Jarh L. Rodriguez’s Reviews > The Wretched of the Earth > Status Update

Historical examples have demonstrated that the masquerade of concessions and the heavy price paid by certain countries have ended in a servitude that is not only more discreet but also more complete. The people and every militant should be conscious of the historical law which stipulates that certain concessions are in fact shackles

The violence of the colonial regime and the counter-violence of the colonized balance each other and respond to each other in an extraordinary reciprocal homogeneity. The greater the number of metropolitan settlers, the more terrible the violence will be. Violence among the colonized will spread in proportion to the violence exerted by the colonial regime

In Kenya and Algerian militant groups a new militant could only be trusted when he/she committed an irreversible act, after which they could no longer return to the colonial system

In answer to the strategy of Dien Bien Phu, defined by the colonized, the colonizer replies with the strategy of containment - respecting the sovereignty of nations

A “Dien Bien Phu” was now within reach for every colonized subject. The problem was mustering forces, organizing them, and setting a date for action

Currently the issue is not whether an African region is under French or Belgian sovereignty but whether the economic zones are safeguarded. Artillery shelling and Scorch Arch policy have been replaced by an economic dependency. The crackdown against a rebel sultan is a thing of the past

The colonized subject discovers reality and transforms it through his praxis, his development of violence, and his agenda for liberation

There is no real reason to fight them [the colonialists] because what really matters is that the mythical structures contain far more terrifying adversaries

The colonized subject also manages to lose sight of the colonist through religion. Fatalism relieves the oppressor of all responsibility since the cause of wrongdoing, poverty, and the inevitable can be attributed to God. The individual thus accepts the devastation decreed by God, grovels in front of the colonist, bows to the hand of fate, and mentally readjusts to acquire the serenity of stone