Why did Frantz Fanon argue that both colonized people and colonizers needed decolonization?

Frantz Fanon argued that both the colonized and the colonizer require decolonization because both parties are deeply implicated in the psychological and moral horrors of imperialism.2

For the colonized, decolonization is a necessary process to reclaim their agency, territory, and personal sanity from the oppressive structures of colonial rule, which sought to dominate their minds and bodies. Fanon believed that the colonized must move beyond merely reacting to the oppressor or seeking recognition on terms set by the colonizer, as such efforts fail to provide genuine liberation.12

Conversely, Fanon argued that colonizers must also undergo decolonization to reconcile the inherent brutality of their colonial actions with their own claims to humanism. By maintaining systems of exploitation and violence, the colonizer is trapped in a dehumanizing cycle that contradicts the values they profess. Ultimately, Fanon’s work emphasizes that true liberation requires moving past these binary oppositions to construct a new, independent national consciousness that is free from the lingering influences of colonial structures.213