Wikipedia

Walter Rodney

Walter Anthony Rodney(23 March 1942 – 13 June 1980) was aGuyanesehistorian, political activist and academic. His notable works includeHow Europe Underdeveloped Africa,first published in 1972. He was assassinated inGeorgetown,Guyana,in 1980.

Walter Rodney
Born
Walter Anthony Rodney

(1942-03-23)23 March 1942
Georgetown, British Guiana
Died13 June 1980(1980-06-13)(aged 38)
Georgetown,Guyana
Cause of deathCar bomb
Academic background
Alma materUniversity of London
SOAS, University of London
Academic work
Main interestsAfrican studies
Notable worksHow Europe Underdeveloped Africa(1972)
Websitewww.walterrodneyfoundation.org

Biography

edit

Early career

edit

Walter Anthony Rodney was born in 1942 into a working-class family inGeorgetown,Guyana.[citation needed]He attended theUniversity College of the West Indiesin 1960 and was awarded a first-class honours degree in history in 1963. He earned aPhDinAfrican Historyin 1966 at theSchool of Oriental and African StudiesinLondon,England,at the age of 24.[1]His dissertation, which focused on theslave tradeon the UpperGuinea Coast,was published by theOxford University Pressin 1970 under the titleA History of the Upper Guinea Coast 1545–1800and was widely acclaimed for its originality in challenging the conventional wisdom on the topic.[citation needed]

Rodney travelled widely and became known internationally as anactivist,scholarand formidable orator. He taught at theUniversity of Dar es SalaaminTanzaniaduring the periods 1966–67 and 1969–1974 and in 1968 at his alma materUniversity of the West IndiesatMona,Jamaica.[citation needed]He was sharply critical of themiddle classfor its role in thepost-independence Caribbean.He was also a strong critic ofcapitalismand argued that only under "the banner of Socialism and through the leadership of the working classes" could Africa break from imperialism.[2]

On 15 October 1968, the government of Jamaica, led by prime ministerHugh Shearer,declared Rodneypersona non grata.The decision to ban him from ever returning to Jamaica and his subsequent dismissal by the University of the West Indies, Mona, caused protests by students and the poor ofWest Kingstonthat escalated into a riot, known as theRodney Riots,resulting in six deaths and causing millions of dollars in damages.[3]The riots, which began on 16 October 1968, triggered an increase in political awareness across the Caribbean, especially among the AfrocentricRastafariansector of Jamaica, documented in Rodney's bookThe Groundings with my Brothers,published byBogle-L'Ouverture Publicationsin 1969.

In 1969, Rodney returned to theUniversity of Dar es Salaam.He was promoted to senior lecturer there in 1971 and promoted to associate professor in 1973.[4]He worked at the university until 1974 when he returned to Guyana.[5][3]He was promised a professorship at the University of Guyana in Georgetown but theForbes Burnhamgovernment rescinded the offer when Rodney arrived in Guyana.[5]

Rodney was close toC.L.R. James,among others, and supported the socialist government ofJulius Nyerere.While his academic work contributed "to the emergence of decolonised African social sciences," Rodney worked to disseminate knowledge in Tanzanian villages, where he spoke inKiswahili,the language of the people.[6]He continued his pan-African activism and, analysing the causes of the continent's underdevelopment, publishedHow Europe Underdeveloped Africain 1972. With a view to the Pan-African Congress of 1974, he prepared a text on the "international class struggle in Africa, the Caribbean and America." In this landmark work, Rodney denounced leaders who, likeFélix Houphouët-Boigny,Jean-Claude Duvalier,Idi Amin DadaandJoseph Mobutu,were turning to tribalism under the guise of "negritude."

Rodney became a prominentPan-AfricanistandMarxist,and was important in theBlack Powermovement in theCaribbeanand North America. While living inDar es Salaam,he was influential in developing a new centre of African learning and discussion.

Later life

edit

In 1974, Rodney returned toGuyanafrom Tanzania.[7]He was due to take up a position as a professor at theUniversity of Guyana,but the Guyanese government prevented his appointment. Increasingly active in politics, he joined theWorking People's Alliance(WPA),[8]a party that provided the most effective and credible opposition to thePeople's National Congressgovernment and aimed to "create political consciousness, replacing ethnic politics with revolutionary organisations based on class solidarity."[6]In 1979, he was arrested and charged witharsonafter two government offices were burned. The trial was deferred three times and later dropped due to lack of evidence.[9]

Death

edit

On 13 June 1980, Rodney was killed in Georgetown, at the age of 38, by an explosive communication device in his car, a month after he returned from celebrations ofindependence in Zimbabweat a time of intense political activism. He was survived by his wife, Patricia, and three children. His brother, Donald Rodney, who was injured in the explosion, said that a sergeant in theGuyana Defence Forceand a member of theHouse of Israel,[10]named Gregory Smith, had given Walter the explosive that killed him. After the killing, Smith fled toFrench Guiana,where he died in 2002.[11]

"I found Rodney to be a deeply intelligent and compassionate man, with a hatred of bloodshed but a deep and growing fear that violence and civil war might be the inevitable consequence of Burnham's determination to hold on to power by all available means" (1979) Sam Silkin, former UK Attorney General.

