Walter Rodney
Walter Rodney, the 25th Anniversary of whose death will soon be commemorated, was a revolutionary who paid the ultimate price. At the time of his death in 1980 Rodney was engaged in efforts to overthrow the Burnham government. Because of lax security and an element of personal adventurism he was outwitted and assassinated.
A piece of equipment that had been given to him by Gregory Smith, a soldier with some technical training who Rodney thought was working with him, and which he was told was a walkie-talkie turned out to be a bomb.
Born in 1942 in a working class family his distinguished academic record by way of scholarships (Queen's College, the University of the West Indies, the School of Oriental and African Studies in London) culminated in a Ph.D. with honors in African History at the age of 24. His thesis was published by Oxford University Press under the title "A History of the Upper Guinea Coast, 1545-1800." In London, he established contact with C.L.R. James which helped him to gain a deeper insight into issues concerning the Caribbean, Africa and colonial freedom.
Rodney taught history at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania until 1968. In that year he returned to Jamaica to lecture at the University of the West Indies. While there he took a radical message to the people in Kingston, later recorded in the pamphlet "Grounding with My Brothers." When he attended a Black Writers Conference in Montreal, Canada in October 1968, the Shearer government banned him from re-entering Jamaica. This led to widespread rioting in which people were killed and property was destroyed.
Rodney returned to Tanzania and was there until 1974. His most famous work How Europe Underdeveloped Africa was published in 1972. Horace Campbell, the Chairman of the Walter Rodney Commemoration Committee writes: "In Tanzania he developed close political relationships with those who were struggling to change the external control of Africa. He was very close to some of the leaders of liberation movements in Africa and also to political leaders of popular organizations in independent territories. Together with other Pan-Africanists he participated in discussions leading up to the Sixth Pan-African Congress, held in Tanzania, in 1974. Before the Congress he wrote a piece: " Towards the Sixth Pan-African Congress: Aspects of the International Class Struggle in Africa, the Caribbean and America."
In 1974 Rodney returned to Guyana to take up an appointment by the Academic Board as Professor of History at the University of Guyana but this was rescinded by the government-controlled University Council. He helped to found the Working People's Alliance and emerged as its leading and highly charismatic spokesman. In public and private meetings around the country Rodney developed the doctrine of a multi-ethnic democracy. He argued that the divisions reflected in the ethnic voting patterns that had been established since l957 were inimical to development. He was also working on a study of the working people in Guyana.
By 1974 when Rodney returned it had become clear that there could be no democratic change of government. The army had participated heavily in the rigged elections in 1973, the ballot boxes being taken to and kept at Camp Ayanganna. Rodney, impatient for change, took the decision to confront the system. The chants that echoed in the marches in the streets were 'People's power, no dictator.' As the destruction of the democratic process continued he put his life on the line in challenging the dictatorship.
In July 1979 Rodney and others were charged with arson following the burning down of the governing party's office. On June 13, 1980 a bomb which he believed to be a walkie-talkie exploded in his lap when he was in a car driven by his brother Donald near the Camp street prison.
It is idle to speculate what would have happened if Rodney had lived. The WPA didn't fare well at elections after the return of democracy, their message of racial unity proving unable to overcome the vested interests of the two main parties. But Rodney had established a real connection with the people and appealed to a wider constituency than his radical politics might have suggested. In practice he was creative and flexible and in the years before his death less dogmatic than was previously the case. In the broad sweep of history he will be seen as a fighter for freedom, a political martyr who gave his life for a more democratic Guyana.
(From Stabroek News Editorial Section, May 31 2005)
The Rodney Spirit
WALTER RODNEY belonged to all of Guyana. A genuine patriot, a most outstanding scholar and fighter for freedom, justice, racial equality and against all forms of oppression, he was truly a son of the soil who simply loved to be among the people.
He lost no time on his return home in 1974, following that outrageous ban against him in 1968 from re-entering Jamaica, in becoming actively and courageously involved in frontline struggles against the `Burnham Dictatorship’.
Five years later, he was blown apart by an assassin's bomb, victim of the most notorious act of state-organised and executed murder this country has ever known.
