We have moved away from the concept of ‘the other’ being associated solely with gender and sexuality (Project 20-22) into racial difference.
Task
We were asked to read the chapter Fact of Blackness by Frantz Fanon from the course reader.
Fanon (1925-1961) was a post-colonial writer who was born in the French colony of Martinique. Following the Second World War he stayed in France and began his academic career. While working in Algeria, the war for independence broke out and he began to align himself with the independence movement; becoming the Ambassador for Ghana for the Provisional Government. He died the year of the publication of The Wretched Earth.
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| Notes from the small section extracted as Fact of Blackness from the course reader. |
Question: Fanon is writing from the point of view of a black colonial, a second-class citizen of his own country. Does this make it more or less difficult?
From my notes I have come to understand that as Fanon is writing from the perspective of a black colonial – a second-class citizen of his own country – makes it more difficult as the imposed Imperial weltanschauung harder for the black citizen to perceive ontology; it creates confusion – a split in the self – as you become what you are perceived.
How can the issues explored by Fanon be applied to Visual Studies? Well, many artists of Afro-Caribbean, African and Asian decent that work within Britain – the country of their birth – with the issue of ‘blackness’.
Let’s consider the British painter of Nigerian descent, Chris Ofili. I have chosen two paintings both from 1998: Captain Shit and the Legend of the Black Stars and No Woman, No Cry.
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Left: Ofili, C. 1998. Captain Shit and the Legend of the Black Stars. London: Victoria Miro Gallery. Right: Ofili, C. 1998. No Woman, No Cry. [Acrylic, oil and mixed media on canvas] London: Victoria Miro Gallery. |
Captain Shit and the Legend of the Black Stars is both celebratory and ironic. Created by Ofili, the character of Captain Shit is a black superhero and a symbol of black superstardom. He bursts from the flames, showing his power and strength. The painting celebrates blackness but could be seen as ironic as it highlights the absence of black superheroes.
No Woman, No Cry offers us a different perspective of blackness. A tribute to the murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence, the painting was inspired by Lawrence’s mother crying. Her crying – eyes closed and neutral – shows her dignity in the face of her personal tragedy; a trait which a viewer of the painting could align with blackness.
Further Study
Reading Fanon for this project has put me in mind of a film I studied at A’ Level. As part of the A2 Film Studies syllabus we had to study – both closely and the wider cultural context - Sweet Sweetback Baadasssss Song (Melvin Van Peebles, Yeah, USA, 1971).
The film addressed race but not in the sense of colonialism, instead it focused society of the USA.
The film radically critiques the dominant – “white” – ideology of the time. It presents society as institutionally racist that represses not only the people but also black culture.
The film is a counters conventional filmmaking of the time in both form and content. In the wider context of civil rights and black power, we are presented with a radical representation of a black protagonist; the character of Sweetback – a gigolo – is not a single protagonist but a representation of the black experience in North America.
Van Peebles articulates an aggressive style. The film’s crudeness – displayed in the action and emphasised by its form – is deliberate. It provokes shock and revulsion which intentionally distances the audience.
Ultimately through a strategy of radical form and content the film offered an alternative to conventional “white” Hollywood cinema.
Reference List
Fanon, F. (1967) Visual pleasure and narrative cinema. In: Evans, J. and Hall, S. (eds.) Visual culture: a reader. (1999) London: Sage Publications pp. 417-420.
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