Walter Anthony Rodney (23 March 1942 – 13 June 1980) was a Guyanese historian, political activist and academic. His notable works include '' How Europe Underdeveloped Africa'', first published in 1972. He was assassinated in Georgetown,

Guyana Guyana, officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern coast of South America, part of the historic British West Indies. entry "Guyana" Georgetown, Guyana, Georgetown is the capital of Guyana and is also the co ...

, in 1980.

Biography

Early career

Walter Anthony Rodney was born in 1942 into a working-class family in Georgetown, Guyana. He attended the University College of the West Indies in 1960 and was awarded a first-class honours degree in history in 1963. He earned a PhD in African History in 1966 at the School of Oriental and African Studies in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, at the age of 24. His dissertation, which focused on the slave trade on the Upper Guinea Coast, was published by the

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

in 1970 under the title ''A History of the Upper Guinea Coast 1545–1800'' and was widely acclaimed for its originality in challenging the conventional wisdom on the topic. Rodney travelled widely and became known internationally as an activist, scholar and formidable orator. He taught at the

University of Dar es Salaam The University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) (Swahili: ''Chuo Kikuu cha Dar es Salaam'') is a public university located in Ubungo District, Dar es Salaam Region, Tanzania. It was established in 1961 as an affiliate college of the University of London. ...

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

during the periods 1966–67 and 1969–1974 and in 1968 at his alma mater

University of the West Indies The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 18 English-speaking countries and territories in t ...

at Mona, Jamaica. He was sharply critical of the

middle class The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. C ...

for its role in the post-independence Caribbean. He was also a strong critic of

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...

and argued that only under "the banner of Socialism and through the leadership of the working classes" could Africa break from imperialism. On 15 October 1968, the government of Jamaica, led by prime minister Hugh Shearer, declared Rodney '' persona 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 of West Kingston that escalated into a riot, known as the Rodney Riots, resulting in six deaths and causing millions of dollars in damages. The riots, which began on 16 October 1968, triggered an increase in political awareness across the Caribbean, especially among the Afrocentric Rastafarian sector of Jamaica, documented in Rodney's book ''The Groundings with my Brothers,'' published by Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications in 1969. In 1969, Rodney returned to the

. He was promoted to senior lecturer there in 1971 and promoted to associate professor in 1973. He worked at the university until 1974 when he returned to Guyana. He was promised a professorship at the University of Guyana in Georgetown but the Forbes Burnham government rescinded the offer when Rodney arrived in Guyana. Rodney was close to C.L.R. James, among others, and supported the socialist government of Julius 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 in Kiswahili, the language of the people. He continued his pan-African activism and, analysing the causes of the continent's underdevelopment, published '' How Europe Underdeveloped Africa'' in 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, like Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Jean-Claude Duvalier, Idi Amin Dada and Joseph Mobutu, were turning to tribalism under the guise of " negritude." Rodney became a prominent Pan-Africanist and

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

, and was important in the Black Power movement in the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

and North America. While living in

Dar es Salaam Dar es Salaam (, ; from ) is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of the Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over 7 million people, Dar es Salaam is the largest city in East Africa by population and the ...

, he was influential in developing a new centre of African learning and discussion.

Later life

In 1974, Rodney returned to

from Tanzania. He was due to take up a position as a professor at the University of Guyana, but the Guyanese government prevented his appointment. Increasingly active in politics, he joined the Working People's Alliance (WPA), a party that provided the most effective and credible opposition to the People's National Congress government and aimed to "create political consciousness, replacing ethnic politics with revolutionary organisations based on class solidarity." In 1979, he was arrested and charged with arson after two government offices were burned. The trial was deferred three times and later dropped due to lack of evidence.

Death

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 of independence in Zimbabwe at 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 the Guyana Defence Force and a member of the House of Israel, named Gregory Smith, had given Walter the explosive that killed him. After the killing, Smith fled to

French Guiana French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west ...

, where he died in 2002. "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

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. 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. In 2014, 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. 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. 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. On 9 August 2021, the National Assembly of Guyana voted 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".

