I need someone who watched Lucía(1968,Dir. Humberto Solás) before

Decolonization and

Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers

¨  Born in Martinique ¡  a Caribbean island ¡  also a “department” of

France, or French territory ú  Martinique was colonized by

France in the 17th century ú  The French exterminated the

native population of Carib Indians and, by the 18th century, established the sugar plantation system with African slaves.

ú  By the 19th century, there are slave revolts until slavery is finally abolished in 1848

ú  In 1946, Martinique’s status is changed from colony of France to overseas department of France.

¨  His father was a customs official and his mother a shopkeeper.

¨  They belonged to the urban middle class of Forte-de-France.

¨  His parents raised him to promote French language and culture and to reject their Creole language and African traditions. ¡  Caribbean Creole culture is a mixture

of African & European tradition, and reflects the legacy of colonialism and slavery.

¨  Fanon was socialized and acculturated to identify with the values of Martinique’s white, former slaveholder, upper class, and to idealize French metropolitan culture.

¨  While living in Martinique during WWII, Fanon becomes more conscious of French racism towards Martinicans; ¡  They are not considered French (which is how they

saw themselves), but as “Negroes” and “Africans” by French sailors.

¨  1943: Fanon joins the Free French forces (under the pretense of helping to liberate France from the Vichy), and is sent to Morocco to support France’s colonial domination over the country.

¨  After WWII, he returns to Martinique as a decorated veteran, and receives a scholarship to study abroad.

¨  He attends a medical school in Lyons and completes a doctorate in psychiatric medicine.

¨  In 1952, he writes Black Skin, White Masks, within which he tackles the question of racial identification, based on his psychiatric training and his personal experiences.

¨  1953: Fanon takes a post at the Blida-Joinville psychiatric hospital in Algeria, the nation’s largest.

¨  1954: The Algerian War of Independence begins; the National Liberation Front (FLN) leads the fight in Algiers.

¨  Having understood the nature of colonial war from his experiences in the French army, and having been exposed to the atrocities of colonialism at Blida-Joinville, Fanon begins to support the FLN cause; he will eventually join them as a propagandist and ambassador.

¨  1959: A Dying Colonialism ¡  addresses the question of national identity in relation

to the Algerian revolution

¨  1963: The Wretched of the Earth ¡  combines ideas from both of his previous works in

addressing the arduous, and violent, process of decolonization

1.  the search for Black identity 2.  the struggle against colonialism 3.  the process of decolonization

¨  1. Assimilation of colonial culture. ¡  An appropriation of Western styles and themes to ‘prove’

that the native intellectual is just as smart and talented as the European.

¨  2. Glorification of the past. ¡  Promoting traditional themes and styles to demonstrate

that the colonized has cultural treasures and ideals that are just as good as the colonizers cultural treasures.

¨  3. The fighting phase. ¡  Art that speaks to the nation, not to Europe, and that tries

to awaken and inspire the people, whose lives and revolutionary struggles are its proper subject.

¨  Directed by Gillo Pontecorvo ¡  an Italian filmmaker famous for making social

documentaries and historical films ¡  The Battle of Algiers is considered his masterpiece and

was nominated for several awards. ú  His subsequent film, Burn! (1969), is based on the slave

revolt in Haiti. ú  Ogro (1979) is about terrorism during the end of the

Franco regime in Spain.

¨  Battle of Algiers depicts the Algerian uprising against French colonial occupation & domination. ¡  1830: The French invade and capture Algiers. ¡  They impose a colonial society, where settlers from

France (at first 50,000) are given privileged access to land and voting rights over native Algerian Muslims; land development uproots much of the population.

¡  1954: The National Liberation Front (FLN) launches the Algerian War of Independence, which is depicted in the film.

¨  an ac%on/war film that graphically portrays guerrilla warfare

¨  shows the influence of Italian neo-realist cinema with its use of grainy, b l a c k & w h i t e cinematography and authen%c locales, such as the Casbah ¡  the large citadel of Algiers that rests on the Mediterranean.

¨  Stam recontextualizes the significance of Fanon’s work, and the connections between his ideas and the film The Battle of Algiers.

¨  Stam explores the notion of identification. ¡  What is unique about who we, the audience, are to

identify with in the film? Why is this important to note in Post 9-11 America?

¡  In what ways does the film illustrate Fanon’s ideas about decolonization?

¡  Why is the film considered a pre-cursor to Third Cinema?

¨  Through libera%on struggles and decoloniza%on: ¡  The colonized fight back against the colonizer and the enduring legacy of colonialism.

¡  Women and marginalized people (i.e. people of color, the poor) move from being the objects (dehumanized, property, slaves) of colonizers, capitalists, imperialists, anthropologists, and historians…

¡  …to “talking back,” providing their perspec%ve, and being recognized as subjects (human beings, people).

¡  The colonized reconstruct, revisit, and re-imagine tradi%ons, customs, and histories that were obscured, altered, or simply erased by coloniza%on.

¡  Awareness and resistance become libera%on.