Nigel C Gibson
Biographic Data
| ID | 185937 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nigel C Gibson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nigel C |
| FAMILY NAME | Gibson |
| SIGNATURE | GIBSON N C |
| AFFILIATIONS | Emerson College |
| ORCID | 0009-0002-8977-0679 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 31 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 155 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 27 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 4 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1966 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Fanon’s continuing presence and revolutionary Sudan
This article revisits Frantz Fanon’s revolutionary thought in light of the Sudanese revolution and its counter-revolution. Fanon’s insistence in The Wretched of the Earth that the struggle for freedom requires the demilitarisation of the army, decentralisation of the political party, and a revolutionary humanism based on genuine grassroots democratic decision-making, offers critical insights for Sudanese revolutionaries navigating military dictat…
Fanon’s Humanism
Humanism is obviously a crucial facet of a humanistic psychology, and a new—or decolonial—humanism is likewise crucial for Frantz Fanon’s work, but these two areas of scholarship and practice have seldom been put into a sustained dialogue. As a way of beginning such a dialogue, Nigel Gibson, one of the foremost experts on the work of Frantz Fanon, speaks with Derek Hook and Leswin Laubscher about Fanon’s ideas of a new humanism, agency, action, a…
Rethinking Fanon
Over sixty years after his death, the social philosopher and psychiatrist Frantz Fanon (1925-1961) remains a towering intellectual figure. Born in Martinique and trained as a psychiatrist in France, Fanon rejected his French citizenship to join the Algerian liberation movement in the 1950s. In the short decade from 1952 to 1961 this brilliant and engaged intellectual composed three books Black Skin, White Masks, A Dying Colonialism, and The Wretc…
Fanon and Marx Revisited
On this 200th anniversary of Marx’s birth, what can we learn from Fanon’s turn to Marx over 60 years ago? This paper reviews Fanon’s active engagements with Marx throughout his work from Black Skin, White Masks to The Wretched of the Earth; from the importance of Marx’s 18th Brumaire in Fanon’s thinking, to what he calls stretching Marxian concepts. In this moment of crisis and retrogression, what can we learn from Fanon’s creative use of Marxian…
Ruthlessness, Decolonization, and Psychoanalysis in South Africa
Ruthlessness, Decolonization, and Psychoanalysis in South Africa Nigel C. Gibson (bio) Ruthless Winnicott: The Role of Ruthlessness in Psychoanalysis and Political Protest by Sally Swartz. New York: Routledge, 2019, 158 pages. Ruthless Winnicott: The Role of Ruthlessness in Psychoanalysis and Political Protest is a collection of essays by psychoanalytic psychotherapist and University of Cape Town professor, Sally Swartz, structured around Winnico…
Contested Terrains and Constructed Categories
The specter of Fanon
The largest student revolt since Soweto 1976, the student movements of 2015, were historic, challenging the lack of serious reform in the university systems and bringing to the fore the question of decolonization. Named ‘the Fanonian moment,’ it was the latest expression of the disillusion of rainbow politics. Marked by the Marikana massacre and the death of Nelson Mandela, Fanon’s name is almost as popular as Steve Biko’s and his name is often r…
Fanon et les mouvements étudiants sud-africains en 2015
Partant d'une réflexion sur les mouvements étudiants, cet article s'intéresse à ce que l'on a appelé le « moment fanonien » de l'Afrique du Sud. L'article adopte une posture critique vis-à-vis des usages réducteurs de l'œuvre de Fanon faisant de lui un penseur manichéen - des usages reproduits en partie par certaines avant-gardes autoproclamées, patriarcales et nationalistes, de ces mouvements. Le texte conclut en soulignant l'émergence de positi…
Essays for George Clement Bond
Tunis Connections
Reflecting on Contested Terrains and Constructed Categories: Contemporary Africa in Focus, a book George Bond and I edited during our work at the Institute of African Studies at Columbia University in the late 1990s, this paper considers the notion of contested terrains, that for George Bond was played out in the scholarship of African studies, in the daily encounters which he had with his colleagues, and in his Zambian research. Bond understood …
Pratiques fanoniennes
