The Power of Engagement: Writing in/on the Front Lines of Politics and Culture in the New Morocco

Abstract

In 1961, Frantz Fanon proclaimed in Les Damnés de la terre that it was the responsibility of the author to cultivate “un style heurté” (an assertive style) that would “étonner” (stun) the West (notably European colonizers) into recognizing that the colonized writer had entered a “phase de la conscience” (consciousness phase) that had been liberated from oppression (210). Fanon encouraged the author to do his duty to inform and incite the masses to react and face the violence that characterizes the decolonizing process.