Guyanese Marxist historian who demonstrated how Europe underdeveloped Africa, scholar-activist of the Pan-African revolution
"For the only great men among the unfree and the oppressed are those who struggle to destroy the oppressor." — How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972)
Born into a working-class family in Georgetown, Rodney earned a PhD in African history at SOAS, University of London at age 24. Teaching at the University of Dar es Salaam and the University of the West Indies, he developed a distinctive synthesis of Pan-Africanism and Marxism. His landmark 1972 book How Europe Underdeveloped Africa demonstrated how the slave trade, colonialism, and the capitalist world system structurally produced Africa's underdevelopment, shifting the paradigm of Third World historiography. Returning to Guyana in 1974, he helped lead the Working People's Alliance, advocating a multiracial socialist politics rooted in working-class solidarity.
Career Timeline
- 1963BA History (first-class honours), University College of the West Indies
- 1966PhD African History, SOAS, University of London
- 1966–1974Lecturer then associate professor, University of Dar es Salaam & UWI Mona
- 1968Banned from Jamaica by Hugh Shearer government; Rodney Riots erupt
- 1972Publishes How Europe Underdeveloped Africa
- 1974–1980Returns to Guyana; active in the Working People's Alliance
- 1979Arrested on arson charges; dismissed for lack of evidence
- 1980Assassinated by car bomb in Georgetown