Fanon is regarded as a crucial figure of early anti-colonial and anti-racist theory. For Algerians, he is one of the heroes of the country's struggle for independence.

Yet his role during the war against France and his writings remain largely unknown to a wider public.

July 20, 2025, marks the 100th anniversary of his birth. Fanon was not granted a long life: At just 36, he died of leukemia in 1961 without ever witnessing Algerianindependence, a goal he devoted his life to.

His work is "a reflection on the concept of solidarity, understanding what solidarity means in a moment of war, of resistance," Mireille Fanon Mendès France told DW. She is Fanon's eldest daughter and co-chair of the international Frantz Fanon Foundation.

She says she barely knew her father and retains few childhood memories of him, but as a teenager, she immersed herself in her father's literary work.

Fanon's writings made it clear that the struggle for Algerian independence not only benefited Algeria, but was also about African unity. "And this African unity is still not there," his daughter explains.

In her Paris apartment, Alice Cherki goes through old documents from her youth during Algeria's war of independence........

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