Fanon was unable to narrate his own story, living intensely in the moment and embodying everything he expressed. His discourse focused on a present unburdened by narrative pasts, with little known about his personal life beyond fleeting allusions. He had a remarkable talent for life, striving to be the subject and actor of his own existence, which made him engaging and vibrant. Born in Martinique in 1925, Fanon left to fight in Europe with Free French forces in 1943. After studying medicine and psychiatry in Lyons, he published his first analysis of racism and postcolonialism, "Black Skin, White Masks," in 1952, a foundational text for 1960s liberation movements and postcolonial studies. He moved to Algeria in 1952, working at a psychiatric hospital until 1957, when he dedicated himself to the Algerian independence movement, briefly serving as the movement's ambassador in Ghana. Alice Cherki, one of Fanon's few surviving contemporaries, collaborated with him at the hospital and in Tunisia for the Algerian cause. This book records an epoch, a life, and a body of work often deemed inadmissible. Cherki provides a unique assessment of Fanon's complex personality, highlighting his psychiatric intuition and the roots of his political activism, making this account essential for understanding the lasting impact of colonialism on the psyches of the colonized.
