Mark’s Reviews > The Wretched of the Earth > Status Update

The bourgeoisie of Europe was dynamic, educated and secular and fully succeeded in its undertaking of capital accumulation and endowed the nation with a minimum of prosperity. In the under developed countries there was no genuine bourgeoisie but rather an inquisitive, voracious and ambitious petty cast, dominated by a small time racketeer mentality, content with the dividends paid out by the former colonial power.

The bourgeois phase in the underdeveloped countries is only justified if the national bourgeoisie sufficiently powerful, economically and technically, to be able to build a bourgeois society, to create the conditions for developing a sizable proletariat, to mechanize agriculture, and finally pave the way for a genuine national culture.

The failure of nations following independence: wealth and poverty, the army and the police forming the pillars of the regime who are advised by foreign "experts." Caravan of corruption

The local cadres of the party are appointed to administrative jobs, the party itself becomes an administration, the militants fall back into line and adopt the hollow title of citizen. Now that they have fulfilled their historic mission of bringing the bourgeoisie to power, they are firmly asked to withdraw so that the bourgeoisie can quietly fulfill its own mission.

After independence the party sinks in
to a profound lethargy.

Stupidity, hunger and inhumanity

The new African bourgeoisie takes on the characteristics of the colonials.

African nationalism crumbles into regionalism (the Balubas refuse to feed the Luluas, Katanga becomes a state on its own and Albert Kalonji crowns himself king of southern Kasai).

Building a nation on a solid, constructive foundation. The national front that drove back Cohen he was in fall apart and licks its wounds.

The problem of tribalism and ethnic tension
By only focusing on certain industries like natural resources, it allows the rest of the colony to sink into under development and poverty.
In the aftermath of independence the nationals who live in the prosperous regions realize their good fortune and their gut reaction is to refuse to feed the rest of the nation.

The casinos in Havana and Mexico City, the beaches of Rio, Copacabana and Acapulco are these scars of this deprivation of the national bourgeoisie, who turns its country virtually into a bordello for Europe (whorism).