Quotes from book

The Wretched of the Earth

“The living expression of the nation is the collective consciousness in motion of the entire people.”

“When the native hears a speech about Western culture he pulls out his knife—or at least he makes sure it is within reach. The violence with which the supremacy of white values is affirmed and the aggressiveness which has permeated the victory of these values over the ways of life and of thought of the native mean that, in revenge, the native laughs in mockery when Western values are mentioned in front of him.”

“The famous dictum which states that all men are equal will find its illustration in the colonies only when the colonized subject states he is equal to the colonist.”

“The unpreparedness of the educated classes, the lack of practical links between them and the mass of the people, their laziness, and, let it be said, their cowardice at the decisive moment of the struggle will give rise to tragic mishaps.”

“They realize at last that change does not mean reform, that change does not mean improvement.”

“Everything can be explained to the people, on the single condition that you want them to understand.”

“Zombies, believe me, are more terrifying than colonists.”

“For a colonized people the most essential value, because the most concrete, is first and foremost the land: the land which will bring them bread and, above all, dignity.”

“From birth it is clear to him that this narrow world, strewn with prohibitions, can only be called in question by absolute violence.”

“The Church in the colonies is the white people’s Church, the foreigner’s Church. She does not call the native to God’s ways but to the ways of the white man, of the master, of the oppressor.”

“The destruction of the colonial world is no more and no less that the abolition of one zone, its burial in the depths of the earth or its expulsion from the country.”

“The serf is in essence different from the knight, but a reference to divine right is necessary to legitimize this statutory defense.”