Exploring the Legacy of Walter Rodney and His Theories on Capitalism and Education

Pan-African Marxist, underdevelopment theorist, guerrilla intellectual, father, husband, radical—these are all terms that we could use to describe Walter Rodney. You may know him from his classic text, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, you may know that he was assassinated at the age of 38 for his activism, or you may not know who he was at all—either way, his ideas and his influence have most likely reached you, if not directly, then indirectly, through the waves and ripples that his life and work created in the many intersecting liberation movements throughout the planet. 

Described by some as decolonial Marxism, by others as Pan-African Marxism, or just as a continuation of Marxist theory as applied to the African continent and the African diaspora, Rodney’s work has been monumental in advancing and applying scientific socialism to updated physical and temporal regions which were not covered extensively until Rodney. His theories on underdevelopment as part of global capitalism opened up new spaces for theorizing and understanding imperialism, colonialism, and neocolonialism. His work in academia was imbued with a radical, guerrilla, fervor which resulted in institutions and states taking great measures to silence him, and the impact that he had was so monumental that he was tragically assassinated in his home country of Guyana almost 45 years ago. 

We’ve been exploring many ideas on the show recently that are founded on much of Walter Rodney’s work, and so an episode on his life and work are past-due. And we have brought on two guests who we could not be more excited to be having this conversation with. 

D. Musa Springer is a cultural worker, community organizer, and journalist based in Georgia. They are the International Youth Representative for Cuba's Red Barrial Afrodescendiente and an organizer with The Black Alliance for Peace. They produced the documentary “Parchman Prison: Pain & Protest (2020),” and are the host of the Groundings podcast. They are currently working on a documentary project titled “Y Mis Negros Que?”, and their book Alive & Paranoid was published in Spring, 2024 by Iskra Books.

Charisse Burden-Stelly is Associate Professor of African American studies at Wayne State University, a member of The Black Alliance for Peace and Community Movement Builders, and author of Black Scare / Red Scare: Theorizing Capitalist Racism in the United States, published by the University of Chicago Press. You may remember that Charisse was on the show last year to talk about Black Scare / Red Scare.

 In this conversation, we introduce Walter Rodney biographically before we dive into his work applying scientific socialism to Africa, theorizing underdevelopment and capitalism as a world system, applying his work to events happening in the world right now in places like Palestine and Cuba, what Rodney had to say about education and academia, and much, much more.

Further resources:

• Charisse Burden-Stelly
• Black Scare / Red Scare: Theorizing Capitalist Racism in the United States, by Charisse Burden-Stelly
• Alive and Paranoid, by D. Musa Springer
• The Walter Rodney Foundation

Related episodes:

• Upstream: Black Scare / Red Scare with Charisse Burden-Stelly
• Upstream: [UNLOCKED] How the North Plunders the South w/ Jason Hickel

Intermission music: "A Song for Walter Rodney" by Bocaflojay

Cover artwork: B. Mure

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