Frantz Fanon, Decolonisation, and the Philosophical Psychology of Post-Colonial Subjectivity in Nigeria: An Original Critical Inquiry

This dissertation conducts an original critical philosophical inquiry into Frantz Fanon's decolonisation philosophy and the psychology of post-colonial subjectivity, applying and extending Fanon's work through systematic engagement with Nigerian philosophical and psychological experience across the South East, South West, and North West geopolitical zones. Fanon's philosophical psychology of colonialism in Black Skin, White Masks and The Wretched of the Earth provides the most influential African account of colonial subjectivity, but its application to specific Nigerian ethnic and religious subjectivities and its extension through African philosophy of mind has not been adequately attempted. A four-phase methodology is employed, combining systematic critical philosophical analysis of Fanon's complete philosophical corpus alongside his African and Caribbean philosophical interlocutors; empirical psychological-philosophical investigation through 85 interviews with psychologists, cultural scholars, and philosophy academics in Lagos, Enugu, and Kano, supplemented by phenomenological case narratives from 60 research participants; comparative analysis with postcolonial psychology from Albert Memmi, Achille Mbembe, and contemporary African philosophy; and constructive development of the original Extended Fanonian Framework. The dissertation proposes the Extended Fanonian Framework as an original contribution, which identifies three post-colonial subjectivity formations in Nigeria, namely the mimic-colonial subject, the nativist reactive subject, and the decolonially liberated subject, and specifies the philosophical and psychological conditions necessary for transition to the third formation. Keywords: Fanon, decolonisation, post-colonial subjectivity, African philosophy of mind, Nigeria.