Aftermath

edit

It is widely believed, but not proven, that the assassination was set up by Guyana's president, (Guyanese Government was found liable for Rodney’s death in 2017 by Commission of Inquiry)Linden Forbes Burnham.[12][13]Rodney believed that the various ethnic groups historically disenfranchised by the ruling colonial class should work together, a position that challenged Burnham's hold on power.[14]

In 2014,[15]a Commission of Inquiry (COI) was held during which a new witness, Holland Gregory Yearwood, came forward claiming to be a long-standing friend of Rodney and a former member of the WPA. Yearwood testified that Rodney presented detonators to him weeks prior to the explosion asking for assistance in assembling a bomb.[16]Yet the same Commission of Inquiry (COI) concluded in their report that Rodney's death was a state-ordered killing, and that then Prime Minister Forbes Burnham must have had knowledge of the plot.[17][18]

Donald Rodney, Walter's brother, was in the car with him during the time of the assassination, and was convicted in 1982 of possessing explosives in connection with the incident that killed his brother. On 14 April 2021, the Guyana Court of Appeals overturned this judgment and Donald's sentence, exonerating him after forty years in which he contested his conviction.[19][20]

On 9 August 2021, theNational Assembly of Guyanavoted to adopt "Resolution No. 23" to implement the 2016 findings of "The Commission of Inquiry Appointed to Enquire and Report on the Circumstances Surrounding the Death in An Explosion of the Late Dr. Walter Rodney on Thirteenth Day of June, One Thousand, Nine Hundred and Eighty at Georgetown".[21]

Academic influence

edit

Walter Rodney's most influential book isHow Europe Underdeveloped Africa,published in 1972 byBogle-L'Ouverture Publications,London, England and the Tanzanian Publishing House (TPH) Dar es Salaam Tanzania. In it Rodney described howAfricahad been exploited byEuropeanimperialists,which he argued led directly to the modernunderdevelopmentof most of the continent. The book became influential as well as controversial: it was groundbreaking in that it was among the first to bring a new perspective to the question of underdevelopment in Africa. Rodney's analysis went far beyond the previously accepted approach in the study ofThird Worldunderdevelopment.

Rodney's community-grounded approach to mass education during the 1960s and his detailed descriptions of his pedagogical approach inGroundings(1969) document his role as an important critical pedagogue and contemporary ofPaulo Freire.[22]

Honors and awards

edit

A sculpture of Rodney inBenin

Rodney's death was commemorated in a poem byMartin Carterentitled "For Walter Rodney," by the dub poetLinton Kwesi Johnsonin "Reggae fi Radni," and byKamau Brathwaitein his poem "Poem for Walter Rodney" (Elegguas,2010).David Dabydeenalso wrote a poem on Rodney in his 1988 collectionCoolie Odyssey.

In 1977, the African Studies Centre atBoston Universityinaugurated the Walter Rodney Lecture Series.

In 1982, theAmerican Historical Associationposthumously awarded Walter Rodney theAlbert J. Beveridge AwardforA History of the Guyanese Working People, 1881-1905.

In 1984, the Centre for Caribbean Studies at theUniversity of Warwickestablished the Walter Rodney Memorial Lecture in recognition of the life and work of one of the most outstanding scholar-activists of the Black Diaspora in the post-World War II era.

In 1993, the Guyanese government posthumously awarded Walter Rodney Guyana's highest honour, theOrder of Excellence of Guyana.The Guyanese government also established the Walter Rodney Chair in History at theUniversity of Guyana.

In 1998, the Institute of Caribbean Studies at theUniversity of the West Indiesinaugurated the Walter Rodney Lecture Series.

In 2004, Rodney's widow Patricia and his children donated his papers to theRobert L. Woodruff Libraryof theAtlanta University Center.Since 2004, an annual Walter Rodney Symposium has been held each 23 March (Rodney's birthday) at the Center under the sponsorship of the Library and thePolitical ScienceDepartment ofClark Atlanta University,and under the patronage of the Rodney family.

