Césaire and Fanon on Fascism: The “Boomerang Effect” Beyond the Metropole

In the last decade, far-right movements have seen a resurgence in countries as diverse as the United States, Brazil, India, and the Philippines, and many scholars have noted their resemblance to 20th-century fascist movements (Snyder 2018; Marasco 2021; Stanley 2020; Paxton 2021). The prominence of fascistic movements in countries with colonial histories of different kinds, or, we might say, the presence of fascism in a world shaped by colonialism, raises pressing questions about the relationship between fascism and colonialism. While some recent accounts of fascism have gestured toward the proximity of colonial dynamics to fascist ones, approaches that view fascism and colonialism as part of a shared historical trajectory have been underappreciated by many mainstream accounts.1 Among accounts that do engage the anticolonial tradition to explore fascism, Fanon's work has been notably absent (Toscano 2023; Shaw 2020 Rasberry 2021; Robinson 2017). In this paper, I will argue that the work of Aimé Césaire and Frantz Fanon helps us better understand how colonialism creates the affective and psychological conditions for fascism. Césaire's work illuminates the affective “boomerang effect” of colonialism, where the brutality of colonial violence “returns home” to the metropole. Fanon's work takes us beyond the metropole, showing us how colonial relations can create fascistic dynamics within colonies and former colonies that have gained independence. Fanon's development of Césaire's argument does not just expand its scope but reflects a salient difference between the two thinkers: while Césaire's analysis, at least in Discourse on Colonialism, focuses on the promise of the colonized world (in contrast with the moral bankruptcy of Europe), Fanon sees the position of colonized countries as more ambivalent, even after independence. This difference leads Fanon to be attentive to the potential for fascistic movements within colonial contexts, including in former colonies that have gained independence. In doing so, Fanon's work does not just deepen Césaire's analysis but also resonates with accounts that highlight the role political and economic crisis plays in making fascism possible, the class composition of fascism, and the type of affectivity and psychology activated by fascist movements in periods of crisis. I will begin outlining working definitions of fascism and colonialism. Next, I will explicate Césaire's “boomerang effect” thesis and situate it within other formulations of the boomerang effect in political theory. I will argue that Césaire's understanding of the boomerang effect is not simply a rhetorical move, but a literal claim about the emergence of fascism. In my reading, Césaire is concerned primarily with the affective and relational dimensions of the boomerang effect, providing at least one mechanism through which colonialism can lead to fascism; that is, “brutalizing” the colonizer through their violence toward the colonized. Next, I will give an overview of Césaire's influence on Fanon, highlighting the particular influence of Discourse on Colonialism, including his comments on fascism. Then, I will outline Fanon's account of the affectivities of both colonized and colonizer, affective tetanization and affective ankylosis, arguing that this focus prompted Fanon to consider how fascism could emerge in the colony and former colony. Fanon vividly explains how colonial dynamics (economic, political, and affective) continue to structure life in the independent colony. Such a configuration, I argue, is a particularly fertile ground from which fascism can emerge. Just as many scholars have identified aspects of European and American bourgeois society as ‘factories’ for fascists, Fanon helps us to see colonial society as a breeding ground for a variety and potentially fascist affectivities and psychologies. Finally, I will argue that the two thinkers’ comments on the United States reveal a difference between them, while Césaire views the United States as following Europe's trajectory, Fanon sees in the United States a possible (dangerous) path that the Third World might try to follow. This paper provides an interpretation of the work of Césaire and Fanon, arguing that their work is in conversation in ways that have been underappreciated by existing literature. Importantly, I argue that they are both thinking through the problem of fascism, not just rhetorically or elliptically, but directly, as a pressing political problem. Given that fascism is a notoriously difficult term to define, I want to take a moment to give a working definition of fascism for our purposes. While both Fanon and Césaire have much to say on fascism, we do not see explicit definitions of the term in their work. Because nationalism is the centerpiece of fascist movements, it is unsurprising that fascist movements vary widely across national contexts. There is consequently a great deal of disagreement around which historical movements are rightly called “fascist.” This difficulty comes in part from fascism's protean nature, as Umberto Eco famously observed, “one can eliminate from a fascist regime one or more features, and it will still be recognizable as fascist” (Eco 1995, 5). Moreover, unlike socialism, liberalism, or even conservatism, fascism came into the world before it was robustly theorized the of this paper, I understand fascism as a political to the of of on of the of and of both and is in that it to or of the a in and is a both that it a simply and that it its from across from a class or a between and Finally, while political movements their through and fascism has been as a particular on Paxton is more to a of that fascist to a and The two of fascist movements are and fascist movements across in the and is to be in the work of both Césaire and Fanon, is the of fascism that they are working and they of in I the of fascism the work of both as we will is