Marc-William Palen
University of Exeter

From Frantz Fanon as inspiration to the only woman to join the yakuza, here are this week’s top picks in imperial and global history.

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The Rebel’s Clinic — should Frantz Fanon inspire us?

Daniel Trilling
Financial Times

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By the time Frantz Fanon died of leukaemia in 1961, aged 36, the Martinique-born philosopher had led multiple lives. A veteran of the second world war, a pioneering psychiatrist and an anti-colonial militant — at the time of his death, Fanon was an ambassador for Algeria’s National Liberation Front (FLN) — he was also a prolific author who published two highly influential political works. Black Skin, White Masks (1952), which explores the psychological toll of racism, contributed to the understanding of “race” not as a fixed attribute, but as a highly unequal way of ordering human relationships that demeans all involved. The Wretched of the Earth (1961) was a rallying cry to the anti-colonial movement of the day — and a warning that the struggle would be in vain if the new national elites merely replicated the values (and the greed) of the departing white colonisers. Fanon, the Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o has commented, “gave us the vocabulary to understand and voice the character of the postcolonial era”. [continue reading]

What can the Commonwealth really do? At last I have an answer

Sathnam Sanghera
Times

didn’t expect to have fun at the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022, and the journey to the stadium lowered expectations further. Cancellations meant it took seven whole hours to travel by train from London to my home county of the West Midlands. Giving me more time than desired to contemplate the melancholy issue of what the hell the games were for anyway.

Nowadays, it’s often a struggle to get cities to put them on, while the comedian John Oliver has labelled them an “off-Broadway Olympics” and a “historic display of a once-mighty nation gathering together the countries it lost and finding a way to lose to them once more”. This led to another demoralising question on my journey: what the hell is the Commonwealth for, anyway? A basic query that has been answered in a staggering number of ways since the organisation’s inception. The late Queen, as head of the Commonwealth, described it as a “family of nations” and, in a statement that made me fret about her tech skills, “the original world wide web”. [continue reading]

Americans Used to Care More About Israel Dividing the U.S. From Its U.N. Allies

Sean T. Byrnes
Time (Made by History)

On Dec. 9, the U.S. vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a “humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza. While this move was, in one sense, dramatic—the U.S. broke with its allies and cast the sole vote against the resolution—it was also routine. For a half century, the U.S. has used its veto power to halt or delay dozens of resolutions seen as unfavorable to Israel. 

When this practice began in the 1970s, it garnered considerable national attention, with debates roiling the State Department and public alike. One such incident — which landed its key participant, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Daniel Patrick Moynihan, on the cover of TIME magazine — shows how much Americans used to care about how the U.N. viewed Israel and the U.S. and why perhaps they still should. [continue reading]

‘I never lost a fight against a man’: the story of the only woman to join Japan’s notorious yakuza

Martina Baradel
Conversation

Nishimura Mako is a petite woman in her late fifties, with flowing hair and a delicate face. But you soon notice that she is no traditional Japanese lady – she is tattooed up to her neck and hands and her little finger is missing. These are signs of affiliation to the yakuza – Japan’s notorious criminal syndicates.

The yakuza is dominated by men and leaves only informal roles to women. Typically a woman involved with the yakuza might be an anesan, a boss’ wife who takes care of young affiliates and mediates between them and her husband. Wives and partners of the members support the group in a peripheral way. Some get involved to the extent that they manage yakuza-owned clubs or deal drugs. [continue reading]