Nigel Gibson is a British activist, a scholar specialising in philosophy and author whose work has focussed, in particular, on

Frantz Fanon Frantz Omar Fanon (, ; ; 20 July 1925 – 6 December 1961), also known as Ibrahim Frantz Fanon, was a French West Indian psychiatrist, and political philosopher from the French colony of Martinique (today a French department). His works have be ...

Edward Said Edward Wadie Said (; , ; 1 November 1935 – 24 September 2003) was a Palestinian-American professor of literature at Columbia University, a public intellectual, and a founder of the academic field of postcolonial studies.Robert Young, ''White ...

described Gibson's work as "rigorous and subtle". He has been described as a leading figure in Fanon scholarship.

Biography

Gibson was born in London and was an active militant in the 1984–1985 Miners' Strike.BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS: AN INTERSECTION OF THEORY AND PRAXIS
, by Youlendree Appasamy, ''Media Diversity UK'', 9 October 2013 While in London he also met South African exiles from the

Black Consciousness Movement The Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) was a grassroots anti-Apartheid activist movement that emerged in South Africa in the mid-1960s out of the political vacuum created by the jailing and banning of the African National Congress and Pan Afri ...

and, in conversation with the exiles, developed some influential academic work on the movement. He later moved to the United States where he worked with

Raya Dunayevskaya Raya Dunayevskaya (born Raya Shpigel, ; May 1, 1910 - June 9, 1987), later Rae Spiegel, also known by the pseudonym Freddie Forest, was the American founder of the philosophy of Marxist humanism in the United States. At one time Leon Trotsky's s ...

in the

Marxist Humanism Marxist humanism is an international body of thought and political action rooted in an interpretation of the works of Karl Marx. It is an investigation into "what human nature consists of and what sort of society would be most conducive to huma ...

movement, studied with

Raymond Geuss Raymond Geuss, FBA (; born 1946) is a political philosopher and scholar of 19th and 20th century European philosophy. He is currently Emeritus Professor in the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Cambridge. Geuss is primarily known for three r ...

and

and became an important theorist of Frantz Fanon on whom he has written extensively. Along with Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Slavoj Zizek, and others, Gibson endorsed the statement in support of the South African shack dweller organization,

Abahlali baseMjondolo Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM, , in English: "the residents of the shacks") is a socialist shack dwellers' movement in South Africa which organises land occupations, builds communes

, against state violence.

Books

Gibson has co-edited a major collection of work on

Theodor Adorno Theodor is a masculine given name. It is a German form of Theodore. It is also a variant of Teodor. List of people with the given name Theodor * Theodor Adorno, (1903–1969), German philosopher * Theodor Aman, Romanian painter * Theodor Blueger, ...

with

Andrew N. Rubin Andrew is the English form of a given name common in many countries. In the 1990s, it was among the top ten most popular names given to boys in List of countries where English is an official language, English-speaking countries. "Andrew" is freq ...

and is a co-editor of a collection of work on

Steve Biko Bantu Stephen Biko (18 December 1946 – 12 September 1977) was a South African anti-apartheid activist. Ideologically an African nationalist and African socialist, he was at the forefront of a grassroots anti-apartheid campaign known ...

. His recent work has been marked by a return to an interest in Frantz Fanon (see his edited collection Living Fanon) with a particular focus on the reception of Fanon in popular struggles in South Africa (see Fanonian Practices in South Africa). His Fanon:The Postcolonial Imagination was translated into Arabic in 2013. His most recent works are Frantz Fanon, Psychiatry and Politics written with Roberto Beneduce published by

Rowman and Littlefield Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group is an independent publishing house founded in 1949. Under several imprints, the company offers scholarly books for the academic market, as well as trade books. The company also owns the book distributing compa ...

with an African edition published by

Wits University Press The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( o ...

and Fanon Today: Reason and Revolt of the Wretched of the Earth published by Daraja Press.

Affiliation

He was previously the Assistant Director of African Studies at Columbia University and a Research Associate in African-American Studies at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. He is currently Associate Professor at the Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies, Emerson College (Boston, MA) and an Honorary Research Professor at the Humanities Unit of the University currently known as Rhodes. He is a member of the

Committee for Academic Freedom in Africa The Committee for Academic Freedom in Africa (CAFA) was an organisation set up in light of the struggles in the universities consequent to the implementation of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP). The organisation was founded by Silvia Feder ...

