29/12/2025
Frantz Fanon, Steve Biko, Amílcar Cabral, and John Garang could have lived comfortable, privileged lives given the level of education they attained in their time.
Biko was studying medicine; Amílcar Cabral was an agricultural engineer; John Garang earned a doctorate in agricultural economics and trained in military command as an instructor; and Fanon was a psychiatrist. With his qualifications, Fanon could easily have secured a prestigious position in one of France’s leading hospitals, yet he chose instead to join the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN).
This is what Robert Sobukwe meant when he said that education to us must mean service to Africa. Education is a double-edged sword, it can be used to liberate and enlighten the people, or to deceive and dominate them, depending on how it is wielded.
Education can be a tool of empowerment. Cabral studied agronomy in Portugal and returned to Africa to apply that knowledge toward the liberation of the people of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde. Garang studied agricultural economics and military science, then returned to Sudan to form the SPLA in pursuit of the liberation of Black Sudanese people.
One should NOT judge a book by its cover, yet in Fanon’s case, the substance of his work speaks unmistakably for itself. Through his writings, The Wretched of the Earth, Black Skin, White Masks, A Dying Colonialism, and Toward the African Revolution, Fanon provided revolutionary movements across the world with a profound analysis of colonialism, violence, and decolonization.