CODESRIA Bulletin, No. 1, 2021 Page 15

Remembering Walter Rodney

The Continuing Relevance of Walter Rodney

In Memory of Prof. Ian Taylor

rofessor Ian Taylor’s article on the “Continuing Relevance of Walter Rodney” is published posthumously. Prof. Taylor Psubmitted the article for publication in Development on November 30th 2020. Though the peer review com- ments were shared with him, CODESRIA did not receive any response nor a revised version of the article. The silence seemed unusual, since Ian had a previous record of engagement with CODESRIA. His last publication with CODESRIA was an article published in Africa Development, Vol. XLII, No. 3, 2017 on “The Liberal Peace Security Regimen: A Gramscian Critique of its Application in Africa”. His failure to respond to the peer review comments was therefore a cause of concern and the sad news of his illness, hospitalisation and eventual passing on February 22nd 2021 explained it all. Ian Taylor’s work hoovered in in a way that colleagues and students admired and will continue to appreciate. In his email submitting this article on Walter Rodney for publication, he pointed out his strong believe in Walter Rodney’s political methodology and Africa-centred epistemology which he noted will continue to have relevance in any study of Africa. Ian was unapologetically radical in his academic pursuits and his engagement was tied to the activism that informed this radicalism. With wide ranging interest in Africa, especially in Botswana where he taught at the University of Botswana for a while, Ian’s interest started and expanded to other regions of the world without abandoning the African connection. He started in Hong Kong, for instance, and soon became a critical voice in China–Africa relations, his interest, of course going beyond the current avalanche of studies inspired largely by recent China–Africa relations that are driven by Belt and Road Initiative and encouraged by pilgrimages by African leaders to the Beijing Summit under the Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) framework. Ian had multiple institutional affiliations over the period of his comparatively short career. He however published with CODESRIA, something that identified him not just with the Council but also with Africa and Africans. His 2005 co-edited study The Potentiality of ‘Developmental States’ in Africa: Botswana and Uganda Compared is an example. His review titled “Laughter as the best Medicine: Coping with the Nigerian Tragicomedy” published in CODESRIA’s Africa Review of Books, Vol. 14, 2018, was another example of his continuing engagement with academic work on the continent. This is impor- tant. The Council has pushed for African-centered perspectives on Africa. This focus often rubs non-African and non-black scholars of Africa the wrong way because the nature of knowledge production and the division of labour within it that make it almost abnormal for Africans to make this basic claim that is treated as normal for other areas of study. Ian was comfortable with this politics and it is for this reason that we share in his sad passing on. We hope this last article attests to the claims we have made of Ian and speaks to the value he attached to progressive politics that Walter Rodney advanced.

Godwin Murunga Executive Secretary CODESRIA CODESRIA Bulletin, No. 1, 2021 Page 16

lthough Walter Rodney was the historical point of view of the murdered thirty years ago, Ian Taylor* emergence of the present state is Aeight years after he pub- Professor the primary aspect; and the inter- lished his classic book How Eu- International Relations and nal aspect, which from the point rope Underdeveloped Africa (here- of view of future development is African Political Economy after HEUA) (Rodney 1972), this increasingly important’ (Szentes (1969–2021) Guyanese intellectual’s thought is 1971: 163). In short, ‘poverty [is] as relevant today as it was when not the result of some historical the book first came out. With Af- game of chance in which [Africa] rica now experiencing serious bution may be fruitful in light of his happened to be the losers; it [is] the economic difficulties, after falsely epistemology (and methodology). result of a set of economic relation- being said to be ‘Rising’ in the HEUA was pioneering in that it ships, rooted in the colonial era, mid-2000s (for a critique, see Tay- was among the first works to bring that [has] served to enrich a minor- lor 2016), the structural reasons for a new assessment to post-colonial ity by impoverishing the majority’ the continent’s stagnation remain Africa and the problematique of (Adamson 2013: 12). Furthermore, as per Rodney’s analysis. In his underdevelopment, and its ap- Rodney noted that European rapac- book, Rodney not only discussed proach consciously put the African ity in Africa had denied the people how Africa had been subjugated experience front and centre (Howi- of the continent power: and then exploited by European son 2011). Rodney’s analysis went The decisiveness of the short imperialists, but argued that this beyond the heretofore convention- period of and its had led to the underdevelopment al (as per the dominant Western negative consequences for Af- of the continent. HEUA became academy’s) consideration of the rica spring mainly from the fact extremely influential, but also con- study of African (and Africans’) that Africa lost power. Power is tentious, particularly in the West- development and beyond the West- the ultimate determinant in hu- ern Africanist academy dominated ern canon (Bloom 1994). Underde- man society, being basic to the by non-Africans. When the book velopment, as per Rodney’s criti- relations within any group and was published, one review went so cal concept, suggested a process between groups. It implies the far as to state that: that deviated from the trajectory ability to defend one’s inter- Africa might have followed had it ests and, if necessary, to im- Dr. Walter Rodney, a historian pose one’s will by any means not been brutally incorporated into at University available. In relations between College, has written an impor- the global capitalist system by the peoples, the question of power tant book. It is not important in Europeans. Indeed, underdevelop- determines manoeuvrability in the ordinary fly leaf publicity of ment, according to Rodney, was bargaining, the extent to which the white capitalist sell books/ ‘not the absence of development, one people respect the interests make money publishing world, because every people have devel- of another, and eventually, the but important as an extension oped in one way or another and to extent to which a people sur- in the tradition of The Wretched a greater or lesser extent. Underde- vive as a physical and cultural of the Earth, Black Reconstruc- velopment makes sense only as a entity. When one society finds tion, The Black Jacobins, Na- means of comparing levels of de- itself forced to relinquish pow- tive Son, Pan Africanism, Com- velopment. It is very much tied to er entirely to another society munism and other landmarks the fact that human social develop- that in itself is a form of under- pointing the way to the future. development. (Chaka 1973: 56) ment has been uneven and from a strictly economic viewpoint some The colonial enterprise structured The argument of this article is that human groups have advanced fur- African societies so that they sup- aside from Rodney’s solid political ther by producing more and be- plied exports ‘on the best possible economy framework, his epistemo- coming wealthier’ (Rodney 1972). terms, from the point of view of the logical approach in HEUA may be mother country’, which delivered seen to fit with the later develop- With underdevelopment ‘there are two aspects, two sides of underde- only a minimal and declining re- ment of Africa-centred, decolonial turn to the local workforce (Amin frameworks and that a re-evalua- velopment: the basically external, international aspect, which from 1972: 524). This was underdevel- tion of Rodney’s immense contri- opment in action. CODESRIA Bulletin, No. 1, 2021 Page 17