Now, 25 years later, his compatriots of the Working People's Alliance (WPA) - a very much different party from the one which he led in the 1970s - as well as friends and associates, have planned ten days of activities to celebrate the life and times of the great historian, political activist and humanist.
The planned activities, or "groundings", organised by the Rodney Commemoration Committee, is scheduled to begin this Friday with the central theme of `Another World Is Necessary’.
For its part, the Guyana Government has organised, through its Information Agency (GINA), an exhibition on the life and times of the slain historian. The exhibition, expected to be formally opened by Minister of Culture, Gail Teixeira, will showcase photos of and speeches, books and articles by Rodney.
Although a so-called "inquest", a travesty of justice really, under the then regime of the People's National Congress had found no one to blame for Rodney's death, all of Guyana, across political and ethnic lines, knew who were the collaborators and executioners of that murderous act.
Within a year of coming to power, following the first free and fair general election in 24 years, Rodney, who had valiantly embraced the struggle for electoral democracy, was to be posthumously awarded Guyana's highest honour, the Order of Excellence (OE).
The award was presented in 1993 by then President Cheddi Jagan to Shaka, eldest of the three children of Walter and Patricia Rodney. He came from Barbados, where he resides, to accept the award on behalf of the Rodney family.
The citation read: `Order of Excellence for his scholarship and total involvement, nationally and internationally, for promoting the cause of peoples' struggles for freedom and justice and the struggle for free and fair elections in Guyana for the restoration of democracy and national unity".
The Government subsequently established the Rodney Chair in History at the University of Guyana. Among overseas guests expected for the 25th anniversary of Rodney's assassination on June 13, 1980, is Professor Ali Mazrui, the first to have been identified with the Chair.
The planners and executioners succeeded in bombing him to death. But Rodney's ideas and spirit continue to live among the people, of all classes and races.
So much so, that even those who had been conspicuously silent for 25 years are now squeamishly speaking about an inquiry into the circumstances of his death. In 2005? No one is fooled. Long live the spirit of Walter Rodney!
(Taken from Guyana Chronicle Editorial Section, 05/31/05)
Walter Rodney, the 25th Anniversary of whose death will soon be commemorated, was a revolutionary who paid the ultimate price. At the time of his death in 1980 Rodney was engaged in efforts to overthrow the Burnham government. Because of lax security and an element of personal adventurism he was outwitted and assassinated.
A piece of equipment that had been given to him by Gregory Smith, a soldier with some technical training who Rodney thought was working with him, and which he was told was a walkie-talkie turned out to be a bomb.
Born in 1942 in a working class family his distinguished academic record by way of scholarships (Queen's College, the University of the West Indies, the School of Oriental and African Studies in London) culminated in a Ph.D. with honors in African History at the age of 24. His thesis was published by Oxford University Press under the title "A History of the Upper Guinea Coast, 1545-1800." In London, he established contact with C.L.R. James which helped him to gain a deeper insight into issues concerning the Caribbean, Africa and colonial freedom.
Rodney taught history at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania until 1968. In that year he returned to Jamaica to lecture at the University of the West Indies. While there he took a radical message to the people in Kingston, later recorded in the pamphlet "Grounding with My Brothers." When he attended a Black Writers Conference in Montreal, Canada in October 1968, the Shearer government banned him from re-entering Jamaica. This led to widespread rioting in which people were killed and property was destroyed.
Rodney returned to Tanzania and was there until 1974. His most famous work How Europe Underdeveloped Africa was published in 1972. Horace Campbell, the Chairman of the Walter Rodney Commemoration Committee writes: "In Tanzania he developed close political relationships with those who were struggling to change the external control of Africa. He was very close to some of the leaders of liberation movements in Africa and also to political leaders of popular organizations in independent territories. Together with other Pan-Africanists he participated in discussions leading up to the Sixth Pan-African Congress, held in Tanzania, in 1974. Before the Congress he wrote a piece: " Towards the Sixth Pan-African Congress: Aspects of the International Class Struggle in Africa, the Caribbean and America."
