Frantz and Russell: In Memoriam
“…If I were asked for a definition of myself, I would say that I am one who waits; I investigate my surroundings, I interpret everything in terms of what I discover, I become sensitive.” Frantz Fanon, “The Fact Of Blackness” Black Skin, White Masks (1952, trans. 1967) I first heard of Frantz Fanon during my sophomore year at Savannah State College in 1990. I was an English major taking Shakespeare and Dr. Russell Chambers was my professor. We were having a class discussion about the Bard’s play, The Tempest . Dr. Chambers began to discuss the characters, Prospero and Caliban , in relation to what Fanon stated about the slave system in the Americas. Fanon said that the white man that supported this system had the “Prospero Complex.” In other words, “What the colonial in common with Prospero lack, is awareness of the world of Others, a world in which Others have to be respected.” Chambers stated emphatically that the black man is the “Caliban” of the world...