Danny Glover in Martinique to make documentary on Frantz Fanon

American actor Danny Glover was in Martinique this week to shoot sequences for a documentary on Frantz Fanon, the psychiatrist and writer who joined the struggle against French colonial rule in Algeria.

Glover, whose screen credits include "The Color Purple" and the "Lethal Weapon" movies, arrived in the French Caribbean island Monday and was leaving Wednesday.

"I read Fanon when I was 20, and his writings moved me," Glover told reporters Tuesday. "It's very important for me to be involved in consciousness-raising."

Fanon, who was born in Martinique in 1925, served in the French army during World War II but severed his ties with France in the 1950s to work for the Algerian National Liberation Front, which fought for the North African nation's independence.

Fanon's works on decolonization have inspired liberation movements around the world. His most famous book, "Black Skin, White Mask," analyzed the alienation of blacks in white racist societies. In "The Wretched of the Earth," completed just before he died of leukemia in 1961, Fanon developed his views on the therapeutic value of violence.

Glover filmed interviews with relatives of Fanon and with 92-year-old poet and politician Aime Cesaire, who knew the revolutionary well. The actor said he intended to follow Fanon's trail to Algeria.

Cesaire helped develop the concept of negritude, urging blacks to reject assimilation and cultivate pride in their heritage. Fanon, a Marxist, criticized Cesaire's approach, arguing social and economic factors were at the root of the alienation of blacks.

Glover, who was appointed goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Development Program in 1998, has produced and directed several television films. One film, "Buffalo Soldiers," was about the all-black cavalry units that helped conquer the American West. He did not say when the documentary on Fanon would be completed, AP reported.