Rodney’s Intellectual among black radicals and militants Marxist perspective and an Africa- Development against and neo- centred historiography to critically colonialism (see Bogues 2003; examine the destructive effect of In 1960, Walter Rodney entered Waters 2018). Whatever the Western cultural domination on the University of the West Indies tendency, the dominant supposition African identity and self-definition. (UWI) at Mona, Jamaica, to learn was that confronting racial injustice The historical materialism in HEUA history. He graduated three years and neocolonialism in Africa was was largely equalised with an ap- later with a first-class Honours the agenda. Thus it can be said that preciation of race in the wider back- degree and secured a scholarship Rodney’s analysis of the African ground of cultural imperialism from to pursue postgraduate work in situation, as exemplified in HEUA, the West (Chung 2012). African History at the School was the outcome of these interlinked of Oriental and African Studies dynamics (see Lewis 1998). In 1974, Rodney returned to his na- (SOAS), University of . tive to assume a position There is little question that his Rodney taught at the University as a professor at the University of decision to study African History of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) in Tan- Guyana, but the autocratic Guya- was spurred by a desire to challenge zania between 1966 and 1967 and nese government under Forbes the omnipresent Eurocentric from 1969 to 1974. This was a pe- Burnham thwarted his appointment. historiography at the time (see riod in which UDSM was perhaps Rodney then became ever more in- Morrissey 1976; Campbell 1981). the most influential university in volved in political activism, found- It was at SOAS that ‘Rodney Africa, with an intellectual fer- ing the Working People’s Alliance confronted the perception that ment that was legendary (see Tan- to oppose Burnham (see Westmaas history was at the core a reactionary don 1982; Shivji 1993; Hirji 2010). 2009). Harassment followed, and discipline, characterized largely by Rodney threw himself into the de- in 1979 Rodney was arrested and archives and documents, with a bates (Shivji 1980). However, in charged with arson after two state natural bias towards the elite and 1968, Rodney ended his initial spell offices were found burned -(Teel linear thinking’ (Vaught 2015: 8). in to teach at the Univer- ucksingh 2016: 171–185). On 13 sity of the West Indies in Jamaica June 1980, Rodney was assassinat- Equally, given the contemporary and it was during this time that ed in a car bomb attack, one month milieu, Rodney became acquainted The Groundings with my Brothers after returning from Zimbabwe’s with the principles of Black was published (Rodney 1969), a independence celebrations. He was Power and Marxist thought. His culmination of his dialogues with survived by Patricia, his wife, and connections in London with C.L.R. Rastafarians on (see three children.1 James later reverberated throughout Campbell 1987). Groundings may Rodney’s life and academic work be seen as an effort to link Blame the Africans (see Henry 2013). In London, and pan-Africanism into a single Rodney’s HEUA was a much- Rodney attached himself to a study emancipatory movement (Ledgister needed corrective to the then domi- group that met recurrently in James’ 2008). Under intense pressure from nant ‘modernisation thesis’, which home to read and debate Marxism. the Jamaican and American intelli- came from the United States and Rodney recounts that these sessions gence services (see West 2005), the sought to influence how Africa gave him the opportunity ‘to book got Rodney banned from Ja- was seen and saw itself. Owing acquire a knowledge of Marxism, maica (see Gonsalves 1979; Payne its intellectual origins to the work a more precise understanding of the 1983; Lewis 2000; West 2008), of Darwin, Durkheim and Weber, Russian revolution, and of historical but Groundings became viewed as and crystallised by the sociologist formulation’, while developing ‘a an exposition of Rodney’s ideas Parsons (1951), it was the Ameri- certain sense of historical analysis’ concerning the functionality of an can economist, Walter W. Rostow (Rodney 1990: 28). identity, anchored in history, for and his The Stages of Economic the liberation of black people in the By the time he completed his PhD in Growth (1960), who crafted this Diaspora (Bogues 2009). Rodney 1966, his intellectual development agenda. The intellectual history subsequently returned to UDSM in had been further influenced by two of Africa in defining itself had to 1969 as a Professor of History, stay- noteworthy happenings: first, the engage in a continuous struggle ing until 1974. It was during this post- resurgence of between the broad vision encapsu- time that his magnum opus, HEUA, Black Power all over the Diaspora lated within Modernisation Theory was published. HEUA integrated a and the escalating Marxist critique (which effectively sees Africa and CODESRIA Bulletin, No. 1, 2021 Page 18

