GuyanaChronicle ChronicleNew New York Edition Week-ending June 2017 Guyana York Edition Week-ending June 23, 23, 2017
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The Handel Andrews Column
55
Things That Bother Me
Why Dr. Walter Rodney is important? and their three children — Shaka, Kanini and Asha — to take up an appointment as Professor of History at the University of Guyana (U.G.). He knew what lay ahead. Dr. Joshua had been shot in an asRamsammy in the Service of Black Liberation". The Hugh Shearer Government (Ja- sassination attempt and the contract maica) viewed him as “persona non of Mohammed Insanally was termigrata’, unwanted person, because of nated. They were professors at The University of Guyhis revolutionary ana and were tarviews. He had geted because of been followed by their anti-governgovernment secument views and acrity in Kingston tivities. and outside JaForbes Burnmaica. When he ham rescinded Dr. returned on 15 OcRodney’s appointtober 1968, his ment. A week or entry was denied. so prior to his He was not algoing to Guyana, I lowed to disemcaught up with bark. The followThe late Dr. Walter Rodney him when he gave ing day, the Government released its “Text of State- a lecture at the Board of Education ment”, which described Rodney as a building in Canada. I told him that he would be killed if he opposed the “threat to national security.” Dr. Rodney returned to Tanza- government. Politics aside, I was nia and resumed teaching at the Uni- disappointed because, as a distinversity of Tanzania. During the next guished scholar, he felt he had much six years, while still at the University to contribute to the then underrated of Tanzania, he travelled extensively Guyana institution. Nevertheless, he did not turn and gave lectures in Africa, Europe, his back on his native land. He Asia and North America. He returned to Guyana in 1974 threw himself passionately into the with his wife Dr. Patricia Rodney political arena, believing that aca-
une 13 marked the 37th anniversary of the death of a great Guyanese. Dr. Walter Anthony Rodney was assassinated on June 13, 1980. He was a noted historian, brilliant debater, important politician, “with a rare gift of intellect” and a friend. Whenever I think of him, I think of what might have been. He was cut down in the prime of his life. It is right and proper to ask if he is important to Guyanese history. Let us examine the facts.
He was born March 23, 1942 at Georgetown, Guyana. Walter attended St. Stephen’s Elementary School, where he was awarded a Government County scholarship to Queen’s College, then the country’s premier grammar school. He was an outstanding student, noted for his oratorical skills and command of facts. He won the Guiana Scholarship to the University of the West Indies (UWI) and, in 1963, graduated with honours in English History. That year he won a scholarship to the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, England, where he enrolled in the PhD in African History. In 1966, he was awarded a doctorate in this area of study. His dissertation was published in 1970, under the title, “A History of the Upper Guinea Coast, 1545-1800.” This seminal work argues that European capitalists gained the most benefits from trading in the region and selling and enslaving Africans. During his tenure in England, he deepened his study and understanding of Marxism through a study group that was led by C. L. R James and his partner Selma James. In “Walter Rodney Speaks: The Making of an African Intellectual”, he states that the group consistently met over a two- to three-year period and it was important in assisting him to “acquire a knowledge of Marxism, a more precise view of the Russian Revolution and of historical formulation. One of the most important things which I got out of that experience was a certain sense of historical analysis, in the sense that C. L. R. James was really the master of the analysis of historical situations” Dr. Rodney taught in Tanzania at the University College of Dar-esSalaam from 1966 to 1968, after which he went to the University of the West Indies at Jamaica and taught Caribbean History. In October 1968, Rodney participated in a Congress of Black Writers in Montreal, Canada. At that conference on 12 October 1968, he presented his paper "African History
demics have a responsibility to share their knowledge and experience with the masses. He also knew that academics could only formulate valid theories and offer reliable advice if they worked among the people and shared their experiences. He had done this in Tanzania and Jamaica. Feeling the need to create a political party, through which he could express his views, he helped form the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), a multi-ethnic combination of politicians and intellectuals, who advocated racial harmony, free elections and democratic socialism. It was an alliance of the African Society for Cultural Relations with Independent Africa (ASCRIA), headed by Eusi Kwayana; the Indian Political Revolutionary Associates (IPRA), led by Moses Bhagwan; the Working Peoples Vanguard Party (WPVP), led by Brindley Benn; RATOON and intellectuals like Dr. Rupert Roopnarine, Dr. Clive Thomas and Miles Fitzpatrick.The PPP offered a 17-point proposal for a National Patriotic Front (NPF), which Dr. Jagan, fully and rightly, expected the WPA to accept. They did not. They felt that the PPP had become too Indian and the PNC too African. Alternately, they proposed a Govern((continued on page 22)
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