“Cops, the harbingers of the enemy”

• Main Author: Madeleine Beaulieu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Alberta Library 2021-05-01
• Series: Spectrum
• Online Access: https://www.spectrumjournal.ca/index.php/spectrum/article/view/98

Frantz Fanon’s rebound book Wretched of the Earth discusses his theories and understandings of decolonization, specifically the role of art and culture and how it is affected by a colonizer. In this essay, I analyze whether his theories can be applied to N.K. Jemisin’s short story “The City Born Great,” from her collection of short stories How Long ’Til Black Future Month?, which considers the diaspora, not the colonized nations that Fanon considers in his own writings. Through her reflection of the realities of a people, and her portrayal of an “awakener” of the people, I conclude that although Jemisin does write literature of combat, a term coined by Fanon to include anti-colonial writing and art, she does so in a way that uniquely reflects the African-American diaspora that “The City Born Great” considers and reflects.