Frantz Fanon by Zeilig Leo;

Author:Zeilig, Leo;
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 4444051
Publisher: I.B.Tauris

Studies in a Dying Colonialism

Alice Cherki gives a wonderfully vivid picture of Fanon’s writing process. In early spring 1959, while still in Tunis, he contacted his secretary, Marie-Jeanne Manuellan, asking her, ‘Do you know how to use a typewriter?’ ‘No,’ she replied, ‘but I will learn.’ So Fanon started to dictate Studies in a Dying Colonialism. He would start at seven in the morning,

before the start of [his] hospital activities, dictate whole sentences, while walking the entire length and width of his office, to a debutant typist. […] He hardly ever hesitated, almost never returning to a phrase. […] In the evening Marie-Jeanne corrected the text, and brought the pages the next day. Fanon read them and made a few corrections.8

Unable to keep up with Fanon’s rapid dictation, Manuellan decided instead to take written notes and type them up in the evening. The book was rapidly completed, ‘in two or three months. It was almost finished at the time of the car accident in Morocco’.9 Fanon’s writing process, his dictation of all his books, should not be overlooked: his entire oeuvre was an oral text.

For a short period Fanon had to abandon his duties at the Hôpital Charles Nicolle to finish the book. He asked Géronomi, who had moved from Algiers with him, to assist. Géronomi remembered the conversation:

‘Could you take over the services here?’ Fanon asked.

‘For how long?’

‘Three weeks or so?’

‘Sure. But could you tell me why?’

‘I have to write a book.’10

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