A Postcolonial Theory of Recognition: Honneth and Fanon on Violence and Mutual Recognition

Frantz Fanon provides a rough sketch of what mutual recognition might look like within the postcolonial situation in the penultimate chapter of Black Skin, White Masks (1952). He gives three basic aspects that form his characterisation of humanity: firstly, the integral role of humane action as it relates to the formation of subjectivity; secondly, the basic values of humanity; and thirdly, the importance of acknowledging differences but also shared aims among people. In other words, he is speaking about a sense of reciprocity which is key to recognising the humanity of the other. Fanon’s rough sketch is a (post)colonial translation of the idea of mutual recognition and there are interesting overlaps with Axel Honneth’s more recent and influential theory of mutual recognition in The Struggle for Recognition (1995). The focus of Honneth’s theory is on three modes: emotional support, cognitive respect and social esteem. These modes of mutual recognition provide the conditions for a just society, namely love/friendship, rights and solidarity. This link between Honneth and Fanon’s work extends to the issue of misrecognition. The forms of disrespect that Honneth provides for each mode of recognition correlates with the various forms of violence that Fanon identifies within colonial and decolonising societies: The physical violence of abuse and rape, the structural violence of exclusion and the denial or rights, and the psychological violence of denigration and insult. Honneth’s theory can be translated via Fanon’s ideas to a postcolonial theory of recognition that could help with an understanding of the post-Apartheid situation. This theory shows how mutual recognition is problematised within the postcolony by various Fanonian forms of violence and by the lack of Honneth’s preconditions concerning universal access to education and economic security.