Africans as a problem to over- In contrast, modern societies social formations and values that come) and more critical postures emerged from such traditional ‘hold Africa back’ be broken down. emanating from scholars sympa- formations after going through a thetic to the continent (for an early complex process of development, Such a view holds that as modern review of the literature, see Chil- which was said to include the de- forms of society begin to devel- cote 1984). This theme has been cline of magic as a basis for politi- op in Africa (through interaction current throughout the discourses cal authority (the demise of the ‘di- with the West) they will foster the associated with Western interven- vine right of kings’, for instance) growth of a more dynamic, effi- tions in Africa, whether in the New and a concomitant secularisation of cient and explicitly capitalist mode International Economic Order wider society (Bauer 1971). With of production and social organisa- (NIEO) or Structural Adjustment the Age of Reason, associated with tion on the continent. That this is Programmes. Rostow’s thesis may the Enlightenment, came a spur for an inherently Eurocentric vision in fact be seen as providing an in- science and technology and an at- is apparent, and needs little com- tellectual foundation to the story of tempt to ‘explain’ the world scien- ment: it was at the very core of one Africa’s debate with its erstwhile tifically. At the same time, reward influential modernisation theorist ‘partners’. systems based on merit rather than (Eisenstadt 1966). And as Mazama inheritance fostered a climate of (1998) noted, it was an exercise Modernisation Theory drew from incentives for innovation and ef- in self-glorification. However, Durkheim the belief that the world ficiency (McClelland 1961; Hagen its staying power in popular con- was divided into two broad kinds of 1962). Associated with this broad sciousness in Western societies has social formations: the ‘modern’ and historic thrust were a limited form been remarkable. the ‘traditional’ (Durkheim 1984 of government and the rule of Rodney’s Contribution [1893]). In contrast to the modern, law defined constitutionally. This traditional societies are backward- social order served to enshrine The importance of Rodney’s Afri- looking (if not primitive), and lack property relations and consciously ca-centred approach is that it under- the dynamism required for eco- reified capitalist modes of produc- scores the fact that African peoples nomic ‘success’. Traditional so- tion. At the same time, a capitalist were deliberately removed from his- cial formations are dominated by ‘work ethic’ à la Weber stimulated tory by racist Europeans and denied religious authority, which is fre- economic progress (see Jomo and even their humanity. This is what is quently linked via a metaphysical Reinert 2005). known as the ‘coloniality of being’ cosmology to a rigid form of social (Maldonado-Torres 2007), which structures predicated upon status Broadly speaking, the modernisa- is the organised denial of humanity based on inheritance. Such societ- tion thesis holds that if Africa is of those who became the victims of ies preclude the type of social mo- to follow the North into develop- enslavement and colonisation. For bility, or rather, the opportunities ment and higher (i.e. Northern) Africans in particular, the denial for social mobility that would spur standards of living, then it has to of their humanity was a key tool in innovative and efficient economic seek to replicate the North’s his- their subjugation and shoved them activity. Organised along lines of torical trajectory, with particular into a subhuman category, a posi- kinship, they also remain isolated emphasis on the development of an tion of non-being (Fanon 1968). from one another (Lerner 1958). entrepreneurial class (Roxborough It amounted to inferiorisation, i.e. At the same time, such vertically 1979: 16). In essence, the main foil ‘the conscious, deliberate and sys- arranged societies allow for little to African development is cast as tematic process … to mold specific control over arbitrary or capricious the ‘character’ of Africa’s own so- peoples within that system … into abuses of authority. According to cieties. This retains powerful pur- “functional inferiors”’ (Welsing the Rostow-inspired thesis, such chase in certain constituencies in 1974: 85). characteristics were the hallmarks the North: the infamous front page of societies that primarily revolve of The Economist (13 May 2000), In his pioneering work on around agricultural production and declaring Africa to be ‘The Hope- Eurocentrism, Samir Amin (1985) rural life, which typified Africa. less Continent’, blamed Africa’s argued that the belief in European All of this is cast in a way that, of woes on its culture. In this trope, superiority strengthened with the course, portrays Africans in a neg- only by a deepened exposure to development of and ative light. the economies and ‘superior’ cul- ideas from the Enlightenment from tures of the West can the traditional the eighteenth century onwards, as CODESRIA Bulletin, No. 1, 2021 Page 19

