The Condition: Re-evaluating the Expression Noire

The Condition: Re-evaluating the Expression Noire

Frantz Fanon declares in Black Skin, White Masks, that “in the Caribbean, this vision of a world is white as no black expression or culture exists”. In a globalised world, is Fanon’s 1952 assessment true? The black American exports like hip-hop have made non-black executives very rich. Can a black culture or expression noire as Fanon called it, truly exist in a world where it has become a fetish?

Fracture

Preface: I am a big fan of Fanon and decided to write 2 mini-essays inspired by his book Black Skin, White Masks. Let me all know what you think! 

Fracture

Martinican psychiatrist and writer Frantz Fanon (1925 – 1961) notes in his book ‘Black Skin, White Masks’ that in reference to the French Antillean, “the West Indian man does not see or think black, he thinks Antillean. The nigger lives in Africa”.  The distance between the West Indies and the African coast is an emotional one that swells with gross generalisations from both parties. Some African people believe that West Indians have slave mentalities and that we are essentially different. Fanon, of course, was referring to French West Indians yet is it a fair assessment to think that the divided diaspora has no interest in either side ?