You are on page 1of 2

In the beginning was the African; the African was sent into the ship, and the slave

was born out of the ship and the world comprehended it not, BUT at the same time the human, the world, and modernity was built upon it. Their call to action forecloses the possibility of an affirmation of the negation of the Black and only masks the bankrupt anti black modern world. Blackness is nothingness, blackness is death, blackness is sin. Tryon !oods 20"# Sonoma State University [The Fact of Anti-Blackness Decolonization in Chia as an! the
"i#er $iver Delta% htt &''((()okcir)com'Articles*20+*20S ecial'Tryon,oo!s) !f- Tryon ,oo!s teaches in the De artment of Criminolo#y an! Criminal ./stice at Sonoma State University) 0e has (orke! in 01+'A1DS eer e!/cation an! harm re!/ction in "e( 2ork City3 A1DS ho/sin# in Seattle3 an! olice acco/nta4ility in 5aklan!) 0is c/rrent ro6ect e7amines ca tivity an! social !eath across the African Dias ora)

As a result of slavery, the concept of freedom in the !est developed through its negation, unfreedom. $ince to be human is to be free, the emergence of !estern modernity came about through the production of %races.& 'nowledge about human freedom in the modern world thus needs to be grounded in the historical production of slavery 89atterson :;<2=) (ne of the signi)cant meanings of the African slave trade, then, is that violence against the black body is the precondition for the formation of the modern bourgeois state 8,il!erson 200>=) Africa as a concept remains the metaphor through which the !est sees itself?or as Achille @4em4e /ts it3 Africa is a me!iation for the ,estAs self-!ece tion 8@4em4e 200:& B=) Africa thus becomes the site of lack, or absence, of non being, for the !est, #oin# all the (ay 4ack to 0e#el, for whom Africa was the place where all that is foreign to humanity is to be found. This nonbeing ness is precisely the essence of a slave formation* the slave +the Black, and the slave formation +Africa, are )gures and places without history. Being socially dead, e-pelled from humanity altogether, the slave.s central value lies in his or her usefulness* he or she has nothing but an appearance, only a body that the coloni/er0master can sei/e and use as needed. The constituent elements of slavery are thus not e-ploitation and alienation, but accumulation and fungibility1the condition of being owned and used. The relationship between humanity and slavery is therefore a structural positionality marked by its usefulness for the master0settler. In short, the world uses the black to establish what is not human. Fanon /ts it s/ccinctly& %The white man slaves to reach a human level& 8:;>2& ;=) ,hen Fanon (rites a4o/t ho( the modern world was formed )rst through the sadistic aggression towards blacks 8slavery an! colonialism=3 he makes it clear that this sadistic aggression is structural because without it white would not be white. B/t the of)cial sanction against this violence in bourgeois democratic culture turns this structural violence into impermissible knowledge* the awareness of the necessity of black social death for white civic life must be repressed. This dual terror1the violence and its denial1also reveals the double movement that is at the heart of the colonial pro2ect. Fanon e7 lains this double inscription at the level of ontology, of being ness. %A feeling of inferiority3 4o, a feeling of none-istence. $in is 4egro as virtue is white& 8Fanon :;>2& :B;=) [C-very ontolo#y is ma!e /nattaina4le in a colonize! an! civilize! societyD (ntology1once it is )nally admitted as leaving e-istence by the wayside1does not permit us to understand the being of the black man. 5or not only must the black man be black; he must be black in relation to the white man. Some critics will take it on themselves to remind us that this proposition has a converse. I say that this is false. The black man has no ontological resistance in the eyes of the white man 6 In the white world the man of color encounters dif)culties in the development of his bodily schema. 7onsciousness of the body is solely a negating activity. 1t is a thir!- erson conscio/sness) The 4o!y is s/rro/n!e! 4y an atmos here of certain /ncertaintyD 5n
that !ay3 com letely !islocate!3 /na4le to 4e a4roa! (ith the other3 the (hite man3 (ho /nmercif/lly im risone! me3 1 took myself far off from my o(n resence3 far in!ee!3 an! ma!e myself an o46ect) 8Fanon :;>2& :0;3 ::03 ::2= 0ere Fanon reveals a n/m4er of thin#s a4o/t the !o/4le movement of the !esirin# machine of colonialism) First3 in linkin# colonize! an! civilize! society3% he is makin# clear the im4rication of each in the other) Secon!3 this im4rication is also an intimate co/ lin# in (hich civili/ed society consumes coloni/ed society through a

violence that turns the body into 8esh, desired and despised, %seared, divided, ripped apartness, riveted to the ship.s hole, fallen, or 9escaped.% 8S illers :;<E& FE=) Thir!3 this sadistic aggression3 (rites

,il!erson3 %is violence that destroys the possibility of ontology because it positions the Black within

an in)nite and indeterminately horrifying and open vulnerability, positions her0him as an ob2ect made available 8(hich is to say f/n#i4le= for any sub2ect% 8200G& G)<=) !hat has been stolen is the 8esh, reducing the captive body to a thing, %becoming being for the captor & 8S illers :;<E& FE=) Fo/rth3 alon# with the 8esh goes the very semantic )eld upon which one can be imagined to be human. (ntology, the world.s semantic )eld, is sutured not simply by white supremacy. :ore speci)cally, it is held together by anti black solidarity. The !istille! meanin# of FanonAs me!itations3 then3 is that in an anti black world, two principles of value prevail* +;, it is best to be white and +<, it is worst to be black. As He(is Ior!on 8:;;E= e7 lains3 (hen one fails to achieve rinci le one3 then at all costs avoi! fallin#% to rinci le t(o3 em4o!yin# 4lackness) To be black in an antiblack world is to be subhuman, making normativity a function of distance away from blackness 8Ior!on :;;E& EF-<0=) The com4ine! force of FanonAs treatment of racism is that the colonize! (orl!3 the world of !estern civili/ation, the world slavery constitutes, the anti black world, is one of everyday absurdity. As Fanon /ts it in Black Skin3 ,hite
@asks3 (hen the 4lack enters the s ace3 all reason imme!iately evac/ates)

You might also like