Stichproben (Apr 2020)
Facets of Walter Rodney‘s Pan-African Intellectual Activism during his Dar es Salaam Years, 1966-1974
Abstract
his contribution sets out to deeply “ground” Walter Rodney‘s Pan-African intellectual activism from 1966 to 1974 within the intellectual climate of the University of Dar es Salaam and the wider political context of Tanzania's socialist project ujamaa and beyond. In my analysis of Rodney's groundbreaking book How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, I delineate four central pillars which solidly rest on Pan-African thought: Africans' achievements and historic agency; nationalism as a liberating ideology for Africans and people of African descent; the Pan-African bridge across the Atlantic Ocean; and the exploitation of the African masses by the ruling classes. However, Rodney’s intellectual and political impact was not limited to How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. As a university lecturer, Rodney figured prominently in the restructuring of the curriculum of the future Institute of Development Studies; students were encouraged to perceive Africa in a holistic perspective, and to understand its active underdevelopment within the global capitalist system. At campus, Rodney also engaged with radical socialist students and university staff which fervently criticized imperialism, neo- colonialism and capitalist exploitation. Rodney's engagement during his Dar es Salaam years signify a globally informed Pan- African mindset that aimed to link the African diaspora and Africa more closely together; eager to convince oppressed people around the world to de-link from the global capitalist system and embark on a socialist path of heavy industrialization and development for the masses. The real obstacles of his difference in nationality, language and cultural background experienced by Rodney while living in Tanzania, also exemplify practical limitations which inform the complex nature of transnational and trans-Atlantic solidarities.
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