The reception of his work has been affected by English translations which are recognized to contain numerous omissions and errors while his unpublished work, including his doctoral thesis, has received little attention. As a result, Fanon has often been portrayed as an advocate of violence. This reductionist vision of Fanon's work ignores the subtlety of his understanding of the colonial system. For Fanon in "The Wretched of the Earth", the colonizer's presence in Algeria is based sheerly on military strength. Any resistance to this strength must also be of a violent nature because it is the only 'language' the colonizer speaks. The relevance of language and the reformation of discourse pervades much of his work, which is why it is so genius. It includes everything from psychiatric concerns to politics, sociology, anthropology, linguistics and literature.
His participation in the Algerian FLN in 1955 determined his audience as the colonized Algerians. It was to them that his final work, The Wretched of the Earth, was directed. It constitutes a warning to the oppressed of the dangers they face in the whirlwind of decolonization and the transition to a neo-colonialist/globalized world.Fanon has had an influence on anti-colonial and national liberation movements worldwide. In particular, 'Wretched of the Earth' was a major influence on the work of revolutionary leaders such as Ali Shariati in Iran, Steve Biko in South Africa, Malcolm X in the U.S. and Ernesto Che Guevara in Cuba. Of these only Guevara was primarily concerned with Fanon's theories on violence; for Shariati and Biko the main interest in Fanon was "the new man" and "black consciousness".
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