The Fanon artwork by Gaber at http://gaberism.net/ portrait of Mireille Fanon-Mendes France by Linda Herrera. The work and life of Frantz Fanon (1925-1961), whose incisive and visionary work on revolution, liberation, race, emancipation, and decolonization, continues to resonate in these “interesting” times. Who better to talk about the enduring relevance of Fanon’s ideas and passions in contemporary political life then his formidable daughter, Mireille Fanon-Mendès France. In addition to being an authority on Fanon, Fanon-Mendès France is a scholar of decolonialism, UN expert on people of African descent, legal advisor in a law firm in France, and human rights activist on Palestine and other places where the right to self-determination is in question. She also works on issues of land tenure in countries where people were enslaved and indigenous people annihilated after colonization. She is a member of the Frantz Fanon Foundation. Her most recent article is, “Charlottesville, un rassemblement, une question allant bien au-delà des Etats Unis.”
We met in the Luxemburg Garden in Paris on June 9, 2017 for a conversation about Fanon, populism, race, migration, policing, new social movements, and education. Above all, we pondered if and how the kind of emancipatory movements that rose with such force half a century ago during the anti-colonial and civil rights movements, could have a chance in an era of policed and neoliberal globalization.
This interview and accompanying videos is in two parts.
