Political and Intellectual Legacy of Walter Rodney

Walter Rodney left a political and academic legacy to the African world that few have matched. Rodney was a tireless scholar and activist who undertook a number of struggles throughout his lifetime. Rodney was a student activist as an undergraduate at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. After earning his doctorate in England and teaching for some time as a professor in Tanzania, Rodney returned to Jamaica. There he wasted no time in educating the masses on African history, while also criticizing the failures of the Jamaican government to alleviate the suffering of the black masses on the island. For this Rodney was banned from Jamaica.He then turned to Tanzania, where he produced his most well-known book “How Europe Underdeveloped.” Rodney eventually returned to Guyana and he joined the Working People’s Alliance. The WPA was organized with the intention of uniting the working people of Guyana and to challenge the dictatorship of Forbes Burnham. In 1980, Rodney was killed. Many feel Rodney was assassinated by the government for his activities.“The Political and Intellectual Legacy of Walter Rodney” examines both Rodney’s work as an academic and a political figure.