Critic speak is tough, but we've got you covered.
Quote :"On National Culture" from The Wretched of the Earth
The nation is not only the condition of culture, its fruitfulness, its continuous renewal, and its deepening. It is also a necessity. It is the fight for national existence which sets culture moving and opens to it the doors of creation. Later on it is the nation which will ensure the conditions and framework necessary to culture. The nation gathers together the various indispensable elements necessary for the creation of a culture, those elements which alone can give it credibility, validity, life and creative power. In the same way it is its national character that will make such a culture open to other cultures and will enable it to influence and permeate other cultures. A non-existent culture can hardly be expected to have bearing on reality, or to influence reality. The first necessity is the re-establishment of the nation in order to give life to national culture in the strictly biological sense of the phrase.
Thus we have followed the break-up of the old strata of culture, a shattering which becomes increasingly fundamental; and we have noticed, on the eve of the decisive conflict for national freedom, the renewing of forms of expression and the rebirth of the imagination.
You know that whole "'American as apple pie"' idea? That's pretty much what Fanon's talking about. Basically, the nation makes culture. The idea of "'America"' as a nation leads to all the stuff that's considered "'American"' in its culture: its literature, its movies, its pies, malls, McDonald's.
To Fanon, creating a nation is a creative act, an act full of inspiration. In fact, it's not just a nation that you need; you need to break up "'the old strata of culture"'—the stuff that came before the creation of a new nation. And by "'break up,"' we mean overthrowing—violently, if necessary—the old (colonial) order in favor of a new, freer, nation.
Okay, sure, culture may exist without a nation; it just won't have any meaning or bearing on "'real"' life and its struggles. Case in point: Shepard Fairey's poster for Obama in the 2008 Presidential election. That poster was relevant because of the nation's historical moment of electing its first black president and the "'hope"' that was needed by all its citizens. Same story (more or less) with Honey Boo Boo Child: what other nation could produce the phenomenon of Honey Boo Boo?
This quotation is fundamental to postcolonialism's beginnings. It's kind of like asking the chicken-and-egg question and having someone say, "'I know what comes first!"' Here, it's the nation that's the "'material"' basis for culture. These days, postcolonialists might complicate that relationship between nation and culture a tad more, but what Fanon says here is still pretty central to their arguments.