JEAN-PAUL SARTRE’S PREFACE TO THE WRETCHED OF THE EARTH: A MANIFESTO FOR FREEDOM

manifesto pela liberdade

Abstract

Jean-Paul Sartre’s preface to Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth reveals the philosopher’s strategic choice to address a European audience, distinct from the book’s intended readers, the colonized. Sartre confronts Europeans with their complicity in colonial oppression and underscores recognition as a condition for the humanity of the other. Written in the context of the Algerian War, the preface exposes colonial violence as both the structuring element of domination and a historical force capable of transforming individuals and societies. Sartre and Fanon converge in viewing violence as the product of oppression and a potential instrument of emancipation, though they diverge on its form and ethical justification. Sartre also criticizes European humanism as limited to abstract morality, incapable of addressing the concrete realities of colonial exploitation. His reflection links philosophy and history, showing that the anti-colonial struggle is at once political and a critique of the humanism that legitimized domination. Today, the preface remains strikingly relevant, as it reveals how racism and violence continue to shape social and political relations, demonstrating that freedom and humanity require a concrete confrontation with the mechanisms of oppression and dehumanization.