Dear Editor,
In observing June 13 (today), the 42nd anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Walter Rodney; it is fitting to join the outpouring of overwhelming tributes to the continuing courage and commitment of Walter, his beloved widow, Dr. Patricia Rodney, and their offspring.
The testimony of Rodney’s family in their life pursuits, has embodied a quest for knowledge, service and care for the everyday life of all persons with whom they have shared concerns for human liberation, development and fulfillment. These concerns have their roots in the lived historical narrative Walter gave to his and future generations in the classic study How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, (1974, & many reprints).
While that study remains required reading in Universities across the African continent, in the US, UK and European centres, the Diaspora and institutions of the Global South, today’s generation is inspired and enlightened by the exceptional scholarship of Marxist historical method and pedagogy that Rodney practiced.
Perhaps, now more than ever, a most telling tribute to Walter’s life and work gives spirit and agency to today’s generation of leaders in countries of Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific and across continents.
We witness demonstrations of solidarity in the struggles of Black Lives Matter, unionisation of exploited working people in multi-national enterprises, undertaking successful legal actions against oil and gas conglomerates in off-shore operations in the Niger Delta or significant struggles by women and girls farming in the Togolese Republic.
They are all Dr Walter Rodney’s offspring and may his memory and work will live forever in our and future generations.
Fraternally,
P. I. Gomes
Port of Spain
