26 August 2015
Richard Pithouse on Frantz Fanon opens the Padkos “School of Thought 2015” on 3rd September
Richard Pithouse on Frantz Fanon opens the Padkos “School of Thought 2015” on 3rd September
We had encouraging feedback after the previous padkos mailing that marked the 90th anniversary of Frantz Fanon’s birth. It’s clear that a number of us want to to engage Fanon’s ideas more, and to think them through in and for our own context. Well, here’s a great opportunity! One of South Africa’s leading Fanon scholars – and longtime CLP padkos comrade – Richard Pithouse, has agreed to spend time with us at the Church Land Programme (CLP) offices, 340 Burger Street, on 3rdSeptember at 10.30. Some good coffee will be available from 10.00 and lunch will follow the discussion.
He’s just penned a remarkable essay on “Frantz Fanon: Philosophy, Praxis and the Occult Zone” which we’re sharing here [see attached]– and which we assume you’ll all read before the discussion! Please send us an email atpadkos@churchland.org.za and let us know as soon as possible if you will be attending.
Richard’s discussion opens a remarkable series of radical padkos visitors from across the globe who we’re privileged to host through the remainder of the year. We’re thinking of this series as a “School of Thought”, and it creates a brilliant space for critical thought and engagement for CLP’s padkos comrades and colleagues. In our ongoing work at CLP, the critical thinking of grassroots militants remains our principal point of entry and departure for emancipatory politics and thought. And there’s no question that this work benefits, and benefits from, mutual dialogue with other emancipatory thinkers and theorists who also take the real thought and practice of liberatory praxis in other places around the world seriously.
More details will follow but here’s a taste of what’s coming up: after Pithouse, Raquel Gutiérrez Aguilar, from Bolivia and currently based in Mexico, will be our guest in mid September; then in early October we welcome back the extraordinary Lewis R Gordon; and finally, another amazing padkos session with Firoze Manji in November!