difficult to define, and robustly theorized by both one to an is a historical that has for but in it is to to its with the of the and the is difficult to between colonialism and they are by to comes from the and to of that to and from and Colonialism, on the other is in the to and is and of that to and from within and by colonial in proximity to the that a simply a of In this paper I to colonialism in its a of from and by by European countries to political, and economic I take this understanding of colonialism to be with both Césaire and Fanon, while to the affective and psychological dimensions of colonialism, its political and economic as Fanon Fanon and Césaire to of colonialism or in of but the between the colonialism both and colonialism (in that is, from a and the of to conditions of into I understand colonialism to with the of European around the While of colonialism are by Césaire and Fanon, the for of the the of and the even of the colony and of from which both working definitions in we can to Césaire's understanding of how colonialism and fascism are The of this is to an interpretation of the “boomerang effect” in Césaire's work and is about his of this In Discourse on Césaire that colonial to the in the of fascism, and In in to colonialism European of and on other also boomerang on the of in the and on the and of In of the “boomerang effect” to how European in and possible of the boomerang effect have to understand the of the and the colonial the and (in is by the and the focus is not fascism but have the boomerang effect to how particularly by the United States, the of the 2020; and While many of approaches have some to fascist movements, our is in how fascism as a political by boomerang Césaire through which this might how colonialism creates relations of and affective the of that fascism before they its they its that they that before it was on them, that they their to it been to that they have that that they are for and that before the of in its it and from Césaire a particular of the of are by violence but or even colonial violence that Césaire's of recent fascist violence and is to highlight the brutality of colonialism to his Césaire colonialism that Because of this it can Césaire is fascism and colonialism by that fascism is we colonial they in the metropole. Césaire doing was making a moral about his while still a to anticolonial not have much to us about fascism. Césaire does not it a much that Europe's of colonialism fascism. is not just to or of is the of in fascism's and that their or at least for colonialism, could the emergence of fascism this we take Césaire is that of colonialism a role in the development of fascism. the and the the and the the and the and and them, the of a of at a in for to to a world the of its European society to on a of its some of by and providing a for to but in doing so, it creates colonizer and colonized is for the but relations of and which the into a an a a and the into an of to the colonizer, to in the of the that a is or an in and in they the a takes a a of to has been into the of and but the toward one the is by a boomerang the are the the around the the colonizer this or even they are and Césaire's beyond the violence and the of it in or, we might in The of the colonized world also a role in the European working through the of a European and American Robinson providing for economic and through and through a psychological of by and political and psychological as famously called Césaire the of the of on the see in Césaire that is a boomerang effect on the the the violence is by the this and is into European which is by and of the and of the colonized. This or with fascism one of its that Césaire's “boomerang effect” is more and how of boomerang to the that Césaire how are with that Césaire to be with to the of has the violence it has in the it to the of violence in In the and with the and how society and fascism in the and of its with approaches to fascism as an of political and economic to its as as the as the of the of fascism Marasco I not to Césaire into the but simply to that his with an in how the of colonial the psychological conditions for fascism's Césaire's two boomerang in the of colonial the of this into European us to see how of colonialism can and even the metropole. This that colonialism creates and psychological with is and by Césaire's Fanon was a of and many political and Fanon his his Fanon Fanon but even more his work the on the influence of Césaire on Fanon, has been to the influence of the Discourse on Fanon's work. In this I will argue that Fanon's on fascism be as and Césaire's analysis in the Fanon fascism for rhetorical but his of fascism be to the is in fascism as a political problem. with the Discourse comes in the to The of the where Fanon Third World is as one be to try and the this was of the it is not to of the of the which that is a and of the it has that is, problem of the and the colonial as Europe's to the that fascism. The presence of this that Fanon was with the of the including the “boomerang effect” while The of the In we can see Fanon's of work where to Césaire and fascism and colonialism in ways of Césaire's in the The that they have to a of a of of of and that the and American of to engage their This is to a we in highlighting between colonialism and fascism for a political Fanon to across the to European but the rhetorical is the In Fanon an from an in the about the of to to of the by the of “fascist.” The that are fascistic but the of the and is fascism but colonialism at the of In this the moral is the violence of colonial as colonialism is for the colonized. of and of are it does not much of a difference they are in the of fascism or colonial Fanon is in a trajectory that leads from colonialism to fascism, not just to his to the anticolonial but to better understand the of as we will see in the of Fanon, to about where fascism might Fanon with an from Césaire's about of they have with and a of they have to to