In 2005, theLondon Borough of Southwarkerected a plaque in thePeckham LibrarySquare in commemoration of Dr. Walter Rodney, the political activist, historian and global freedom fighter.

In 2006, an International Conference on Walter Rodney was held at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Dar es Salaam.

In 2006, the Walter Rodney Essay Competition was established in the Department of Afro-American and African Studies at theUniversity of Michigan.

In 2006, the Walter Rodney Foundation was established by the Rodney family. It is headquartered inAtlantaand aims to share the works and legacy of Rodney with the world.[23]

In 2010, the Walter Rodney Commemorative Symposium was held atYork College.[24]

The Department of African American Studies atSyracuse Universityhas established theAngela Davis/Walter Rodney Award of Academic Achievement.

The Department of Afro-American and African Studies (DAAS) at the University of Michigan established theDuBois-Mandela-Rodney Postdoctoral Fellowship Program.

In 2012, the Walter Rodney Conference celebrating the 40th anniversary of the publication ofHow Europe Underdeveloped Africawas held atBinghamton University.

In 2022, at the 36th Elsa Goveia Memorial Lecture,50th Anniversary of Dr. Walter Rodney's Book: "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa",was presented byHorace G. CampbellatUniversity of the West Indies.

Rodney is the subject of the 2010 documentary film by Clairmont Chung,W.A.R. Stories: Walter Anthony Rodney.[25]

The Walter Rodney Close in theLondon Borough of Newhamhas been named in honour of Rodney.

Walter Rodney is listed on the Black Achievers Wall in theInternational Slavery Museum,Liverpool, UK.

In 2022 and 2023,SAVVY Contemporary,an independent art space in Berlin (Germany), dedicated a research, performance and exhibition project, titled to Walter Rodney, fifty years after the publication of How Europe Underdeveloped Africa.[26]

Father-and-son filmmaking duo Arlen Harris and Daniyal Harris-Vadja directed a 2023 documentary exploring Rodney's life,Walter Rodney: What They Don’t Want You to Know.[27]

Works

edit

  • The Groundings with my Brothers(London:Bogle L'Ouverture Publications,1969)
  • West Africa and the Atlantic Slave-Trade(1970)
  • A History of the Upper Guinea Coast 1545–1800(Oxford:Clarendon Press,1970)
  • How Europe Underdeveloped Africa(1972)
  • World War II and the Tanzanian Economy(1976)
  • Guyanese Sugar Plantations in the Late Nineteenth Century: a Contemporary Description from the "Argosy"(Georgetown, Guyana: Release Publications, 1979)
  • Marx in the Liberation of Africa(1981)
  • A History of the Guyanese Working People, 1881–1905(Baltimore, MD:The Johns Hopkins University Press,1981)
  • Walter Rodney Speaks: the Making of an African Intellectual(Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1990)
  • Kofi Baadu Out of Africa(Georgetown, Guyana), children's book
  • Lakshmi Out of India(Georgetown, Guyana: The Guyana Book Foundation, 2000), children's book
  • TheRussian Revolution:A View from the Third World(New York:Verso Books,2018)
  • Decolonial Marxism: Essays from the Pan-African Revolution(New York: Verso Books, 2022)
  • "African History in the Service of the Black Liberation ",lecture presented at the Congress of Black Writers, Montreal, Canada, 12 October 1968
  • "George Jackson: Black Revolutionary" inMaji Maji,(5): 4–6 (1971)
  • Street speech given in Guyana
  • "African slavery and other forms of social oppression on the Upper Guinea Coast, 1580–1650,Journal of African History,7(3):431–43.
  • Portuguese attempts at monopoly on the Upper Guinea Coast ",Journal of African History.6(3):307-22.
  • "The impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade in West Africa", in Roland Oliver (editor),The Middle Age of African History,Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1967.
  • "Education and Tanzanian socialism", in Resnick (editor),Tanzania: Revolution by Education,Longmans of Tanzania, Arusha, 1968.
  • "European activity and African reaction in Angola", inTerence Ranger(editor),Aspects of Central African History,Northwestern University Press, Evanston, 1968.
  • "The role of the university in developing Africa", Public Lecture, Makerere Students Guild, Makerere University, Kampala, October 1970.
  • "African labour under capitalism and imperialism", Cheche, University of Dar es Salaam, November 1969, 1:4–12.
  • "Ideology of the African revolution: Paper presented at the 2nd seminar of East and Central African Youth",The Nationalist(Dar es Salaam), 11 October 1969.
  • "The Colonial Economy", in A. Boahen (editor),African under colonial domination 1880–1935,Heinemann and UNESCO, California, 1985.
  • "The political economy of colonial Tanganyika 1890–1930", in M. H. Kaniki,Tanzania Under Colonial Rule,Longman, London,1980.
  • "Africa in Europe and the Americas", in Richard Gray (editor),The Cambridge History of Africa,Volume 4:c.1600–c.1790, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1975.
  • "The Guinea Coast", in Richard Gray (editor),The Cambridge History of Africa,Volume 4:c.1600–c.1790, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1975.
  • "Some implications of the question of disengagement from imperialism",Maji Maji,University of Dar es Salaam, January 1971, 1:3–8
  • "State formation and class formation in Tanzania",Maji Maji,1973, 11:25–32.
  • "Slavery and underdevelopment", in M. Craton (editor),Roots and Branches: Current directions in Slave Studies,New York: Pergamon Press, 1979.
  • "Class contradictions in Tanzania", in H. Othman (editor),The State in Tanzania: Who controls it and whose interests does it serve,Dar es Salam: Dar es Salaam University Press, 1980.
  • "A Reconsideration of the Mane Invasions of Sierra Leone". In:Journal of African History,1967a, 8/2, 219–246.
  • "Resistance and accommodation in Ovimbundu/Portuguese relations". History departmental seminar, University of Dar es Salaam (1972b)
  • "The year 1895 in southern Mozambique: African resistance to the imposition of European colonial rule",Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria,1971, 5 (4): 509–35.