Manifestation d'une théorie voyageuse, la traduction anglaise des Damnés de la terre a connu un remarquable regain de vie. Traduit en 1963 par la poétesse afro-américaine Constance Farring ton, l'ouvrage s'est trouvé réinvesti par la révolte noire aux États-Unis. Aux alentours de 1968, le livre a été réimprimé un nombre incalculable de fois et s'est frayé un chemin à travers le monde anglophone. Illégaux en Afrique du Sud, les travaux de Frantz F…
A Wholly Other Time? Fanon, the Revolutionary, and the Question of Organization
How can the wretched of the earth become a basis of a new politics? Does Frantz Fanon's dialectic of organization, only implicit in his writings, and certainly not simply reducible to any particular organization or to direct action, have anything to offer our period of revolts and rebellions? Reflecting on Fanon's revolutionary commitment and its theoretical articulation in The Wretched of the Earth, this essay reflects on what he calls a new hum…
What Happened to the “Promised Land”? A Fanonian Perspective on Post‐Apartheid South Africa
This paper reviews post‐apartheid South Africa through Fanon's critical analysis of decolonization. Since, for Fanon, apartheid represented the purest form of the Manichean politics of space that characterizes colonialism, a Fanonian perspective on South Africa asks to what extent has the geographical layout of apartheid been remapped? Addressing this question necessitates shifting the “geography of reason” from technical discourses of policy‐mak…
Living Fanon
Frantz Fanon has influenced generations of activists and scholars. His life's work continues to be debated and discussed around the world. This book is an event: an international, interdisciplinary co
The New North African Syndrome
What better way to celebrate, commemorate, critically reflect on, and think through Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth fifty years after its publication with a new North African syndrome: Revolution—or at least a series of revolts that continue to rock regimes across North Africa and the region. Fanon begins The Wretched writing of decolonization as a program of complete disorder, an overturning of order—often against the odds—willed from the bott…
International Conference on Frantz Fanon. Second Pan-African Culture Festival, Algiers, 7—8 July 2009
Biko Lives
This collection looks at the on-going significance of Black Consciousness, situating it in a global frame, examining the legacy of Steve Biko, the current state of post-apartheid South African politic
Upright and free
Grounded in the South African experience, in discussions with Blacks about their everyday experiences of oppression and in attitudes formed from that experience and sharpened by an engagement with Africana philosophers like Fanon, Steve Biko Biko , S. ( 1979 ). I write what I like A. Stubbs . London : Heinemann . [Google Scholar] recreated the kind of praxis that Fanon suggested in the conclusion of The Wretched of the Earth, namely that the work…
Zabalaza, Unfinished Struggles against Apartheid
Talk to us ... not about us. —Abahlali T-shirt If as a theoretician, one's ears are attuned to new impulses from the workers, new “categories” will be created, a new way of thinking, a step forward i
Relative Opacity
Frantz Fanon's revolutionary text The Wretched of the Earth has had a major impact on English-speaking readers since it first appeared in translation in 1963. This article charts the shifting contextualization of the book as it has framed subsequent editions, culminating in an exploration of the most recent translation by Richard Philcox. By contrasting this translation of the book with previous versions, and also by critically examining the new …
Poor People's Movements in South Africa - The Anti-Eviction Campaign in Mandela Park
Africa and Globalization
This chapter is a contribution to the ongoing debate about Africa and globalization and the interrelated issues of capitalism, marginalization, representation, and political leadership. Problematizing the discourse of Africa as "diseased" and "hapless," the World Bank's structural adjustment "cure-all" is presented as being much worse than the "disease" that preceded it. Proposing a critical ethics of globalization-which highlights the gap betwee…
Contested Terrains and Constructed Categories
Contested Terrains and Constructed Categories
Dialectical Impasses
Journal of Asian and African Studies
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button
What Happened to the “Promised Land”? A Fanonian Perspective on Post‐Apartheid South Africa