European economies began to rush At this point we leave Africa, not continent. The alleged back- ahead of the rest of the world. Prior to mention it again. For it is not ward and primitive character to this, Europeans had not seen a historical part of the World; it of pre-European Africa justi- themselves as inherently superior has no movement or development fied the enslavement and sale to other peoples. ’s ruling to exhibit … What we properly of Africans across the Atlantic. class paradoxically combined understand by Africa, is the Unhistorical, Undeveloped Spirit, The comparison between an enthusiasm for their own countries’ still involved in the conditions of African-centred understanding of competency in the burgeoning mere nature, and which had to history and the racist Eurocentric capitalist economy with democratic be presented here only as on the framework could not be more stark ideas of fraternité and egalité. threshold of the World’s History. (see Keita 1974). After all, as Henri However, when confronted with (Hegel 1956 [1824]: 99) Moniot commented on then-domi- the brutal realities of the slave trade nant readings of history: ‘There was Thus dismissed by Geist, African and wars of conquest, ‘The culture Europe, and that was what consti- history, as per Hegel, was nothing of the Enlightenment was unable to tuted history’ (1974: 106). reconcile the fact of this superiority but a purposeless set of barbaric with its universalist ambition. On actions. Lest this view be waved Outside of and some the contrary, it gradually drifted away as belonging to the past, postcolonial/decolonial research, towards racism as an explanation consider the comments in 1969 of the writing of history has been at the for the contrast between it and then-Regius Professor of History centre of a hegemonic project based other cultures’ (ibid: 58). at the University of Oxford, Hugh on European supremacism, with Trevor-Roper: ‘There is only the the European experience taken as a It was at this moment that history of Europeans in Africa. The given, as per Modernisation Theory. notions developed that somehow rest is darkness’; and that Africa’s Everything else is a diffusion from Europe (and Europeans) were past was merely ‘the unedifying Europe (see Amin 1985). Thus: fundamentally more dynamic than gyrations of barbarous tribes in other people. This was cast in picturesque but irrelevant corners History became part of a broader academic culture de- evolutionary terms: of the globe’.2 More recently, signed to facilitate European It was the exceptional historical and more publicly, was Nicolas control and domination of sense underlying Hegel’s Sarkozy’s 2007 comment (in non-Europeans. Knowledge manner of reasoning which Senegal!) that: was carefully structured, and distinguished it from that of all The tragedy of Africa is that the access to it strictly controlled, other philosophers. However African has not fully entered into all in a bid to strengthen Eu- abstract and idealist the form history ... They have never really ropean hegemony. Knowl- employed, yet his evolution launched themselves into the edge became a veritable of ideas runs always parallel future. The African peasant only weapon for creating and nur- with the evolution of universal knew the eternal renewal of time, turing in Africans and blacks history, and the latter was marked by the endless repetition in diaspora a mental and psy- indeed supposed to be only the of the same gestures and the chological disposition to ac- proof of the former. Although same words. In this realm of knowledge White superiority. this reversed the actual relation fancy ... there is neither room for (Adeleke 2000: 38) and stood it on its head, yet human endeavour nor the idea of the real content was invariably Rodney’s work challenged these progress. (quoted by Ba 2007) incorporated in his philosophy distortions (see Wallerstein 1986). … He was the first to try to Such tropes are nothing short of His approach put the African lo- demonstrate that there is an the methodical denigration of cation as the methodology while evolution, an intrinsic coherence peer structures of knowledge (see rejecting the subaltern place to in history … This monumental Ndlovu-Gatsheni 2018). As which it has been conferred by Eu- conception of history pervades Adeleke (2000: 38) reminds us, rocentric scholars (see Monteiro- the Phänomenologies, Asthetik Ferreira 2009). This is somewhat and Geschichte der Philosophie European rejection and cari- redolent of Cabral’s concept of the (Engels 1989 [1859]: 224). caturing of Africa, which pre- African peoples’ ‘return to History’ dated Roper, was meant to le- With this evolutionary framework after an absence due to the suppres- gitimise Europe’s impending sion of their history by imperialism and the belief that Europe personified rape and denouement of the History, Hegel felt able to assert that: (Cabral 1973: 50). CODESRIA Bulletin, No. 1, 2021 Page 20

