A Fanonian anthropology of the atmosphere of felt disasters and felt changes: Revisiting Fanon to explore the felt disasters of war, epidemics, and humanitarian interventions in the tenth Ebola epidemic in Eastern DRC

Abstract

This essay proposes a reading of Frantz Fanon to examine resistance during the tenth Ebola epidemic in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (2018–2020). This reading centers on Fanon’s study of atmospheres, which is missing in current debates on atmosphere. Specifically, I suggest that Fanon was less concerned with the justification for violent resistance than with describing the atmosphere of violence that governed the Algerian War of Independence. Fanon seeks to convey the collective presentiment that the liberation struggle ends in a veritable human disaster. Following Fanon, this essay will explore the felt disasters of epidemics and war created by the public health response in the DRC. In addition, I will draw on Fanon to illuminate the felt changes of the Ebola response inspired by an atmosphere of creativity.