This paper reviews post‐apartheid South Africa through Fanon's critical analysis of decolonization. Since, for Fanon, apartheid represented the purest form of the Manichean politics of space that characterizes colonialism, a Fanonian perspective on South Africa asks to what extent has the geographical layout of apartheid been remapped? Addressing this question necessitates shifting the “geography of reason” from technical discourses of policy‐mak…
Upright and free
Grounded in the South African experience, in discussions with Blacks about their everyday experiences of oppression and in attitudes formed from that experience and sharpened by an engagement with Africana philosophers like Fanon, Steve Biko Biko , S. ( 1979 ). I write what I like A. Stubbs . London : Heinemann . [Google Scholar] recreated the kind of praxis that Fanon suggested in the conclusion of The Wretched of the Earth, namely that the work…
Beyond manicheanism
Fanon is perhaps best remembered for his powerful descriptions of, and prescriptions for, a violent engagement with colonialism whose manichean logic, derived from 'belonging or not belonging to a certain race, a given species', inexorably determines an individual's social position. However, to begin to understand Fanon's conception of ideology necessitates an exploration of how a dialectical response to manicheanism expresses the liberatory idea…
The specter of Fanon
The largest student revolt since Soweto 1976, the student movements of 2015, were historic, challenging the lack of serious reform in the university systems and bringing to the fore the question of decolonization. Named ‘the Fanonian moment,’ it was the latest expression of the disillusion of rainbow politics. Marked by the Marikana massacre and the death of Nelson Mandela, Fanon’s name is almost as popular as Steve Biko’s and his name is often r…
Africa and Globalization
This chapter is a contribution to the ongoing debate about Africa and globalization and the interrelated issues of capitalism, marginalization, representation, and political leadership. Problematizing the discourse of Africa as "diseased" and "hapless," the World Bank's structural adjustment "cure-all" is presented as being much worse than the "disease" that preceded it. Proposing a critical ethics of globalization-which highlights the gap betwee…
Contested Terrains and Constructed Categories
"The Pitfalls of South Africa's "Liberation
Six years after the end of apartheid there have been many changes, but little change in South Africa. Poverty and inequality seem to be increasing rather than decreasing. How were the dreams of freedom and social and economic equality so quickly dashed? Much of the answer can be found in South Africa's integration into globalized capitalism, yet pointing an accusatory finger at the IMF or the "West" does not allow us to consider the contested ter…
Tunis Connections
Reflecting on Contested Terrains and Constructed Categories: Contemporary Africa in Focus, a book George Bond and I edited during our work at the Institute of African Studies at Columbia University in the late 1990s, this paper considers the notion of contested terrains, that for George Bond was played out in the scholarship of African studies, in the daily encounters which he had with his colleagues, and in his Zambian research. Bond understood …
Zabalaza, Unfinished Struggles against Apartheid
Talk to us ... not about us. —Abahlali T-shirt If as a theoretician, one's ears are attuned to new impulses from the workers, new “categories” will be created, a new way of thinking, a step forward i
Relative Opacity
Frantz Fanon's revolutionary text The Wretched of the Earth has had a major impact on English-speaking readers since it first appeared in translation in 1963. This article charts the shifting contextualization of the book as it has framed subsequent editions, culminating in an exploration of the most recent translation by Richard Philcox. By contrasting this translation of the book with previous versions, and also by critically examining the new …
Poor People's Movements in South Africa - The Anti-Eviction Campaign in Mandela Park
Transition from Apartheid
The end of apartheid in South Africa has often been considered a miracle as well as a beacon of hope for the rest of the continent. This article takes a more sober view. Despite the massive changes toward a democratic and open society, black South Africans have not won social and economic justice. The poor are still black and the rich predominantly white. This limited democracy, that is, judged simply in terms of voting in democratic elections, m…
Fanon and Marx Revisited