Asante asserted that ‘the placing gatherers in the Kalahari Desert, Western scholars (see Van Sertima of African ideals at the center the Kaffa cultivators, Galla pasto- 1992; Gray 1999; Asante 2007).4 of any analysis that involves ralists, as well as the Bozo fisher- This was precisely because Diop African culture and behavior’ man and Fulani herdsmen). Equal- dared challenge the dominant rac- (Asante 1987: 6) clearly would ly, such groups often lived together ist historiography of Africa: his incorporate key elements of HEUA, with relatively more developed work marked a rupture from this particularly chapters two and three societies, with the Benin Kingdom view (Andjembe 1989). (‘How Africa Developed Before being an example. The weighty As with any Kuhnian paradigm the Coming of the Europeans up commerce and advanced division shift (Kuhn 1962), Diop’s new to the 15th Century’ and ‘Africa’s of labour in Beninese society laid concept of African history had to Contribution to European Capitalist the foundations for an embarrass- overcome extant positions (Clarke Development: The Pre-Colonial ment of riches in arts and culture, 1989). Notably, Rodney’s work also Period’ respectively). As a method including the much-lauded bronze suffered the same fate when pub- of intellectual reflection (see heads (subsequently stolen by the lished (see Hirji 2017). Thus, one Kershaw 1992) and action in which British in 1897). Of course, to the contemporary review asserted that the significance of African interests, north, the magnificent civilisation ‘Some scholars may be disturbed by values and outlooks prevail (Asante of Mali, with Timbuktu as its capi- the pro-Marxist and anti-West bias 2001: 3) this approach is reflected tal, was a focal point for education of How Europe Underdeveloped in these significant sections of across the continent and beyond. Africa’ (Tooker 1975: 549), while HEUA. Notably, Rodney sets Rodney also discusses Great Zim- another worried that: up his stall early in chapter two, babwe, a monument to the history with a quote from J. E. Casely and impressiveness of city building Rodney’s book will trouble Hayford, a Gold Coast nationalist: in precolonial Africa: ‘One of the many professional scholars ‘Before even the British came into principal structures at Great Zim- more because of its tone than its relations with our people, we were babwe was some 300 feet long and substance. Unlike those Marx- a developed people, having our 220 feet broad, with the walls be- ists who write for other schol- own institutions, having our own ing 30 feet high and 20 feet thick’ ars, Rodney goes out of his way ideas of government’ (Rodney (Rodney 1972: 77). to be abrasive. There are con- 1972: 51). Rodney notes that ‘The stant references to ‘bourgeois moment that the topic of the pre- Today, the need to somehow dem- apologists’ and ‘capitalist para- sites’. (Klein 1974: 323) European African past is raised, onstrate (even ‘justify’) that Africa many individuals are concerned for had a civilisation looks somewhat Notably, critique of Rodney often various reasons to know about the passé. But we must consider the focused on his ‘style’ and not the existence of African “civilisations”. times in which Rodney was writ- substance of his arguments, some- Mainly, this stems from a desire to ing: ‘It was not until the decade of thing which black scholars contin- make comparisons with European the 1970s that African and African- ue to face (see Jackson 2000). “civilisations”’ (Rodney 1972: 53). ist scholars began sustained intel- In other words, in such dominant lectual counter-attack’ against the Rodney’s goal in his methodical dis- epistemologies, Africa cannot be dominant view of a continent with cussion of the complex precolonial studied without anchoring it in no precolonial history or sophis- African societies was not to offer up Eurocentrism. Rodney rejected this. tication (Adeleke 2000: 37). The some mythological utopic vision of work of A. Adu Boahen and Basil the continent but rather to demon- Indeed, in the first two chapters of Davidson may be cited in this re- strate that the continent’s diverse so- HEUA, Rodney discusses Africa gard (Boahen 1964, 1987; David- ciological character was not particu- and its peoples before the trans- son 1961, 1964, 1977, 1998). In larly behind that of medieval Europe , demonstrat- this sense, Rodney had to deal with in terms of development prior to the ing an abundant and multifaceted the same sort of prejudices that the European onslaught and that a rec- complex of interconnected civili- Senegalese scholar, Cheikh Anta ognition of this reality has to be at sations at a high level of develop- Diop, had to, whose work on Af- the centre of analysis when exam- ment. Like elsewhere, some societ- rica as the cradle of humanity and ining the effect of imperialism on ies centred around a basic division civilisation (Diop 1954, 1960a, Africa. This is precisely what Amin, of labour and were communal in 1960b, 1962) was met with out- in his critique of Eurocentrism, also nature (Rodney discusses hunter- right hostility,3 even hatred, from argued. Rodney noted that when the CODESRIA Bulletin, No. 1, 2021 Page 21

