wretched-of-the-earth-frantz-fanon

114 THE WRETCHED OF THE EARTH THE TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESSalas, heading a team that turns its back on the interior and pro­current leader. But since that periodclaims that the vocation of the people is to fall inparty has sadly disintegrated. Only the party in name, emandmotto remains. The organic party, designed to enableYears after independence, the circulation of an ideology based on the actual needs ofincapable ofoffering the people anything ofsubstance, incapablethe masses, has been transformed into a syndication ofindividualopening up their future, oflaunching the people intointerests. Since independence the party no longer helps thetask of nation building and hence their own development,people to formulate their demands, to better realize their needsthe leader can be heard churning out the history ofindependenceand better establish their power. Today the party's mission is toand recalling the united front of the liberation struggle. Refus­convey to the people the instructions handed downing to break up the national bourgeoisie, the leader asks theThat productive exchange betweenpeople to plunge back into the past and drink in the epic thathigher echelons and vice versa, the basis and guarantee ofled to independence. The leader objectively places a curb on a party, no longer On the contrary, the partythe people and desperately endeavors either tonow rorms a screen between the masses and the leadership. Thehistory or prevent them from setting foot in it.party has been drained of life. The branches created during thefor liberation the leader roused the people and promised themcolonial period are today in a state of total demobilization.a radical, heroic march forward. Today he repeatedly endeavorsto lull them to sleep and three or four times a year asks them toThe militant is running out of patience. It is now we realizeremember the colonial period and to take stock of the immensehow right certain militants were during the liberation struggle.distance they have covered.In fact, during the struggle, a number of militants asked the lead­We must point out, however, that the masses are quite inca­ing organizations to elaborate a doctrine, topable of appreciating the immense distance they have covered. draw up a orollram. But safeguarding na­The peasant who continues to scratch a living from the soil, theto address such aunemployed who never find a job, are never really convincedthey retorted, was national unity versus colothattheir lives have changed, despite the festivitiesAnd on they forged, armed with only a fiery slogan for ahowever new they might be. No matter how hard the bourgeoi­doctrine, reducing any ideological activity to a series of variantsto prove it, the masses never manage to deludeon the right of peoples to self-determination and the wind ofmasses are hungry and the police commission­history that would inevitably sweep away colonialism. \Vhen theers, now Mricans, are not particularly reassuring. The massesmilitants asked that the wind of history be given a little more inbeginto keep their distance, to turn their backs on and lose in­depth analysis, the leaders retorted with the notion of hope, andterest in this nation which excludes them.the necessity and inevitability of decolonization, etc.From time to time, however, the leader rallies his forces, speaksAfter independence theover the radio and tours the country in order to reassure, pacify, The onIv time is duringand mystify. The leader is even more indispensable since thereconferences, and inisno party. During the struggle for independence there was incelebrations. The local cadres of the party are