On this 200th anniversary of Marx’s birth, what can we learn from Fanon’s turn to Marx over 60 years ago? This paper reviews Fanon’s active engagements with Marx throughout his work from Black Skin, White Masks to The Wretched of the Earth; from the importance of Marx’s 18th Brumaire in Fanon’s thinking, to what he calls stretching Marxian concepts. In this moment of crisis and retrogression, what can we learn from Fanon’s creative use of Marxian…
The New North African Syndrome
What better way to celebrate, commemorate, critically reflect on, and think through Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth fifty years after its publication with a new North African syndrome: Revolution—or at least a series of revolts that continue to rock regimes across North Africa and the region. Fanon begins The Wretched writing of decolonization as a program of complete disorder, an overturning of order—often against the odds—willed from the bott…
Dialectical Impasses
Journal of Asian and African Studies
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button
Rethinking Fanon
"Nearly forty years after his death, social philosopher Frantz Fanon (1925-1961) remains a towering intellectual figure. Born in Guadeloupe and trained as a psychologist in France, Fanon rejected his French citizenship to join the Algerian liberation movement in the 1950s."--BOOK JACKET. "This collection brings together some of the most important, enduring essays written on Fanon. Included alongside biographical material are discussions of politi…
Beyond manicheanism
Fanon is perhaps best remembered for his powerful descriptions of, and prescriptions for, a violent engagement with colonialism whose manichean logic, derived from 'belonging or not belonging to a certain race, a given species', inexorably determines an individual's social position. However, to begin to understand Fanon's conception of ideology necessitates an exploration of how a dialectical response to manicheanism expresses the liberatory idea…
The Oxygen of the Revolution
"The Pitfalls of South Africa's "Liberation
Six years after the end of apartheid there have been many changes, but little change in South Africa. Poverty and inequality seem to be increasing rather than decreasing. How were the dreams of freedom and social and economic equality so quickly dashed? Much of the answer can be found in South Africa's integration into globalized capitalism, yet pointing an accusatory finger at the IMF or the "West" does not allow us to consider the contested ter…
Transition from Apartheid
The end of apartheid in South Africa has often been considered a miracle as well as a beacon of hope for the rest of the continent. This article takes a more sober view. Despite the massive changes toward a democratic and open society, black South Africans have not won social and economic justice. The poor are still black and the rich predominantly white. This limited democracy, that is, judged simply in terms of voting in democratic elections, m…
Dialectical Impasses
Contested Terrains and Constructed Categories
Contested Terrains and Constructed Categories
Poor People's Movements in South Africa - The Anti-Eviction Campaign in Mandela Park
Africa and Globalization
This chapter is a contribution to the ongoing debate about Africa and globalization and the interrelated issues of capitalism, marginalization, representation, and political leadership. Problematizing the discourse of Africa as "diseased" and "hapless," the World Bank's structural adjustment "cure-all" is presented as being much worse than the "disease" that preceded it. Proposing a critical ethics of globalization-which highlights the gap betwee…
Zabalaza, Unfinished Struggles against Apartheid
Talk to us ... not about us. —Abahlali T-shirt If as a theoretician, one's ears are attuned to new impulses from the workers, new “categories” will be created, a new way of thinking, a step forward i
Relative Opacity
Frantz Fanon's revolutionary text The Wretched of the Earth has had a major impact on English-speaking readers since it first appeared in translation in 1963. This article charts the shifting contextualization of the book as it has framed subsequent editions, culminating in an exploration of the most recent translation by Richard Philcox. By contrasting this translation of the book with previous versions, and also by critically examining the new …
Biko Lives
This collection looks at the on-going significance of Black Consciousness, situating it in a global frame, examining the legacy of Steve Biko, the current state of post-apartheid South African politic
