A Revolutionary for Our Time: The Walter Rodney Story

by Leo Zeilig

Overview

Walter Rodney was a scholar, working class militant, and revolutionary from Guyana. Strongly influenced by Marxist ideas, he remains central to radical Pan-Africanist thought for large numbers of activists’ today. Rodney lived through the failed –though immensely hopeful -socialist experiments in the 1960s and 1970s, in Tanzania and elsewhere.

The book critically considers Rodney's contribution to Marxist theory and history, his relationship to dependency theory and the contemporary significance of his work in the context of movements and politics today. The first full-length study of Rodney’s life, this book is an essential introduction to Rodney's work.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781642595819
Publisher:	Haymarket Books
Publication date:	04/05/2022
Pages:	254
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 6.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Leo Zeilig is a writer and researcher. He has written extensively on African politics and history, including books on working-class struggle and the development of revolutionary movements and biographies on some of Africa’s most important political thinkers and activists. Leo is an editor of the Review of African Political Economy—the radical African-studies journal founded by activists and scholars in 1974—and a research associate at the Society, Work and Development Institute (SWOP) at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xviii

1 Beginnings 1

2 Socialist Africa or African Socialism? 38

3 On an Oil Drum 62

4 African History and Black Power 79

5 Revolution and History 101

6 How Europe Underdeveloped Africa 128

7 A Book to Change the World 155

8 Class, Race, and Politics in Tanzania 166

9 Returning Home 195

10 Building the Party 216

11 From Georgetown to Hamburg 268

12 Those Heroic Months of Revolt 299

13 The Enemies of the State 319

14 Walter Rodney's Legacy Today 335

Selected Bibliography 341

Notes 348

Index 378

Editorial Reviews

"This is a splendid narrative of Walter Rodney’s legendary life and work across three continents. Leo Zeilig’s singular achievement is to have brilliantly located Rodney, the Black Power Marxist, at the intersection of the politics of radical nationalism and visionary socialism that suffused the pan-African world in the 60s and 70s. An unforgettable read.'’ —Issa Shivji, Emeritus Professor, University of Dar es Salaam

From the Publisher