Editing Walter Rodney (section)

== Biography ==

=== Early career ===
Walter Anthony Rodney was born in 1942 into a working-class family in [[Georgetown, Guyana|Georgetown]], Guyana.{{cn|date=November 2022}} He attended the [[University of the West Indies|University College of the West Indies]] in 1960 and was awarded a first-class honours degree in history in 1963. He earned a [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]] in [[African History]] in 1966 at the [[SOAS, University of London|School of Oriental and African Studies]] in [[London]], [[England]], at the age of 24.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Price |first=Katie |date=2021-07-01 |title=Revolutionary historian: Walter Rodney (1942-1980) – SOAS Centenary Timeline |url=https://blogs.soas.ac.uk/centenarytimeline/2015/09/23/revolutionary-historian-walter-rodney-1942-1980/ |access-date=2023-06-16 |language=en-GB}}</ref> His dissertation, which focused on the [[History of slavery|slave trade]] on the Upper [[Guinea Coast]], was published by the [[Oxford University Press]] 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.{{cn|date=November 2022}}

Rodney travelled widely and became known internationally as an [[activist]], [[scholar]] and formidable orator. He taught at the [[University of Dar es Salaam]] in [[Tanzania]] during the periods 1966–67 and 1969–1974 and in 1968 at his alma mater [[University of the West Indies]] at [[Mona, Jamaica|Mona]], Jamaica.{{cn|date=November 2022}} He was sharply critical of the [[middle class]] for its role in the [[History of the Caribbean#Independence|post-independence Caribbean]]. He was also a strong critic of [[capitalism]] and argued that only under "the banner of Socialism and through the leadership of the working classes" could Africa break from imperialism.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rodney |first1=Walter |title=Aspects of the International Class Struggle in Africa, the Caribbean and America |journal=Pan-Africanism: Struggle Against Neo-colonialism and Imperialism - Documents of the Sixth Pan-African Congress |date=1975 |pages=18–41 |url=https://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/rodney-walter/works/internationalclassstruggle.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816104149/https://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/rodney-walter/works/internationalclassstruggle.htm |archive-date=16 August 2021}}</ref>

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, Jamaica|West Kingston]] that escalated into a riot, known as the [[Rodney riots|Rodney Riots]], resulting in six deaths and causing millions of dollars in damages.<ref name=":0" /> The riots, which began on 16 October 1968, triggered an increase in political awareness across the Caribbean, especially among the Afrocentric [[Rastafari movement|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 [[University of Dar es Salaam]]. He was promoted to senior lecturer there in 1971 and promoted to associate professor in 1973.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Dar es Salaam years |url=https://africasacountry.com/2022/05/the-dar-es-salaam-years |access-date=2022-12-28 |website=africasacountry.com |date=18 August 2019 |language=en-US}}</ref> He worked at the university until 1974 when he returned to Guyana.<ref name=":1">{{Cite thesis |last=Harisch |first=Immanuel R. |date=2018-01-01 |title=Walter Rodney's Dar es Salaam Years, 1966–1974: How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Tanzania's ujamaa, and Student Radicalism at 'the Hill' |url=https://www.academia.edu/37927700|publisher=University of Vienna}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{cite journal
 |url=http://www.umes.edu/cms300uploadedFiles/AJCJS/VOL1.2.WEST%20FINAL.pdf
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120717010546/http://www.umes.edu/cms300uploadedFiles/AJCJS/VOL1.2.WEST%20FINAL.pdf
 |archive-date=17 July 2012
 |journal=African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies
 |issn=1554-3897
 |volume=1 |issue=2 |date=November 2005
 |title=Walter Rodney and Black Power: Jamaican Intelligence and US Diplomacy
 |author=Michael O. West
 |access-date=2011-06-26}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":1" /> 

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.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://mondediplo.com/2020/09/12guyana |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210507080303/https://mondediplo.com/2020/09/12guyana |archive-date=7 May 2021|title=Guyana turns its back on its past|first=Hélène|last=Ferrarini|date=1 September 2020|website=Le Monde diplomatique|access-date=13 April 2021}}</ref> 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]], and was important in the [[Black Power]] movement in the [[Caribbean]] and North America. While living in [[Dar es Salaam]], he was influential in developing a new centre of African learning and discussion.

=== Later life ===
In 1974, Rodney returned to [[Guyana]] from Tanzania.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/3997943|title=Walter Rodney: A Biography and Bibliography|first=Horace |last=Campbell |journal=Review of African Political Economy|date=May 1960|issue=18 |pages=132–137 |jstor=3997943 |access-date=20 Feb 2023}}</ref> 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),<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://roape.net/2022/05/12/the-birth-of-the-working-peoples-alliance-in-guyana/|title=The birth of the Working People's Alliance in Guyana|first=Chinedu |last=Chukwudinma |journal=Review of African Political Economy|date=12 May 2022|access-date=25 January 2023}}</ref> a party that provided the most effective and credible opposition to the [[People's National Congress (Guyana)|People's National Congress]] government and aimed to "create political consciousness, replacing ethnic politics with revolutionary organisations based on class solidarity."<ref name="auto"/> 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.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03064228108533287 |title=A poem for Walter Rodney|author=Edward Kamau Brathwaite|journal=Index on Censorship |publisher=The Caribbean|date=June 1981|volume=10 |issue=6 |page=26|doi=10.1080/03064228108533287 |s2cid=152261408 |access-date=23 November 2021|url-access=subscription}}</ref>