[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 41 (Tuesday, April 4, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E504-E505]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     A TRIBUTE TO DR. WALTER RODNEY--REMEMBERING A TRUE CARIBBEAN 
                              INTELLECTUAL

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, April 4, 2006

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the legacy 
and memory of Dr. Walter Rodney, an eloquent teacher, writer, scholar 
and political activist who left this world much to soon at the young 
age of 38 years and to enter into the Record an essay written in the 
New York CaribNews by Michael D. Roberts entitled ``Celebrating the 
64th Birthday of Dr. Walter Rodney--Remembering A True Caribbean 
Intellectual--From Humble Beginnings to International Stature.''
  Dr. Walter Rodney was born in Guyana on March 23, 1942, and at an 
early age, excelled academically. After graduating from the University 
of the West Indies, he enrolled at the London University and at the age 
of 24, was awarded a Ph.D.
  Walter Rodney an avid political activist was involved in the Guyanese 
labor movement and headed up the Working People's Alliance. His 
political views were strongly influenced by the Black Power and Black 
Consciousness Movements in the U.S. and Caribbean, respectively. Of 
particular scholarly interest to Rodney was the economic history of 
Guyana, and the legacy of slavery and colonialism in Africa. He 
inaugurated extensive research into the history of economic 
exploitation in Africa. He traveled and studied with teaching 
assignments in Tanzania and Guinea, Africans in Guyana trace their 
roots to Guinea.
  The results of his travels and research were three remarkable books: 
A History of the Upper Guinea Coast, 1545-1800, How Europe 
Underdeveloped Africa, and Groundings with My Brothers. How Europe 
Underdeveloped Africa offered a Marxist analysis of the impact of 
colonialism and capitalism in under developing Africa and, 
consequently, the African world.
  Though he traveled extensively throughout the world, Dr. Rodney's 
base of operations from 1974 until is death was in Guyana. He continued 
to lecture and organize the people of his homeland. He joined the 
Working People's Alliance, WPC, of Guyana which later became an 
independent Marxist political party in 1979.
  There is so much more to say about the life and legacy of Walter 
Rodney. He was a profound intellectual and worldly scholar who had so 
much left to share with the world when he was silenced by death. Sadly, 
Walter Rodney was killed by a car bomb in Guyana on June 13, 1980. His 
murder remains unsolved.
  Walter Rodney was a true Caribbean Intellectual whose reach was 
boundless. I shudder to think of the difference he would have made in 
the world had he lived. On this anniversary of his birthday I honor his 
memory.

Celebrating the 64th Birthday of Dr. Walter Rodney: Remembering A True 
                         Caribbean Intellectual

                    (An Essay By Michael D. Roberts)

