ANDY HEDGECOCK relishes two exhibitions that blur the boundaries between art and community engagement
A remarkable life
MARJORIE MAYO is enthralled by a new biography of the Martiniquan anti-colonialist and psychiatrist
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews I Am Martin Parr, September Says, The Monkey, and The Gorge
RITA DI SANTO applauds a touching and witty opener that touches a hot topic in Germany: the future of the immigrant population
SIMON PARSONS is discomfited by an unflichingly negative portrait of motherhood and its trials
PAUL FOLEY recommends an extraordinary double bill that packs a punch and leaves you reeling
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a play about AI that results in a deadening disconnect for its audience
SIMON PARSONS applauds an insightful state-of-the-nation play that explores the growing class divide in South Africa
Frantz Fanon
by James S Williams, Reaktion Books £12.99
FRANTZ FANON (1925-1961) was a phenomenon, as this new biography sets out to explain.
In his short life (cut off by leukaemia at the age of 36) Fanon had been a soldier, fighting fascism in the second world war, a militant in North Africa during the Algerian war of Independence (1954-1962), an innovative psychiatrist, an ambassador, a journalist, a pan-Africanist internationalist and one of the most influential thinkers on anti-colonialism of his time.
Growing up in colonial Martinique, Fanon imbibed the assumption that French education would enable black students from the colonies, like himself, to become assimilated – and to think of themselves as being culturally white. He was only to discover the reality of racism when he reached France and experienced this for himself.
More from this author
MARJORIE MAYO recommends a guide to sharing knowledge, freely available both to academics and communities
MARJORIE MAYO recommends the story of two families caught up in the riptides of wealth, power, romantic obsession and political corruption
MARJORIE MAYO lays out the foundations necessary to allow for learning that equips people to engage in collective struggle and progressive social change
MARJORIE MAYO praises a book that raises significant questions challenging the limitations of extreme forms of decolonisation
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