Fanon's Three Stages Related To The Indigenous People Of Chiapas

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Fanon
states "The effect consciously sought by colonialism was to drive into the
natives' heads the idea that if the settlers were to leave, they would at once
fall back into barbarism, degradation, and bestiality."(Fanon 211) The
colonizers, believing the natives were savages that needed enlightenment, forced
European culture upon them. The Europeans believed that to assimilate the
natives to European culture was to help them progress. Therefore, to return to
the old ways would have been regressing. When the natives objected to the
forced assimilation, the colonizers smothered the rebellious efforts with
stronger, more lethal weapons. Fanon compares the colonizer to a mother who
restrains her "perverse" child so that he will not commit suicide.(Fanon 211)
The analogy implies that the colonized must be protected (by the colonizer) from
self-destruction. In the minds of the European colonizers, this idea of
protection justified forcing assimulation onto the natives.
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