The Great Revolutionary, Dr Walter Rodney
“Today, the ideas of Walter Rodney refuse to die. They continue to shape our understanding of the thermodynamics of anti-black racism, capitalism, imperialism and neo-colonialism”.
BY VELI MBELE KA-SOMPISI
The Great Pan Africanist, Theoretician, Teacher, Scholar, Historian And Revolutionary, Dr Walter Rodney
“Every African has a responsibility to understand the system and work towards its overthrow”- Walter Rodney
“Black Power can be seen as a movement and an ideology springing from the reality of oppression of black peoples by whites within the imperialist world as a whole.
Now we need to be specific in defining the West Indian scene and our own particular roles in the society. You and I have to decide whether we want to think black or to remain as a dirty version of white”- Walter Rodney
“I was prepared to go anywhere that any group of Black people were prepared to sit down to talk and listen. Because, that is Black Power, that is one of the elements, a sitting down together to reason, to ‘ground’ as the Brothers say. We have to ‘ground together.’
There was all this furore about whites being present in the Black Writers Congress which most whites did not understand.
They did not understand that our historical experience has been speaking to white people, whether it be begging white people, justifying ourselves against white people or even vilifying white people.
Our whole context has been, ‘that is the man to talk to.’ Now the new understanding is that Black Brothers must talk to each other.
That is a very simple understanding which any reasonable person outside of a particular ‘in-group’ would understand. That is why we talk about our ‘family discussions’- Walter Rodney.
Today is a profoundly important in Black resistance history. Today marks 44 years since the assassination of one of the titans of our race, Dr Walter Anthony Rodney.
A great theoretician, pan afrikanist, teacher, scholar, historian and revolutionary. Rodney was born on 23 March, 1942 in Georgetown, Guyana, in the Caribbean.
His father was a tailor and his mother a seamstress. From his primary school days, he excelled in athletics and had a penchant for debating.
This resulted in him winning a scholarship to go to Queens College and later the University of the West Indies in Jamaica
There he acquired an Honours Degree in History and won another scholarship to study at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.
In 1966, aged only 24, he was awarded a PhD with honours in Afrikan History. It was also in London where he met and interfaced with the great CLR James.
His doctoral research was on slavery in the Upper Guinea Coast. His research focus was inspired his study of the records of Portuguese merchants both in England and in Portugal.
In 1970, his PhD dissertation was published by Oxford University Press under the title ‘A History of the Upper Guinea Coast, 1545-1800′.
This work revolved around the afrocentric scholarly axis of other Afrikan scholars such as Dr Cheikh Anta Diop, Dr Chancellor Williams, Dr Josef Ben Jochannan, Dr Assa Hillard, Dr John Henrik Clarke, Dr Marimba Ani, Dr Francis Cress Welsing, Dr Amos Wilson.
A generation of Afrikan scholars who challenged the anti-Black perspectives of white historians and European literature, about Afrikan history and introduced new insights into how the history of Black people must be viewed.
Rodney took up his first teaching appointment in Tanzania and later returned to his alma mater, the University of the West Indies, in 1968.
His return coincided with the awakening of anti-colonial resistance in the Caribbean. However, he was more captivated by the Black Power Movement in AmeriKKKa.
He became one of the leading voices in challenging the validity and meaning of so called post independence governments for Black people.
As a consequence, his political influence grew beyond the Carribean. In 1968, he attended a Black Writers’ Conference in Canada.The Canadian government decided to ban him from re-entering the country.
His ban inspired revolts in the streets of Kingston, in which a number of people were killed and injured by the police and security forces.These were known as the Rodney Revolts.
After being expelled from Jamaica, Rodney returned to Tanzania. There he lectured and continued to support the liberation struggle of the people of Tanzania and other parts of Afrika.
His stay in Afrika played a big part in his decision to publish his seminal work’ How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’. In 1974, he returned to his native Guyana to take up an appointment as Professor of History at the University of Guyana.
Even though the government later nullified his appointment, he nevertheless remained in Guyana and joined the newly formed Working People’s Alliance.
By 1974, he had become a leading resistance figure and was becoming a growing threat to the violent and repressive PNC regime. He actively and publicly organised against the repressive PNC regime.
On 11 July, 1979, after the burning down of government offices, he and several others, were arrested. They were later charged with arson. After being arrested, they were constantly harassed and tortured.
Then on the evening of 13 June, 1980, Rodney was assassinated by a bomb that went off in the middle of Georgetown, Guyana. At the time of his death Rodney was 38 years old.
Today, the ideas of Walter Rodney refuse to die. They continue to shape our understanding of the thermodynamics of anti-black racism, capitalism, imperialism and neo-colonialism.
His vast body of work also empowers us with a firm and coherent grasp of the place of Blackness in a world that continues to be violently anti-black.