Hours after Walter Rodney was killed and his body taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital, Forbes Burnham spoke to a well-connected young woman who was a family friend and a nurse at the hospital, saying he had heard that Rodney had been killed and wanted her to go find the body and confirm that it was indeed his. Some days ago I made contact with her, and three decades on, her story remains the same.
Two weeks ago in this column I said that I believe that the state was involved in Rodney’s death, and to many people my statement inferred that Burnham was himself personally involved in a plot to kill him. Matters not how tenuously, the above mentioned request suggests that he may not have been, it is now beyond doubt that the Burnham state was bound to take action against the WPA.
Firstly, notwithstanding Rodney’s essential commitment to nonviolence, he left sufficient theoretical room for the use of violence. ‘Civil disobedience’, he claimed, ‘goes beyond the point where the civil power breaks its own laws. One can suggest disobedience of the law because of the fundamental fact that the government is illegal. Citizens have a right to be guided not by the unjust laws of an unjust state but by
