IT has been 27 years since Rodney was assassinated on June 13, 1980. However, i found it relavant to remember his politics and philosophy of human and self-emancipation and more importantly his commitment to the masses.He is another product of University of Dar Es Salaam.



I would like to leave you with Rodneys words:

"I think this should be said from the outset, particularly because there is a tendency within the black community at this time to expect a certain decisiveness and completeness in answers to any questions which they raise.

People are searching for answers, but to be frank, sometimes searching for them in somewhat uncreative ways, because it really isn't creative to turn around to somebody else and ask what is the answer in that very global sense of the word. There is a tendency to believe that somebody somewhere has the key, and I don't think anybody inside of this society or any one person or group has the key, least of all dare put myself forward, coming from outside, as having the key".

http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/rodspesel2.html

milesdavis wrote: who is this person

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The tone of this article reflects the negative subjective conditions for social change existing in Jamaica at present, including: the demoralising political discourse, where 'socialism' (which never was) is widely interpreted to have failed, and policy initiative to have shifted from Kingston to Washington; the crisis-management mode of economic planning, which has suffocated discussions of real alternatives; the rise of an aggressive individualism and of implosive, often violent, social behaviours; the politics of patronage and its related extremes, fanatical loyalty, or apathy and avoidance; the penetration of the drug economy into the vacuum of unemployment and despair; the ubiquity of segregating and repressive social forms; and the impact of foreign-centred cultural aspirations. But this is not intended to be a fatalistic exercise-rather, it is inspired by the hope that is always latent in contradictions, as Brecht insisted. Where this hope is obscured, as in Jamaica today, it is necessary to examine the ways in which constructive dialogue and organisation amongst the poor are being stunted, so that new forms of popular education can be more effective.

For the task of rebuilding a radical, relevant pedagogy, there can be no better model than that of Walter Rodney, the great Guyanese historian who, while lecturing at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica in the late-1960s, engaged in a process of mutual education in the Kingston ghettos, teaching history and political economy while learning from the struggles of the people there (Rodney, 1969; Alpers & Fontaine, 1982). Rodney's 'groundings' were so resonant and so threatening to the governing JLP at the time that it revoked his work visa, which incited the 'Rodney riots' (this uprising, in turn, contributed to the radicalising social currents that emboldened Manley's populism and helped to push the PNP leftward in the early 1970s). Rodney's approach also contributed to the trajectory of cultural expressions emerging out of the ghettos at the time, as ska evolved into reggae, and artistes famously began emphasising issues of historical dispossession, racism, social injustice and war. The enormous influence of dancehall culture on Jamaican youth today, and the fact that most artistes come from ghetto communities, highlights the need and possibilities for educators to convey theoretically-informed ideas that can help disaffected youth to analyse and explain their problems in new ways.