Academic influence

Walter Rodney's most influential book is '' How Europe Underdeveloped Africa'', published in 1972 by Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications, London, England and the Tanzanian Publishing House (TPH) Dar es Salaam Tanzania. In it Rodney described how

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

had been exploited by

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

an imperialists, which he argued led directly to the modern

underdevelopment Underdevelopment, in the context of international development, reflects a broad condition or phenomena defined and critiqued by theorists in fields such as economics, development studies, and postcolonial studies. Used primarily to distinguish s ...

of 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 of

Third World The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, the Southern Cone, NATO, Western European countries and oth ...

underdevelopment. Rodney's community-grounded approach to mass education during the 1960s and his detailed descriptions of his pedagogical approach in ''Groundings'' (1969) document his role as an important critical pedagogue and contemporary of Paulo Freire.

Honors and awards

Rodney's death was commemorated in a poem by Martin Carter entitled "For Walter Rodney," by the dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson in "Reggae fi Radni," and by Kamau Brathwaite in his poem "Poem for Walter Rodney" (''Elegguas,'' 2010).

David Dabydeen David Dabydeen FRSL (born 9 December 1955) is a Guyanese-born broadcaster, novelist, poet and academic. He was formerly Guyana's Ambassador to UNESCO (United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organisation) from 1997 to 2010, and was the yo ...

also wrote a poem on Rodney in his 1988 collection ''Coolie Odyssey''. In 1977, the African Studies Centre at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

inaugurated the Walter Rodney Lecture Series. In 1982, the

American Historical Association The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world, claiming over 10,000 members. Founded in 1884, AHA works to protect academic free ...

posthumously awarded Walter Rodney the Albert J. Beveridge Award for ''A History of the Guyanese Working People, 1881-1905.'' In 1984, the Centre for Caribbean Studies at the

University of Warwick The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded in 1965 as part of ...

established 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, the Order of Excellence of Guyana. The Guyanese government also established the Walter Rodney Chair in History at the University of Guyana. In 1998, the Institute of Caribbean Studies at the

inaugurated the Walter Rodney Lecture Series. In 2004, Rodney's widow Patricia and his children donated his papers to the Robert L. Woodruff Library of the

Atlanta University Center The Atlanta University Center Consortium (AUC Consortium) is a collaboration between four historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in southwest Atlanta, Georgia: Clark Atlanta University, Spelman College, Morehouse College, and the Mo ...

. 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 the

Political Science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

Department of Clark Atlanta University, and under the patronage of the Rodney family. In 2005, the London Borough of Southwark erected a plaque in the Peckham Library Square 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 the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

. In 2006, the Walter Rodney Foundation was established by the Rodney family. It is headquartered in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

and aims to share the works and legacy of Rodney with the world. In 2010, the Walter Rodney Commemorative Symposium was held at York College. The Department of African American Studies at

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

has established the Angela Davis/Walter Rodney Award of Academic Achievement. The Department of Afro-American and African Studies (DAAS) at the University of Michigan established the DuBois- Mandela-Rodney Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. In 2012, the Walter Rodney Conference celebrating the 40th anniversary of the publication of ''How Europe Underdeveloped Africa'' was held at

Binghamton University The State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton University or SUNY Binghamton) is a public university, public research university in Binghamton metropolitan area, Greater Binghamton, New York, United States. It is one of the four uni ...

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

. Rodney is the subject of the 2010 documentary film by Clairmont Chung, ''W.A.R. Stories: Walter Anthony Rodney''. The Walter Rodney Close in the London Borough of Newham has been named in honour of Rodney. Walter Rodney is listed on the Black Achievers Wall in the International 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 H''ow Europe Underdeveloped Africa''. 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''.

Works

* ''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 Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 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 * ''The

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

: 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" in ''Maji 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", in Terence 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.

References

External links

*
Walter Rodney Foundation
at marxists.org
Walter Rodney 25 Anniversary Commemoration Committee
archived from the origina
Walter Rodney and Pan Africanism Today
by Horace Campbell {{DEFAULTSORT:Rodney, Walter 1942 births 1980 deaths 1980 murders in South America 20th-century Guyanese historians Academic staff of the University of Dar es Salaam Guyanese people of African descent Alumni of Queen's College, Guyana Alumni of SOAS University of London Alumni of the University of London Alumni of University of London Worldwide Activists against anti-Black racism Assassinated Guyanese politicians Guyanese Africanists Guyanese democracy activists Guyanese Marxists Guyanese pan-Africanists Guyanese writers Imperialism studies Marxist historians People from Georgetown, Guyana People murdered in Guyana Recipients of the Order of Excellence of Guyana University of the West Indies alumni Working People's Alliance politicians South American politicians assassinated in the 1980s Politicians assassinated in 1980