JUNE 13 marks the 40th anniversary of the assassination of one of the Caribbean’s foremost revolutionary thinkers, a man whose name is not out of place being mentioned in the same breath as heroic titans of the black liberation struggle such as Toussaint Louverture, Queen Nanny of the Maroons and Frantz Fanon.

I speak, of course, of Dr. Walter Rodney – the Guyanese historian, scholar, political activist and revolutionary, whose books, teachings and example have become a luminous beacon for racial, social and political change across the world.

A deeply principled thinker ardently committed to extirpating racial inequality and social injustice, Rodney both embodied and furthered the black radical tradition of the revolutionary intellectual.

A Marxist, a Pan-Africanist, a humanist and a proud man of the people, he was also a formidable orator, who put his Ciceronian abilities in the service of the common good. In short, he was that rare thing – a man who had the ability, the courage and the determination to both “talk the talk” and also “walk the walk.”

“Rodney both embodied and furthered the black radical tradition of the revolutionary intellectual.”

A brilliant yet humble academic and activist, he fought with his prodigious intellectual gifts, his indefatigable energy and his profound integrity to empower the masses and to liberate the disenfranchised, the marginalised and the black poor across the world.

Born in Georgetown, Guyana in March 1942 into a working-class family, Rodney attended the prestigious Queen’s College on a scholarship, where he excelled academically and then proceeded to UWI in Jamaica, graduating with a first class honours degree in history in 1963. He then went to London to study for a PhD at SOAS, where he completed a doctoral thesis on A History of The Upper Guinea Coast, 1545 – 1800, aged only 24.

Research

Having learnt Portuguese and Italian for his research, in addition to the Spanish he already spoke, he was a polyglot, as well as an outstanding scholar.

Whilst in London, he frequented the great Trinidadian intellectual C.L.R. James and practised oratory at Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park. Between 1966 and 1967, he taught at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, and later in Jamaica at his alma mater UWI Mona.

It was here that the eponymous “Rodney Riots” broke out in October 1968, when students protested his being denied a return to his teaching position after addressing the Congress of Black Writers in Montreal.

Rastafarians

Rodney’s reasonings with Rastafarians in inner-city and rural communities in Jamaica led to his first book Groundings With My Brothers (1969),a collection of dazzling speeches about the structural inequalities of Jamaican society, the true meaning of Black Power and the importance of African history, which he gave on and off campus in both Jamaica and Montreal. Erudite, eloquent and humane, yet also fearless in its condemnation of wrong-doing, The Groundings With My Brothers is a magisterial book.

Rodney’s How Europe Under-Developed Africa (1972), written whilst teaching in Tanzania, is regarded as his magnum opus and became a seminal revolutionary text throughout the Caribbean and Africa.

Described as “no doubt, the 20th century’s most important and influential book on African history,” it established a new paradigm for understanding the enduring impact of colonialism and the pernicious legacy of neo-colonialism on the development of African countries. In elegant prose, he explained why and how the richest continent on earth (in terms of natural resources) was also the poorest. Sadly, almost 50 years later, Rodney’s analysis remains both cogent and valid.

“He entered the political arena and became Leader of the opposition Working People’s Alliance party.”

On returning to Guyana in 1974, he entered the political arena and became Leader of the opposition Working People’s Alliance party, in an attempt to unsettle the despotic, American-backed regime of Prime Minister Forbes Burnham.

Then, against the backdrop of draconian crackdowns and unsavoury political machinations, Rodney was brutally assassinated by a bomb hidden in a walkie-talkie in Georgetown in 1980 at the age of 38, reputedly by a government double agent.

My own journey to discovering Rodney’s work has been a protracted one. Having been steeped in the accomplishments of Haitian slave revolt leader Toussaint Louverture, the works of the Martinican philosopher and revolutionary theorist Frantz Fanon and the Capetonian novelist and Marxist anti-apartheid freedom fighter Alex La Guma for over a quarter of a century, it was wider reading, including C.L.R. James, the fact that Rodney had been deeply influenced by Fanon, and discussions with a close Guyanese friend which led me to purchase a copy of The Groundings With My Brothers and then How Europe Under-Developed Africa. I am so very glad that I did.

Colour

As a writer and broadcaster of colour working in the mainstream media, perennially trying to navigate the compromises implicit in balancing one’s intellectual, artistic and racial integrity whilst using established platforms to convey one’s message, I continue to derive inspiration from Rodney’s powerful ideas, his illuminating perspectives and his fervent humility, not to mention his life-long example of sacrifice and service. Even fifty years later, his captivating thoughts, couched in trenchant yet lucid prose, burn forth with sincerity, clarity and urgency.

And yet shamefully it appears to me that, outside a small coterie of black intellectuals, lifelong activists and left-wing academics well versed in post-colonial theory, few people know about this colossal figure, let alone read his books. So, as the 40th anniversary of his death approaches, we should work to rectify with alacrity the fact that too few people in the UK are aware of his name, let alone his myriad contributions to the uplift and betterment of humanity.

Demise

40 years after his untimely and premature demise, we should all salute Dr. Rodney’s truly remarkable life and work – that of one of the most outstanding scholar-activists of the Black Diaspora since World War II.

This week, this month, this year and beyond, we should seize the opportunity to read his books, imbibe his vision and celebrate his commitment to the emancipation of oppressed people all over the world from the iniquities of Western imperialism. In so doing, we must strive to keep his legacy alive.

The recent heinous (yet unsurprising) events in America clearly demonstrate that, far from being esoteric and outmoded, Rodney’s essential message of humanism, empathyand respecting all human beings is still of vital, life-affirming importance – and one which will help us to understand, let alone ameliorate today’s often perilous and discombobulating world for people of African descent.

In fact, I defy anyone to read the following quote from The Groundings With My Brothers and not be struck by its gargantuan relevance. Given what we have all witnessed in the last two weeks, how painfully and unnervingly prescient are Rodney’s words?

“Violence in the American situation is inescapable. White society is violent, white American society is particularly violent, and white American society is especially violent towards blacks.”

Lindsay Johns is a writer and broadcaster