Towards a Fanonian Combative Decoloniality: Decolonial Epoché/Despojo decolonial, Resignation, and Realignment

On December 6, 2021, sixty years after the passing of the major Afro-Caribbean thinker and revolutionary Frantz Fanon, the Frantz Fanon Foundation launched a call for reflections on the meaning and significance of combative decoloniality. The initial responses came from far and wide: Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean. This presentation is part of an effort to identify, make explicit, and develop key elements of Fanon’s conception of combativity in dialogue with more recent combative actions and discussions about combativity, including the responses to the Foundation’s call. Decolonial epoché/despojo decolonial, resignation, and realignment are presented as combative modalities of thought and action that are present in Fanon’s work and that animate efforts such as the tasks of decolonizing the university, striking MoMA, opposing gender-based violence and the coloniality of gender in Puerto Rico, and extending the Spirit of Bandung today.