Upright and free
Grounded in the South African experience, in discussions with Blacks about their everyday experiences of oppression and in attitudes formed from that experience and sharpened by an engagement with Africana philosophers like Fanon, Steve Biko Biko , S. ( 1979 ). I write what I like A. Stubbs . London : Heinemann . [Google Scholar] recreated the kind of praxis that Fanon suggested in the conclusion of The Wretched of the Earth, namely that the work…
International Conference on Frantz Fanon. Second Pan-African Culture Festival, Algiers, 7—8 July 2009
Living Fanon
Frantz Fanon has influenced generations of activists and scholars. His life's work continues to be debated and discussed around the world. This book is an event: an international, interdisciplinary co
The New North African Syndrome
What better way to celebrate, commemorate, critically reflect on, and think through Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth fifty years after its publication with a new North African syndrome: Revolution—or at least a series of revolts that continue to rock regimes across North Africa and the region. Fanon begins The Wretched writing of decolonization as a program of complete disorder, an overturning of order—often against the odds—willed from the bott…
What Happened to the “Promised Land”? A Fanonian Perspective on Post‐Apartheid South Africa
This paper reviews post‐apartheid South Africa through Fanon's critical analysis of decolonization. Since, for Fanon, apartheid represented the purest form of the Manichean politics of space that characterizes colonialism, a Fanonian perspective on South Africa asks to what extent has the geographical layout of apartheid been remapped? Addressing this question necessitates shifting the “geography of reason” from technical discourses of policy‐mak…
A Wholly Other Time? Fanon, the Revolutionary, and the Question of Organization
How can the wretched of the earth become a basis of a new politics? Does Frantz Fanon's dialectic of organization, only implicit in his writings, and certainly not simply reducible to any particular organization or to direct action, have anything to offer our period of revolts and rebellions? Reflecting on Fanon's revolutionary commitment and its theoretical articulation in The Wretched of the Earth, this essay reflects on what he calls a new hum…
Pratiques fanoniennes
Manifestation d'une théorie voyageuse, la traduction anglaise des Damnés de la terre a connu un remarquable regain de vie. Traduit en 1963 par la poétesse afro-américaine Constance Farring ton, l'ouvrage s'est trouvé réinvesti par la révolte noire aux États-Unis. Aux alentours de 1968, le livre a été réimprimé un nombre incalculable de fois et s'est frayé un chemin à travers le monde anglophone. Illégaux en Afrique du Sud, les travaux de Frantz F…
Fanon et les mouvements étudiants sud-africains en 2015
Partant d'une réflexion sur les mouvements étudiants, cet article s'intéresse à ce que l'on a appelé le « moment fanonien » de l'Afrique du Sud. L'article adopte une posture critique vis-à-vis des usages réducteurs de l'œuvre de Fanon faisant de lui un penseur manichéen - des usages reproduits en partie par certaines avant-gardes autoproclamées, patriarcales et nationalistes, de ces mouvements. Le texte conclut en soulignant l'émergence de positi…
Essays for George Clement Bond
Tunis Connections
Reflecting on Contested Terrains and Constructed Categories: Contemporary Africa in Focus, a book George Bond and I edited during our work at the Institute of African Studies at Columbia University in the late 1990s, this paper considers the notion of contested terrains, that for George Bond was played out in the scholarship of African studies, in the daily encounters which he had with his colleagues, and in his Zambian research. Bond understood …
The specter of Fanon
The largest student revolt since Soweto 1976, the student movements of 2015, were historic, challenging the lack of serious reform in the university systems and bringing to the fore the question of decolonization. Named ‘the Fanonian moment,’ it was the latest expression of the disillusion of rainbow politics. Marked by the Marikana massacre and the death of Nelson Mandela, Fanon’s name is almost as popular as Steve Biko’s and his name is often r…
Political science (22 works) · Sociology (22 works) · Politics (16 works) · South African History and Culture (12 works) · Law (11 works) · Philosophy (10 works) · African cultural and philosophical studies (9 works) · African history and culture studies (9 works) · Gender Studies (8 works) · Law (8 works)