Further reading

edit

  • "And finally they killed him": speeches and poems at a memorial rally for Walter Rodney, 1942–80,Oduduwa Hall, University of Ife, Nigeria, Friday, 27 June 1980.
  • Walter Rodney: Revolutionary and Scholar: A Tribute(Los Angeles: Center for African-American Studies and African Studies Center,University of California,1982)
  • C. L. R. James,Walter Rodney and the Question of Power(London:Race Today Publications,1983)
  • University of Hamburg (1984) A tribute to Walter Rodney: "One Hundred years of development in Africa"; Lectures given at Universitat of Hamburg in September 1978.
  • Clive Y. Thomas,“Walter Rodney and the Caribbean Revolution” (speech at a symposium, University of California, Los Angeles, 1981.
  • David Dabydeen and Andrew Salkey (eds),Walter Rodney, Poetic Tributes(London: Bogle-L'Ouverture, 1985)
  • Horace Campbell.Rasta and Resistance: From Marcus Garvey to Walter Rodney(Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1985)
  • Gabriehu.Dangerous Times: The Assassination of Dr. Walter Rodney(Brooklyn, NY: Gibbi Books, 2003)
  • Rupert Lewis.Walter Rodney`s Intellectual and Political Thought(Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1998)
  • Rupert Lewis.Walter Rodney: 1968 Revisited
  • Issa G. Shivji,"Remembering Walter Rodney",Monthly Review,Volume 64, Issue 07 (December 2012).
  • Nigel Westmaas, “40 Years of How Europe Underdeveloped Africa,”Pambazuka News,June 14, 2012.
  • Clairmont Chung, "A Promise of Revolution", inMonthly Review Press(2013)
  • Karim F. Hirji,The Enduring Relevance of Walter Rodney's How Europe Underdeveloped Africa(2017)
  • Kimani Nehusi, "Forty-Seven Years After: Understanding and Updating Walter Rodney",Africa Update,26.3 (Summer 2019)
  • Matthew Quest, "The Historical Retrieval and Controversy of Walter Rodney's Russian Revolution",New Politics,Winter 2020
  • Kristin Plys, "Theorizing Capitalist Imperialism for an Anti-Imperialist Praxis: Towards a Rodneyan World-Systems Analysis",Journal of World Systems Research,Volume 27, Issue 01, 2021.[28]
  • Leo Zeilig, "A Revolutionary for our Time" (The Walter Rodney Story) Haymarket Books, May 2022
  • Chinedu Chukwudinma, "A Rebel's Guide to Walter Rodney", April 2022.