       My first encounter with Dr. Walter Rodney was in 1979 when 
     he came to Grenada during the very early days of the Grenada 
     Revolution since he was literally barred from entering Guyana 
     his country of birth. A slim, unassuming man Walter Rodney 
     was unpretentious and looked almost nerdish with heavy 
     horned-rimmed glasses. He sported a large ``Afro'' hairstyle 
     and was the first person I met who wore African clothes. 
     During that year and up to April 1980 whenever he was in 
     Grenada I would spend time with him since his remarkable 
     brain and sheer brilliance was fascinating to me. Walter had 
     the gift of simplifying many complex things and he would ask 
     a question and then based on my response would open up an 
     entire period of conversation based on analysis, discussion, 
     point and counter-point. He was an excellent teacher, an 
     adept debater and skilled analyst.
       Had he not been murdered he would have been 64 years old 
     today and one could only wonder what this true Caribbean 
     intellectual would have accomplished. Walter Rodney was born 
     on March 23, 1942, and was murdered in Georgetown, Guyana, on 
     June 12, 1980, ironically not far from Bent Street where his 
     parents lived and where he grew up as a child.
       He attended Guyana primary school and from the start was an 
     extremely gifted student. To many who knew him it was clear 
     that he was unique. He first won a scholarship to Queens 
     College in Guyana and then another one to further his studies 
     at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. He graduated 
     with first-class honors in History and again won an open 
     scholarship to the School of Oriental and African Studies in 
     London. Walter graduated from that institution with a 
     doctorate at the tender age of 24 years.
       Never losing his working class roots Walter Rodney soon 
     embraced the principles of Marxism. It is this Marxist 
     methodology that would be used to write his thesis that was 
     published as a piercing analytical work ``A History of the 
     Upper Guinea Coast 1545-1800'' and ``How Europe Under-
     Developed Africa'' considered today one of the most important 
     books on British colonialism and its effects on the African 
     continent and Third World development and underdevelopment as 
     a whole.
       After graduation Walter left for Tanzania to take up a 
     teaching position and then came back to Jamaica in 1968 to 
     teach at the University of the West Indies. It was while 
     there that he started to study the Rastafarian socio-
     historical phenomenon and wrote a book that is today 
     considered one of the definitive works on the movement 
     called ``Groundings with My Brothers.'' This book is a 
     collection of talks that he gave in Jamaica and 
     highlighted Walter's admiration for the working class and 
     his ability to connect with those that society deemed 
     unimportant and non-conformist.
       I remember one incident in Grenada that would help to 
     further explain his life-long fascination and respect for the 
     grassroots people among whom he was most comfortable and at 
     home. In the end it would be this ability to connect with 
     people and to make a lasting impression on them that would be 
     feared and hated by his political enemies and which would 
     lead to his assassination. The Governments in Guyana and the 
     Caribbean did not only fear Walter Rodney's amazing intellect 
     but his easy, sincerity that made people gravitate to him.
       One day we were driving on the Eastern coast of Grenada 
     heading for the country's second largest town, Grenville. We 
     stopped at a village named Birchgrove for a while and I left 
     to see a friend at the Police station. Walter had two 
     bodyguards with him and a few minutes later they came to me 
     worried sick that he was nowhere to be found and maybe he'd 
     given them the slip.
       I then led a search for Walter in the shops and parlors in 
     the village since Walter was fond of going to where ordinary 
     people congregated to speak to them and ask questions so he 
     could learn more about them. By then I was used to his ways. 
     But search as we may we could not find him. Then I heard loud 
     laughter coming from the Birchgrove River and decided to 
     check it out.
       There sitting comfortably on a river stone and surrounded 
     by about 20 women, some bare-chested, some in the river 
     washing, was Walter Rodney. When we arrived on the scene he 
     flashed his usual sly grin and continued speaking with the 
     washers--all wives of farmers and children of working people.
       We spent more than an hour listening to Walter exchange 
     conversation with whom Granada's deceased Prime Minister 
     Maurice Bishop used to call ``the salt of the earth.''
       That was Walter he'd take a complex topic as economics and 
     tailor it to suit the washers and presented it in words that 
     they understood. He interjected humor and practical day-to-
     day experiences that they related to in an effective 
     methodology for educating ``his people'' as he called them.
       In Guyana there has been the problem that historically the 
     working class has always been divided mainly because of the 
     manipulation of the planter class. The Indians were 
     introduced into the society specifically to counter and break 
     the development of the Black working class movement that 
     arose in opposition to conditions after the end of slavery.
       So it is not simply as though Africans and Indians co-
     existed without any relation one to the other. Economic 
     competition between Africans and Indians was deliberately 
     created within the construct of the old capitalist order.
       In 1974 Walter Rodney decided to return to Guyana and take 
     up an appointment at the University of Guyana. Of course, the 
     Forbes Burnham government promptly scuttled his appointment 
     as Professor of History. That same year he joined the Working 
     people's Alliance that became a political party in July of 
     1979--five months after the Grenada Revolution of March 13, 
     1979. That same month he was arrested, along with seven other 
     people, for allegedly burning down Government offices. It 
     would be this incident that would propel him to the top of 
     Guyanese politics and ultimately seal his fate. From that 
     time on Walter's life was on the line as threats, harassment 
     and intimidation continued from the Burnham regime that 
     became more and more obsessed with a man that Guyanese 
     across the board saw as the replacement to Linden Forbes 
     Burnham.

[[Page E505]]

       Under these oppressive conditions the Burnham Government 
     reacted more and more with violence to a restless population 
     now growing fed up with the paramount leader's shenanigans 
     and political grandstanding. Walter was unapologetic about 
     his political work and saw it as rendering a service to the 
     people of Guyana. He was well aware that the Burnham regime 
     was out to get him since President Burnham had allegedly told 
     him to make his will.
       Certainly among progressive circles in the Caribbean Walter 
     was told that he should not go to Guyana since his life would 
     be in real danger and that the Government would stop at 
     nothing to destroy him.
       But Walter accepted this as part of the price that he was 
     willing to pay for the liberation of the people of Guyana.
       On the evening of June 13, 1980 Walter Rodney was 
     assassinated by a bomb placed in a walkie-talkie and 
     detonated remotely. He left behind his wife, Patricia and 
     three children. The Caribbean and Africa lost a gifted 
     intellectual and a skilled political leader.

                          ____________________