Dutch first visited Benin City, they ogy. Indeed, smiths in some parts of in this respect, discusses articulated saw in it a mirror of their own conur- sub-Saharan Africa were producing and disarticulated economies. Ar- bations. Rodney quotes one contem- steels of a better quality and grade ticulated economies are those that porary account that: than those of their peers in Europe possess multiple sectors interrelated (Thornton 1990). As Rodney was to each other so that development in The town seems to be very keen to point out, before the begin- one sector stimulates development great … The king’s palace is a collection of buildings which ning of the transatlantic slave trade, a in another sector. This situation occupy as much space as the relative level of parity between Africa characterises developed economies. town of Harlem, and which is and Europe existed. The consequenc- On the other hand, disarticulated enclosed with walls. There are es of the transatlantic slave trade, economies refer to underdeveloped numerous apartments for the however, put a halt on such devel- nations where economic sectors Prince’s ministers and fine gal- opments. The colossal loss to the la- are not closely interrelated. Hence, leries, most of which are as big bour force in the regions from which development in one sector is un- as those on the Exchange at Africans were stolen meant that local able to stimulate development in Amsterdam. (Rodney 1972: 83) industries were debilitated, with Eu- the other sector (Amin 1974). As ropean products flowing into and thus Shivji notes, structural disarticula- Furthermore, Rodney’s work did underdeveloping the economy. Africa tion is where Africa exhibits a ‘dis- not aim to exchange one group of became increasingly shaped to favour articulation between the structure of myths (white superiority) with an- the interests of Western capitalism, production and the structure of con- other (the splendour of the African and African industries were stunted sumption. What is produced is not past) but to centre ordinary Afri- (Williams 1944). consumed and what is consumed cans and their accomplishments. In is not produced’ (Shivji 2009: 59). his work on African pasts, Rodney The foundations for this were, in- Rather, the economies are oriented was clear about the need for a his- ter alia, firstly, the colonial econo- outwards: toriography that encompassed not mies’ forced integration into global only the kings and aristocrats but capitalism in a subservient arrange- One finds within each colony also the common people: ment so that the colonial economy the same disjunction, the same was defined not by the needs of disaggregation of the constitu- Even within those kingdoms ent parts of a colonised econ- [Egypt, Kush, Ethiopia, Ghana, the native populations, but by the demands and concerns of the econ- omy. Instead, the linkages are etc.] the historical accounts of- with the metropolitan economy, omy of the metropole and its rul- ten concentrate narrowly on the and are determined exclusively behaviour of elite groups and ing class, often under monopoly by the latter in its own inter- dynasties; we need to portray conditions. The underlying logic est—an interest which proves the elements of African every- and driving force of capitalism incompatible with the inde- day life and to comprehend the and capital is the accumulation of pendence and any real devel- culture of all Africans irrespec- profits; in the words of Marx, the opment of the Third World. tive of whether they were resi- ‘boundless drive for enrichment’ (Rodney 1972: 29–30) dent in the empire of Mali or an and the ‘passionate chase after val- Ibo village. In reconstructing ue’ (Marx 1976 [1867]: 254). To demonstrate his point, Rodney African civilisations, the con- wrote of the clothmaking industry cern is to indicate that African From this scenario, unequal ex- in Africa: social life had meaning and val- change and disarticulation resulted. ue, and that the African past is With regard to Africa, Samir Amin When European cloth became dominant on the African mar- one with which the Black man (1974 2010) has demonstrated that in the Americas can identify ket, it meant that African pro- a dependency on foreign capital with pride. (Rodney 1969: 53). ducers were cut off from the investments has caused structural increasing demand. The craft One way Rodney highlighted this distortions of the economies of the producers either abandoned was in his discussion of the material continent. For Africa, problemati- their tasks … or they continued culture of Africa. Contrary to domi- cally, the economic structures that on the same small hand-worked nant views regarding precolonial emerged from the colonial period instruments to create styles and Africa, local manufacturers created as a result of the world division of pieces for localised markets. items of comparable, if not superior, labour distorted the continent in Therefore there was what can quality to those of Europe, due to de- such a way as to create obstacles to be called ‘technological arrest’ or stagnation or even regres- velopments in native forge technol- development (Amin 1974). Amin, CODESRIA Bulletin, No. 1, 2021 Page 22