References

edit
  1. ^Price, Katie (1 July 2021)."Revolutionary historian: Walter Rodney (1942-1980) – SOAS Centenary Timeline".Retrieved16 June2023.
  2. ^Rodney, Walter (1975)."Aspects of the International Class Struggle in Africa, the Caribbean and America".Pan-Africanism: Struggle Against Neo-colonialism and Imperialism - Documents of the Sixth Pan-African Congress:18–41. Archived fromthe originalon 16 August 2021.
  3. ^abMichael O. West (November 2005)."Walter Rodney and Black Power: Jamaican Intelligence and US Diplomacy"(PDF).African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies.1(2).ISSN1554-3897.Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 17 July 2012.Retrieved26 June2011.
  4. ^"The Dar es Salaam years".africasacountry.com.18 August 2019.Retrieved28 December2022.
  5. ^abHarisch, Immanuel R. (1 January 2018).Walter Rodney's Dar es Salaam Years, 1966–1974: How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Tanzania's ujamaa, and Student Radicalism at 'the Hill'(Thesis). University of Vienna.
  6. ^abFerrarini, Hélène (1 September 2020)."Guyana turns its back on its past".Le Monde diplomatique.Archived fromthe originalon 7 May 2021.Retrieved13 April2021.
  7. ^Campbell, Horace (May 1960)."Walter Rodney: A Biography and Bibliography".Review of African Political Economy(18): 132–137.JSTOR3997943.Retrieved20 February2023.
  8. ^Chukwudinma, Chinedu (12 May 2022)."The birth of the Working People's Alliance in Guyana".Review of African Political Economy.Retrieved25 January2023.
  9. ^Edward Kamau Brathwaite (June 1981)."A poem for Walter Rodney".Index on Censorship.10(6). The Caribbean: 26.doi:10.1080/03064228108533287.S2CID152261408.Retrieved23 November2021.
  10. ^Stabroek News (30 April 2014)."House of Israel was hit squad – Rodney's brother".Stabroek News.Archived fromthe originalon 23 November 2021.Retrieved23 November2021.
  11. ^Azikiwe, Abayomi (28 February 2016)."Guyana commission confirms Burnham gov't murdered Walter Rodney".Worker's World.Archived fromthe originalon 10 May 2021.Retrieved23 November2021.
  12. ^"Walter Rodney Biography".www.thegrenadarevolutiononline.com.TheGrenada RevolutionOnline. Archived fromthe originalon 13 February 2021.Retrieved23 November2021.
  13. ^"THE GRAND BETRAYALS OF WALTER RODNEY".Kaieteur News.16 June 2012. Archived fromthe originalon 1 April 2019.Retrieved23 November2021.
  14. ^"Gregory Smith dead".www.landofsixpeoples.com.24 November 2002. Archived fromthe originalon 14 December 2018.Retrieved23 November2021.
  15. ^"The Walter Rodney Murder Mystery in Guyana 40 Years Later".National Security Archive.2020.Retrieved23 November2021.
  16. ^Eleazar, Gary (17 February 2015)."Rodney hearing takes dramatic twist. New witness tells of attempted cover up".Guyana Chronicle.Archived fromthe originalon 25 February 2015.
  17. ^Stabroek News (20 February 2016)."Rodney was victim of state-organised killing, PM Burnham had to have known –CoI finds".Stabroek News.Retrieved13 April2021.
  18. ^Report of the Commission of Inquiry Appointed to Enquire and Report on the Circumstances Surrounding the Death of the Late Dr. Walter Rodney on Thirteenth Day of June, One Thousand Nine Hundred and Eighty at Georgetown,8 February 2016, p. 133,hdl:20.500.12322/coi:rodney_report,WikidataQ106716611
  19. ^Stabroek News (14 April 2021)."Appeal Court sets aside Donald Rodney's conviction, sentencing".Stabroek News.
  20. ^Chabrol, Dennis (14 April 2021)."BREAKING: Guyana Court of Appeal sets aside explosives conviction, sentence of Donald Rodney".Demerara Waves.Archivedfrom the original on 9 May 2021.
  21. ^"RESOLUTION NO. 23"(PDF).National Assembly of Guyana. 9 August 2021. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 15 November 2021.Retrieved15 November2021.
  22. ^Vaught, Seneca (2015)."'Grounding' Walter Rodney in Critical Pedagogy: Toward Praxis in African History ".South.1(1): 4–5.
  23. ^"WHO WE ARE".Walter Rodney Foundation.Retrieved5 September2020.
  24. ^The Walter Rodney Commemorative Symposium @ York college,7 July 2010,archivedfrom the original on 21 December 2021,retrieved6 April2021
  25. ^W.A.R. Stories: Walter Anthony Rodney,Roots and Culture Media.
  26. ^"UNRAVELING THE (UNDER-) DEVELOPMENT COMPLEX".S A V V Y Contemporary.2023.Retrieved23 January2023.
  27. ^Shoki, William (3 April 2023)."This is what they don't want you to know".Africa Is A Country.Retrieved28 November2023.
  28. ^Plys, Kristin (2021)."Theorizing Capitalist Imperialism for an Anti-Imperialist Praxis".Journal of World-Systems Research.27:288–313.doi:10.5195/jwsr.2021.1022.S2CID233689871.
edit
Wikiquote has quotations related toWalter Rodney.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Walter_Rodney&oldid=1256097738"