ABSTRACT
Born in Fort-de-France, the capital of the French colony of Martinique, Frantz was the youngest of three sons of a customs officer and a shopkeeper. As a member of the indigenous middle-class, he (and his seven siblings) attended the fee-charging local (and only) lycée, where one of his teachers was AIMÉ CÉSAIRE, the recently returnedfrom-France revolutionary poet espousing négritude. This was a philosophy developed by French Afro-Caribbeans and Francophone Senegalese living in exile in Paris: it celebrated and embraced African cultural values, and a Negro ‘cultural essence’. Césaire’s espousal of his African inheritance caused a scandal in the colony and influenced at least some of his students. Fanon obtained Part I of the baccalaureate in 1943, and promptly left for France to join the Free French Forces. He was sent to officers’ training school in Algeria, where his francophile indoctrination was seriously undermined by the racial discrimination he encountered and witnessed. Nevertheless, he appears to have fought with valour, being awarded a decoration for bravery while serving in Europe.
