that short yet potent moment at the tail end of an anti-colonial war followed by the transfer of power when the new nation comes into being. This has often proven to be one of the most violent episodes in post-colonial history, and [Frantz] Fanon is its most articulate philosopher . . . Olsson's investment [is] in making Fanon's theory relevant and up-to-date."—The Guardian
An unblinking portrait of the anticolonial struggles of the 1960s, Concerning Violence combines more than a hundred arresting color photographs from Göran Hugo Olsson's award-winning documentary, with passages from Frantz Fanon’s classic The Wretched of the Earth.
Concerning Violence is a powerful commentary on the history of colonialism and struggles for self-determination, whose echoes remain with us today, and will introduce a new generation to Fanon, whom Angela Davis has called “this century’s most compelling theorist of racism and colonialism.” The book features an introduction by Professor Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, author of Can the Subaltern Speak? and other foundational texts of postcolonialism.
- GenresHistory
152 pages, Paperback
First published August 16, 2016
2 people are currently reading
64 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 8, 2020
If you've ever been like, I can't read Fanon and/or can't handle political theory (yes, you can) then this is a great place to start. The photographs and transcribed interviews bring the selected passages from The Wretched of the Earth to life in powerful and moving ways.
Anyways, read Fanon and fuck settlers and settler-colonial states. Also, I'm excited to check out the documentary sometime ~soon~
Anyways, read Fanon and fuck settlers and settler-colonial states. Also, I'm excited to check out the documentary sometime ~soon~
May 18, 2024
Frantz Fanon is one of the great voices on anti-colonialism and imperialism who died at 36 to cancer. Fanon wrote 'The Wretched of the Earth' in the last ten months of his life. I am looking forward to watching the documentary on Kanopy soon.
May 3, 2021
A solid 4 1/2. Great intro, great postscript, great excerpts from The Wretched of the Earth, and great stills from the documentary.
The reason I'm docking it a half point (not reflected in the rating, but in my overall analysis) is that this book could have used a bit of expansion. This had the potential to be a really excellent companion to the documentary, if some more supplemental material/information had been provided along with what is already in the book. As it stands though, it's more of a physical version of the documentary rather than a companion to the documentary. That being said, it's still brilliant, but if it was up to me, I would have recommended 10-15 more pages with additional info and/or excerpts from Fanon to really flesh out the message here, and to allow this work to serve as more than simply a physical version of the documentary.
The reason I'm docking it a half point (not reflected in the rating, but in my overall analysis) is that this book could have used a bit of expansion. This had the potential to be a really excellent companion to the documentary, if some more supplemental material/information had been provided along with what is already in the book. As it stands though, it's more of a physical version of the documentary rather than a companion to the documentary. That being said, it's still brilliant, but if it was up to me, I would have recommended 10-15 more pages with additional info and/or excerpts from Fanon to really flesh out the message here, and to allow this work to serve as more than simply a physical version of the documentary.
December 5, 2022
“SANKARA: I believe in the people. In the people as a strength, as a force. If you can speak to the people, if you have the people’s ear, you can achieve anything. Speak to the people’s hearts, so that they understand your ideas.”
November 9, 2023
read in one day, good reminders right now
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews