Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Masks - Lewis Gordon, Wanelisa Xaba & Mlamuli Makhoba

This Webinar took place on Tuesday, 13 May 2025 in the Department of Sociology at the University of Zululand in South Africa. It focused on Frantz Fanon's book: Black Skin, White Masks - where Fanon critiques the colonial world, its invention of racism, its implications on the coloniser and the colonised, and the experience of being Black in a white anti-black society. He does this by tackling questions of the day: culture, gender, aspiration, love, thought, social relations, childhood, and assimilation: interrogating the problem of colonial culture where Black people seek white approval in ways that result in actions that are irrational and self-sabotaging overtime. We reflect on this piece of Fanon’s work to build a community that questions. ------- Speakers: Dr Wanelisa Xaba: is based at the University of the Western Cape; and is a queer activist, feminist researcher, decolonial education scholar and a fierce advocate of her ancestors. Prof Lewis Gordon: is Department Head of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut; and author of the book: What Fanon Said: A Philosophical Introduction to His Life and Thought . Dr Mlamuli Makhoba: is based at the University of Zululand; with a research focus on the sociology of work and education; particularly on the lived experiences of mine workers, and decolonial higher education studies. ------ Facilitator: Dr Pedro Mzileni is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Zululand in South Africa. His research focus is on Global Higher Education Studies, International History, Decolonial Thought, and Sociologies of Africa. He's Coordinator of the Seminar Series in the Department. ------ The Department of Sociology in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Zululand is taking initiative to advance the University’s intellectual culture as it crusades ahead to unchartered territory of becoming a Node for African thought. We do this on our part by introducing the 2nd Annual Africa Month Webinar Series that will feature panel discussions to review the four books written by Franz Fanon. This is to commemorate his centenary and legacy. ------- Why #Fanon100? Well, Fanon is one of the important philosophers in international anti-colonial liberation struggle, who has written two original texts: Black Skin, White Masks and The Wretched of the Earth. A collection of essays were then published posthumously: A Dying Colonialism and Toward the African Revolution. Fanon’s works are used today in university classrooms, protest movements, and anti-colonial struggles to conscientise, mobilise and resist the modern problems of coloniality - from Palestine, South Africa, America, and everywhere else. We therefore take time on this seminar series, on his 100th birthday, to reflect on his writings, take further lessons, and organise - to use his ideas today in search for our freedom.