sion. … The abandonment of Rodney debunked Fage’s argument The legacy of slavery, the devasta- traditional iron smelting in in an early article of his based on tion of African industry, the con- most parts of Africa is probably his PhD thesis, subsequently pub- traction of productive technology, the most important instance lished in 1970 as A History of the the stoppage of much intra-African of technological repression. Upper Coast: 1545–1800 commerce, the dislocation of Afri- (Rodney 1972: 119). (Rodney 1970): can societies and the exploitation of the continent’s resources (both As Rodney developed his In one sense, it is preferable to human and natural) all nullified Af- argument, development assumes ‘a ignore such rubbish and isolate capacity for self-sustaining growth’ our youth from its insults; but rica’s ability for autocentric growth (ibid.), but the transatlantic slave unfortunately one of the aspects while offering a colossal enhance- trade prevented this, with well- of current African underdevel- ment to capitalist development in known consequences. Rodney’s opment is that the capitalist Europe. HEUA is truly a pioneering data demonstrated how population publishers and bourgeois schol- piece of scholarship, with great em- growth in Africa was almost flat ars dominate the scene and help pirical rigour. It is also a book of in- (between 1650 to 1900 it rose a mould opinions the world over. calculable poise and poignancy. mere 20 million, from 100 million It is for that reason that writing of the type which justifies the Beyond HEUA, as mentioned to 120 million, compared to Asia’s trade in slaves has to be exposed above, in The Groundings with my population growth of 257 million as racist bourgeois propaganda, Brothers, Rodney reflects on his to 857 million during the same having no connection with real- position as an intellectual in rela- period) (Rodney 1972: 110). The ity or logic. It is a question not tion to the movements for Black later research of Nathan Nunn merely of history but of pres- Power taking place in the West (2008) from Harvard University ent day liberation struggle in Indies at the time. The book urged vindicated Rodney’s assessment Africa. (Rodney 1966: 117) intellectuals to attack the racist dis- of the effects of the slave trade. In As Rodney showed, the (forced) tortions of imperialism in the acad- his study, Nunn demonstrates that emy, challenge social myths espe- if the slave trade had not occurred, African contribution to European development involved key sectors cially prevalent in a multiracial, then 72 per cent of the average multiethnic and Latin income gap between Africa and the that already existed, such as ship- ping, insurance, establishment of America, and identify with the rest of the world would not exist people. A gathering of his public today and that 99 per cent of the merchant companies, agriculture, technology and the manufacture of lectures held by Rodney in Jamaica income gap between Africa and and at the Congress of Black Writ- other underdeveloped countries machinery. These facts are ignored in Eurocentric accounts of the his- ers in Montréal (see Austin 2007), would not exist. Compare that Groundings provides a pedagogi- to J. D. Fage’s assertion in his tory of both Africa and Europe. Rodney’s work is critical because: cal agenda for intellectuals strug- Introduction to the History of West gling to undo the epistemological Africa that: Rodney contended that since misrepresentations of imperial- [T]he volume and distribution African history had been used ism. And like HEUA, Groundings of the export slave trade do not as a weapon of domination, can be seen within the ambit of an suggest that the loss of population keepizng Africans at home and Africa-centred framework, given and other effects of the export of blacks in diaspora, ignorant of that ‘grounding’ is more than just the glories of their past, and labour to the Americas need have a method of training, education or had universally damaging effects obscuring their true identity, it was the responsibility of black knowledge production, but a posi- on the development of West tion that centres Africa and the Af- Africa. Rather, it is suggested, intellectuals to reverse this trend through critical researches into rican experience. Groundings es- West African rulers and tablished the consequence of what merchants reacted to the demand African history and culture. The Cedric Robinson (1983) denoted with economic reasoning, and result would illuminate the an- used it to strengthen streams tiquity and wealth of civilisation as black radical historiography and of economic and political in Africa, and reverse the psy- compels scholars to contemplate development that were already chological effect of Eurocentric what is and what is not ‘accept- current before the Atlantic slave propaganda. (Adeleke 2000: 44) able’ (and why) in the politicised 5 schemas of academia in which all trade began. (Fage 1969: 404) The last part of HEUA focuses on the intellectual work is situated. vicious colonisation of the continent. CODESRIA Bulletin, No. 1, 2021 Page 23

In summary, the importance of of the materialist tradition nev- experience, thus obfuscating (if not Rodney’s historical method is that er resulted, as is too often the destroying) African agency. This it challenges the normative and case, in a denial of racial iden- has meant that Africans’ ‘failure to hegemonic (i.e. racist) portrayal tity and a role for nationalism in recognise the roots of such ideas in of Africa and Africans and marks Pan-Africanism. He recognised the European cultural ethos has led a break from such a milieu. Black or cultural nationalism as [them], willingly or unwillingly, to basic elements that stood at the Thus, reading Groundings today agree to footnote status in the White core of African people’s search requires that readers question pre- for self-definition, self-deter- man’s book. [They] thus find [them- established concepts of African m i n a t i o n , a n d h u m a n d i g n i t y . selves] relegated to the periphery, history. Walter Rodney Speaks: The (Young 2008: 494) the margin, of the European expe- Making of an African Intellectual rience’ (Mazama 2003: 50). If the (Rodney 1990), a posthumous As Rodney demonstrated in HEUA, current decolonisation movement collection of his writings in which it is axiomatic that colonial rule aims to challenge the supposed Rodney discusses his political disrupted the natural evolutionary universality of Western epistemolo- and intellectual development course of Africa’s socioeconom- gies and the problem with their un- and deliberates on the role of the ic and cultural development and thinking application to the study of African intellectual, is similar thereby disastrously undermined Africa, then it is the contention of within this generalised thrust to its economies (Rodney 1972: 278). this article that African scholars critically engage in what might Before imperialism, as Rodney should consider anew Rodney’s be seen as an African-centred notes, parts of Africa were more work and incorporate aspects of his reflexivity. As Mkabela (2005) developed than parts of Europe. It approach in further research. notes, reflexivity in qualitative was the introduction of European research is harmonious with the rule that led to the decay of African Notes institutions, making them unwork- foundations underpinning this * Former Professor in International able and twisted: from civilisation approach, in which scholars are Relations and African Political anticipated to be ‘centered’ or to barbarism, as Diop (1991) may Economy in the School of located as an agent rather than as have put it. International Relations, University the ‘Other’ (Mkabela 2005). To reiterate, Rodney’s work points of St. Andrews and Chair Professor in the School of International out that the colonial experience Conclusion Studies, Renmin University of socially isolated African commu- China in Beijing. Walter Rodney’s work sought to nities from one another and devas- 1. For an overview of Rodney and centre Africa and Africans in any tated the continent. In Africa today, information about the International analysis of the political economy countries like have been Commission of Inquiry into of the continent. His careful histo- ‘independent’ since the 1960s, but Rodney’s murder, see https://www. riography was infused with an epis- they continue to have a subordi- walterrodneyfoundation.org/. temology that melded Historical nate and dependent relationship 2. The statement was initially made Materialism with Africa-centred with the West (and, increasingly, during a series of lectures at the analysis. Given that there is now with countries such as China). University of Sussex, which were a growing awareness of just how These countries, termed ‘post-col- transmitted by BBC Television. Eurocentric political economy and onies’ by Achille Mbembe (2001), The lectures then appeared in international political economy are have undergone a process of de- print in The Listener in 1963 (see Hobson 2013; Mantz 2019), colonisation, but colonial powers and then became a book: Roper this is important for a critical anal- still exert a powerful influence 1965. For a discussion of Roper’s ysis of Africa today. Indeed, (Feldner 2018: 516). Given the racism, see Fuglestad 1992. ongoing conditions of unfettered 3. Note that in 1954 Diop’s doctoral Rodney is relevant today be- neoliberalism under globalisation, thesis on the Egyptian origin cause his methods still enhance of African civilisations at the the development of a framework Rodney’s work remains ever rel- evant (see Canterbury 2001). Université de Paris could not find with which we continue to use an examining committee willing to for making judgments about Finally, Rodney’s work highlighted examine it and it was thus rejected. the conditions facing African a key problem for Africans in that 4. The controversy around Diop’s people throughout the Diaspora. contribution to the General In hindsight, Rodney’s mastery an unconscious adoption of Euro- centrism naturalises the Western History of Africa (UNESCO) CODESRIA Bulletin, No. 1, 2021 Page 24

