From the Blog of the APA: This past December, the Frantz Fanon Foundation celebrated its 10th anniversary in the “2nd Rencontres” of the Foundation. The event included a keynote, four panels, and a performance that spoke to Fanon’s contributions to philosophy and anti-oppression work.
“Lewis Gordon, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut and Honorary President of the Global Center for Advanced Studies, delivered an eloquent keynote entitled ‘Fanon’s Revolutionary Philosophical Anthropology of Freedom.’ Gordon proposed that for Fanon, human freedom is to be understood as the search for a future in face of multiple challenges. The understanding of these problems necessitates not only an exploration of power dynamics but also an understanding of power beyond models of it as a negative force. There is disempowerment in oppression and power or empowerment in the formation of collectives that oppose human degradation. The latter offers transformative conceptions of reality. Neither this new reality nor the process to get to it are perfect, yet it is possible to aspire for the creation of better conditions and for subjects and collectives that are, each time, better prepared to engage in the struggle to create this reality.”
