Josie's favorite authors
March 15, 2024
When Josie and Frantz Fanon were expelled from Algeria, they moved to Tunis. Here, Josie worked as a literary critic for Radio Tunis. After her husband’s death, Josie worked as translator, journalist, and interviewer—for three decades. She interviewed many figures such as Che Guevara, Ousmane Sembène, and Frankétienne. The “top authors” published after 1961 in the Fanon library can give us clues as to other figures Josie found important. Here are the top ten:
| # | Author | Count | Median Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tse-tung | 29 | 1961 |
| 2 | Fanon | 27 | 1966 |
| 3 | Il Sung | 9 | 1971 |
| 4 | Char | 9 | 1971 |
| 5 | Hoxha | 8 | 1968 |
| 6 | Che Guevara | 7 | 1967 |
| 7 | Castro | 7 | 1965 |
| 8 | Dib | 6 | 1985 |
| 9 | Breytenbach | 5 | 1984 |
| 10 | Amin | 5 | 1973 |
Although they do not figure in the top ten, Josie continues to acquire more books by Marx, as well as the Marxists of the day, such as Althusser. As we can see, she also acquires a significant collection of Kim Il Sung, the dictator of North Korea, as well as René Char, the French poet. Her interest in Ho Chi Minh (in top 15) is also notable, especially because Josie was committed to the people of Vietnam, and even travelled to North Vietnam during the war.
What should also be notable is that her collection includes (in the top 20) works by Peter Randall and André Brink. Josie was committed to the project of anti-apartheid in South Africa, and her reading list and publications attest to this. For instance, she wrote this about André Brink’s novel, Rumeurs de pluie:
Read André Brink and you will no longer have to imagine the icy hell of South Africa. And if you have the heart to be taken by fear, you will tremble, you will cry in front of the distress, the dehumanization, the craziness that traverses every part of South African society. Racism, slavery, American segregation, colonialism, Nazism, class oppression, impossibility of human relations, including love, if your skin does have the same color as that of the other.
Josie Fanon, “Après eux le déluge”
Indeed, in this regard, sheer numbers can, indeed, tell us something about Josie’s interests, especially when we connect the authors in the library.