being a case in point. Diop’s Opérée par dans Walter Rodney and Progressive work generated such indignation l’Historiographie Négro-Africaine, Scholars on the Dar es Salaam that a special conference was La Revue Présence Africaine, nos. School, Utafiti, Journal of the even organised in 1974 in Cairo 149/150, pp. 10–19. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, to debate it. The report, written by Asante, M., 1987, The Afrocentric University of Dar es Salaam, Jean Devisse, was published in Idea, Philadelphia, PA: Temple Vol. 8, No.2, pp. 57–77. full in volume two of the General University Press. Campbell, H., 1987, Rasta and Re- History—see Maurel, 2014. Asante, M., 2001, Afrocentricity: The sistance: From Marcus Garvey 5. Note that this was not some ar- Theory of Social Change, Chica- to Walter Rodney, Trenton, NJ: cane debate, but went to the heart go, IL: Peoples Publishing Group. Africa World Press. of accurate knowledge creation Asante, M., 2007, Cheikh Anta Diop: An Campbell, T., 1981, The Making of about Africa: J.D. Fage was later a Intellectual Portrait, Los Angeles, an Organic Intellectual: Walter general editor of UNESCO’s The CA: University of Sankore Press. Rodney (1942–1980), Latin Cambridge History of Africa vol. American Perspectives, Vol. 8, Austin, D., 2007, All Roads Led to 2: From c.500 BC to AD 1050, No. 1, pp. 49–63. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Uni- Montreal: Black Power, the Ca- Canterbury, D., (2001, The Politics of versity Press. Throughout the ribbean, and the Black Radical Walter Rodney in the Era of ‘Glo- whole process of putting together Tradition in Canada, Journal of balisation’, International Journal the eight-volume collection, Afri- African American History, Vol. 92, of African Studies, Vol. 3, No. 1, can scholars had to struggle to be No. 4, pp. 516–539. pp. 179–199. heard. To be fair to Fage, he did Ba, D., 2007, Africans Still Seeth- pioneer, alongside Roland Oliver, ing Over Sarkozy Speech’, Chaka, M., 1973, Review of Walter the discipline of African history in Reuters, 5 September. https:// Rodney How Europe Underde- the West, launching the Journal of uk.reuters.com/article/uk- veloped Africa London: Bogle- African History in 1960, the first africa-sarkozy/africans-still- L’Ouverture Publications, 1973, history journal to embrace a mul- seething-over-sarkozy-speech- , Vol. 4, No. 5, tidisciplinary approach to Africa’s idukl0513034620070905. pp. 56–58. historical past, particularly the Bauer, W., 1971, Orthodoxy and Her- Chilcote, R., 1984, Theories of devel- pre-colonial period, with articles esy in Early Christianity, Phila- opment and underdevelopment, by archaeologists, anthropologists delphia, PA: Fortress. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. and linguists, alongside historians. Bloom, H., 1994, The Western Canon, Chilcote, R., 2017, Dependency: A New York, NY: Harcourt, Brace. Critical Synthesis of the Litera- Bibliography ture, Latin American Perspec- Bly, V., 1985, Walter Rodney and Afri- tives, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 4-29. Adeleke, T., 2000, ‘Guerrilla Intellec- ca, Journal of Black Studies, Vol. tualism: Walter A. Rodney and 16, No. 2, pp. 115–130. Chung, C., 2012, Walter Rodney: A Promise of Revolution, New the Weapon of Knowledge in the Boahen, A., 1964, Britain, the Sahara, York: Monthly Review Press. Struggle for Black Liberation’, and the Western Sudan, 1788–

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