Cesaire and Fanon take different witnessing position
Cesaire and Fanon take different witnessing position when it comes to the issue and the impact of colonialism on the oppressor and the oppressed. Cesare explains the hypocrisy that Europe had always experienced about superiority, where it represented itself as civilized, progressive, and rich in history, which allowed improved healthcare, education, and standard of living. Lezra states, “I am talking about societies drained of their essence, cultures trampled underfoot, institutions undermined, lands confiscated, religions smashed, magnificent artistic creations destroyed, extraordinary (43). The author witness position looks at how European was accusing the colonized as savages and barbaric while it was openly applying the same tactics in colonization. Cesare witnesses a colonizer who has lost the race superiority mentality because the same Nazism and fascism are being used to them and no longer to the non-European people. Fanon, on the other hand, takes colonialism and genocide in Algeria as the ultimate need for action against the colonizer. After witnessing the fascist violence in North Africa and the French Caribbean, he was convinced that the only way to avoid colonization was to destroy the colonizers through military action.
Fanon wants the reader to understand the position of the colonized people today by considering that they were psychologically tortured and inflicted violence by the European masters. Thus, Fanon wants the reader to understand that violence was the only common language of the opp[ressor and oppressed, especially when there was a language barrier. The reader must realize that the oppressed suffered dehumanization and terrorism from the colonizers. Thus, they were taught that violence was the only solution in pursuit of justice for the disenfranchised. Fanon explains that the oppressed were stripped of their beliefs, culture, and traditions by the colonizers, which left them disorganized and psychologically weak, and violence became the new language.
Cesare warns that capitalism is another tool that has been introduced in place of colonialism to establish similar inequality strategies that sought to bring about domination in the world.
Cesare correlates capitalism with colonization because it advocates for inequality in men. This will also affect the whites who supported fascism and Nazism because the people from Europe were not experiencing it. According to Lezra, The most dehumanizing regime, such as Nazism and Stalinism, used political rationality, and the mechanisms employed were nothing new, which shows that they were already experienced in Europe. (45). Moreover, Cesare chooses to explore how colonialism was used as a scapegoat by the European countries in the application of Nazism and fascism, which has come back to hunt many whites in Europe under capitalism.
Susan Sontag, in a conversation with Frantz Fanon her responses according to the theory of witness/spectator she would respond negatively to the approach taken by Fanon because it does not regard the pain of others. Sharply she will not agree with Fanon that violence should be the ultimate solution to colonization for both the oppressor and oppressed; Sontag wanted a world that considers the pain of others and Fanon advocating for the violence will likely attract a negative response. In the history of genocide, she would affirm that European colonizers had failed to regard the feeling of others pain, and any attempt to become a spectator to violence as depicted by Fanon will not have a supporting response from Sontag. Regarding Cesare, Sontag will likely support his approach to colonialism and how it can quickly change one from a witness to a victim. Sontag argues that human view pictures without looking thinking about the situation in a war because they feel safe that way (Lezra, 125) Sontag would agree with the fact that many Europeans failed to regard the pain of the oppressed and capitalism has introduced colonialism which advocates for inequality.