Prizes

In 2009 he was awarded the Fanon prize by the

Caribbean Philosophical Association The Caribbean Philosophical Association (CPA) is a philosophical organization founded in 2002 at the Center for Caribbean Thought at the University of the West Indies, in Mona, Jamaica. The founding members were George Belle, B. Anthony Bogues, Pa ...

. According to the association "Gibson has set a high standard in Fanon studies and informed political thought on Africa and the Caribbean."

Bibliography

Books

*''Rethinking Fanon: The Continuing Legacy'', Humanity Books, 1999. *''Contested Terrains and Constructed Categories: Contemporary Africa in Focus'' (with George C. Bond), Westview, 2002. *''Adorno: A Critical Reader'' (with Andrew N. Rubin), Blackwell, 2002. *''Fanon: The Postcolonial Imagination'', Polity, 2003. *''Challenging Hegemony: Social Movements and the Quest for a New Humanism in Post-Apartheid South Africa'', Africa World Press, 2006. *''Biko Lives: Contesting the Legacies of Steve Biko'' (with Andile Mngxitama and Amanda Alexander), Palgrave MacMillan, 2008. *''Fanonian Practices in South Africa: From Steve Biko to Abahlali baseMjondolo'', UKZN Press and Palgrave MacMillan, 2011 *''Living Fanon: Global Perspectives'', Palgrave MacMillan, 2011 *''Frantz Fanon, Psychiatry and Politics'' (with Roberto Beneduce), Rowman and Littlefield International and Wits UP, 2017 *''Fanon and the Rationality of Revolt'', Daraja Press, 2020 *''Fanon Today: Reason and Revolt of the Wretched of the Earth'' (Editor), Daraja Press, 2021

Selected online articles

Black Consciousness 1977–1987: The Dialectics of Liberation in South AfricaThe Pitfalls of South Africa's LiberationThoughts about doing Fanonism in the 1990sThe limits of black political empowerment: Fanon, Marx, 'the Poors' and the 'new reality of the nation' in South AfricaIs Fanon Relevant? Translations, the postcolonial imagination and the second stage of total liberation
ttp://abahlali.org/node/3317 A New Politics of the Poor Emerges from South Africa's Shanty Townsbr>Is Fanon Relevant? Towards an alternative introduction to the 'Damned of the EarthUpright and free: Fanon in South Africa, from Biko to Abahlali baseMjondoloFanonian Practices and the politics of space in postapartheid South Africa: The Challenge of the Shack Dwellers MovementDemocracy's everyday death: South Africa's quiet coup
co-authored with

Raj Patel Rajeev "Raj" Patel (born 1972) is a British Indian academic, journalist, activist and writer who has lived and worked in Zimbabwe, South Africa, and the United States for extended periods. He has been referred to as "the rock star of social ju ...

Egypt and the revolution in our minds
''Pambazuka'', 18 February 2011
What Happened to the "Promised Land"? A Fanonian Perspective on Post-Apartheid South Africa
''Antipode'', 2011
50 years later: Fanon's legacy
''Pambazuka'', 21 December 2011
Thinking Fanon, 50 years later: Fanonian translations in and beyond ‘Fanon Studies
''Pambazuka'', 14 March 2012
20 Years After the L.A. Riots, Revisiting the Rationality of Revolt
''Truthout'', 12 May 2012
Frantz Fanon and the Arab Uprisings: An interview with Nigel Gibson
''Jadaliyya'' 17 August 2012
The Marikana Massacre: A Turning Point for South Africa?
''Truthout'', 1 September 2012 A Wholly Other Time: Fanon the Revolutionary and the Question of Organization, ''South Atlantic Quarterly'', Winter 2013

References

External links

Review of Gibson's Fanon & the Post-Colonial Imagination

Review of a Public Lecture by Nigel Gibson
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gibson, Nigel Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Harvard University staff Marxist theorists British pan-Africanists British humanists Marxist humanists Fanon scholars British activists English Africanists