In 1974 Rodney returned to Guyana to take up an appointment by the Academic Board as Professor of History at the University of Guyana but this was rescinded by the government-controlled University Council. He helped to found the Working People's Alliance and emerged as its leading and highly charismatic spokesman. In public and private meetings around the country Rodney developed the doctrine of a multi-ethnic democracy. He argued that the divisions reflected in the ethnic voting patterns that had been established since l957 were inimical to development. He was also working on a study of the working people in Guyana.
By 1974 when Rodney returned it had become clear that there could be no democratic change of government. The army had participated heavily in the rigged elections in 1973, the ballot boxes being taken to and kept at Camp Ayanganna. Rodney, impatient for change, took the decision to confront the system. The chants that echoed in the marches in the streets were 'People's power, no dictator.' As the destruction of the democratic process continued he put his life on the line in challenging the dictatorship.
In July 1979 Rodney and others were charged with arson following the burning down of the governing party's office. On June 13, 1980 a bomb which he believed to be a walkie-talkie exploded in his lap when he was in a car driven by his brother Donald near the Camp street prison.
It is idle to speculate what would have happened if Rodney had lived. The WPA didn't fare well at elections after the return of democracy, their message of racial unity proving unable to overcome the vested interests of the two main parties. But Rodney had established a real connection with the people and appealed to a wider constituency than his radical politics might have suggested. In practice he was creative and flexible and in the years before his death less dogmatic than was previously the case. In the broad sweep of history he will be seen as a fighter for freedom, a political martyr who gave his life for a more democratic Guyana.
(From Stabroek News Editorial Section, May 31 2005)
The Rodney Spirit
WALTER RODNEY belonged to all of Guyana. A genuine patriot, a most outstanding scholar and fighter for freedom, justice, racial equality and against all forms of oppression, he was truly a son of the soil who simply loved to be among the people.
He lost no time on his return home in 1974, following that outrageous ban against him in 1968 from re-entering Jamaica, in becoming actively and courageously involved in frontline struggles against the `Burnham Dictatorship’.
Five years later, he was blown apart by an assassin's bomb, victim of the most notorious act of state-organised and executed murder this country has ever known.
Now, 25 years later, his compatriots of the Working People's Alliance (WPA) - a very much different party from the one which he led in the 1970s - as well as friends and associates, have planned ten days of activities to celebrate the life and times of the great historian, political activist and humanist.
The planned activities, or "groundings", organised by the Rodney Commemoration Committee, is scheduled to begin this Friday with the central theme of `Another World Is Necessary’.
For its part, the Guyana Government has organised, through its Information Agency (GINA), an exhibition on the life and times of the slain historian. The exhibition, expected to be formally opened by Minister of Culture, Gail Teixeira, will showcase photos of and speeches, books and articles by Rodney.
Although a so-called "inquest", a travesty of justice really, under the then regime of the People's National Congress had found no one to blame for Rodney's death, all of Guyana, across political and ethnic lines, knew who were the collaborators and executioners of that murderous act.
Within a year of coming to power, following the first free and fair general election in 24 years, Rodney, who had valiantly embraced the struggle for electoral democracy, was to be posthumously awarded Guyana's highest honour, the Order of Excellence (OE).
The award was presented in 1993 by then President Cheddi Jagan to Shaka, eldest of the three children of Walter and Patricia Rodney. He came from Barbados, where he resides, to accept the award on behalf of the Rodney family.
The citation read: `Order of Excellence for his scholarship and total involvement, nationally and internationally, for promoting the cause of peoples' struggles for freedom and justice and the struggle for free and fair elections in Guyana for the restoration of democracy and national unity".
The Government subsequently established the Rodney Chair in History at the University of Guyana. Among overseas guests expected for the 25th anniversary of Rodney's assassination on June 13, 1980, is Professor Ali Mazrui, the first to have been identified with the Chair.
The planners and executioners succeeded in bombing him to death. But Rodney's ideas and spirit continue to live among the people, of all classes and races.
So much so, that even those who had been conspicuously silent for 25 years are now squeamishly speaking about an inquiry into the circumstances of his death. In 2005? No one is fooled. Long live the spirit of Walter Rodney!
(Taken from Guyana Chronicle Editorial Section, 05/31/05)
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