Dr. Walter Rodney-In Honor of Caribbean American Heritage Month
Thursday, June 12, 2008 at 01:22PM 
June is Caribbean American Heritage Month.
Have you heard of Dr. Walter Rodney, revolutionary and scholar? He was assassinated on June 13, 1980 when he was given a walkie talkie by a member of the Guyana Defense Force, one Gregory Smith. Dr. Rodney was born on March 23, 1942 in Georgetown, Guyana. After finishing primary school he won an open exhibition scholarship to attend Queens College as part of early working class beneficiaries of concessions made by the ruling class. He later won a scholarship to the University of the West Indies in Jamaica in 1960 and completed his PhD with honors at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London in 1966.
This is not about a Black man that got his and moved on, as the 1960’s was not an era of me, myself, and I as we witness today in the 21st century, but of a sense of uplifting the masses. Dr. Rodney returned to Jamaica and took his wisdom and experience to the roots, the working poor and the despised Rastafarians. Horace Campbell, professor of African American studies and Political Science at Syracuse University reports that Dr. Rodney, while attending UWI, “Rodney was active in student politics and campaigned extensively in 1961 in the Jamaica Referendum on the West Indian Federation.”
Dr. Rodney was so love by the working poor of Jamaica after attending a Black writer’s convention in October of 1968, in Canada found upon his return to Jamaica that he was not allowed back into the country. This ignited widespread riots and revolts in Kingston where several people were killed and injured by the police and the Jamaican Defense Force. Dr. Rodney’s life with the Rastafari of Jamaica, was published in a pamphlet entitled “Grounding with My Brothers” and became somewhat of a bible for the Caribbean Black Power movement.
By 1974, Dr. Rodney returned to his home country of Guyana to create an opposition movement to the government, the Working People’s Alliance. The WPA offered an alternative for the working class of Guyana, and he emerged as a leader in the WPA until his death on June 13, 1980. In July of 1979 he and seven others were jailed for the burning of two government building and he was constantly harassed up until his assassination in 1980.
Dr. Rodney was a shining light that was blotted out for simply uplifting the working class of Black people.
These are the leaders that are truly by and for the people, and are hated by governments for their work on the grassroots level.
Dr. Rodney was survived by his wife Dr. Patricia Rodney and his three children Shaka, Kanini and Asha. Dr. Patricia Rodney now resides in Atlanta, Georgia U.S.A.
This is one in a series of post I will do in honor of Caribbean American Heritage Month. Dr. Walter Rodney did not live in the U.S., however his inspiration was based on the strength of the U.S. Black power movements spearheaded by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr- SCLC, Stokely Carmichael of Trinidad & Tobago-Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee, El Hajj Malik El Shabazz (mother from Grenada)-Organization of African Unity, Huey P. Newton-Black Panther Party for Self Defense.
Reader Comments (4)
btw, thanks so much for the info on the Mende people, can't wait to read the book.