and Fanon Césaire's two before as a for his analysis of and In the Césaire a account of the affectivity and colonialism in the Fanon's as a with in different colonial contexts, and to the of colonialism and on the and to and the affectivity and of colonialism in more to their political Fanon's of his and his of the political of both have been widely in recent but his comments on fascism have to my been I will argue that Fanon's to the political of this affectivity leads to a of fascism in the former colony. In this I will focus on Fanon's of affective and affective which I as an of Césaire's of the by colonialism. Such affectivities for the emergence of fascism in the I will also outline the political and of affectivities for Fanon in of and anticolonial before we in the their after anticolonial we in Césaire focuses on the of and of that colonialism Because colonialism in of and it the colonizer to in doing so, Césaire's work that the but not the colonizer, can colonial and sees as a path for this as Césaire as an account of the colonialism the they with the of a type of which is not possible for the colonizer Fanon, particularly in the to colonized and the as the for a but more Césaire to to the of the colonized. While Césaire does not much of the Discourse the of colonialism for the is of the ways the colonized are and by that as an for as of Césaire's to be to on to the colonized. focuses on the of the colonized to the of the not take Césaire's on the of the colonized to that their Césaire's of focus on the psychological to the colonized his work it comes to the political of colonialism for the the of the colonized as of with a and Césaire's focus on the of the colonizer, Fanon and that in colonial is In Fanon the colonizer the as an is a term of many Fanon's that to and around the which the to and making it to the both colonized and colonizer a colonial of within which anticolonial can be While some 2018; have as a of the that affective is a of colonialism and The affective of the colonizer is and and can or This Césaire's of colonial violence as and at the of European Césaire can see the of this for both the and dimensions of in Césaire's the colonizer is to do but and This and to emerge through of the colonial of of national and of Fanon's of affective us a of both the of colonialism and the this can and the other his Fanon the colonized in of In the colonized and as is a that leads to and Fanon, tetanization is a part of the of the colonized. can the of tetanization in to that of in where Fanon the colonized as existing in a of of in to the of the colonized the of including the of a between the affective tetanization of and the of Fanon the of the to the to into colonial to into a a for or of Césaire or is and the can a of the colonized the tetanization but this of is which of or of The of not just to a of but also to their is by with and Fanon colonialism as a and to which is a While Césaire focuses on the of the colonizer through this Fanon our understanding and the of analysis beyond simply the of this affectivity by an analysis of its many political for the colony. 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Fanon and Césaire are with the of the world they are and a to the United States of outlining the boomerang effect thesis and the brutality of European Césaire the the of has an it is the of the United not that is and Césaire does not the of fascism after as the of European Césaire on to claim that has in of it that an American could be part of is the United States as on the path of development and both and we can that fascism could emerge just as it in is not a of not a of it is not a of to is the of not in which of not on his that and The of not be as a to to from and his to to Fanon sees promise in the Third also sees its to the brutality and that has in and the United as a possible to the that the colonized but Fanon sees this to the path of as one of fascism. Fanon's focus on the psychological and affective of on the colonized to the colonized countries might follow. This contrast reflects a salient difference between the two Césaire is on the of and the of for the and and the through Fanon's work is by an and a for the of the Third Césaire the of a by and is of a of the of just as it of a of with or the of liberalism, the that in colonial and contexts. In the the of and was by and and Fanon's about even more Fanon and Césaire that this path of development will the Third World to for even possible, the Third World to the of and even fascism, to which and to which This could and the colonial affectivity we in the In a world where fascistic movements have in countries shaped by colonialism, the to by to at least some The work of Césaire and Fanon provides into how fascistic affectivity is by colonialism. While Césaire's work the of colonialism for the colonizer, and the they can into fascism, Fanon the of colonialism, and sees the of fascism in the colony as as in the metropole. While I have to how Fanon and Césaire's work is in and is in some ways I also to have some between the two Fanon's work the colonized world as ambivalent, with but also colonial dynamics are not In the work of both the of affectivity to fascism is and work is to their In to us better understand the work of Fanon and have political colonial dynamics create affective conditions for fascism, we be of to to in to the of fascism. we are to try and the resurgence of fascism, a focus is the colonial structure through within and between as Fanon, and more have through in the of and the of a and for Fanon, for the development of that could colonized beyond the of the European Fanon and Césaire's work us into the of and historical fascist movements, and the affectivity that The of fascism around the not be of as some of or an before the of but as a is not to say development in a world that to be by colonialism. a of that it can movements at is not to this as or the

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