Walter Rodney

This chapter is about Walter Rodney’s conceptualization of Africa and the lessons that can be learned from it to build a new Africa. Rodney was concerned about the negative impact that Europe and America had on Africa, which stemmed from slavery, injustice, and exploitation as stated in his book titled The Groundings with My Brothers. He further stated that the slave trade and colonization had destroyed many aspects of the African culture. Rodney was equally bothered about the history of underdevelopment in Africa; this underdevelopment was a product of systemic imperialism, capitalism, and colonial exploitation. He lamented in his book titled How Europe Underdeveloped Africa that Africa was developing independently until it was taken over by capitalist powers. Using qualitative explanatory case study methodology, this chapter demonstrates how Rodney exposed the imperialist system that was responsible for Africa’s economic underdevelopment by draining Africa’s wealth and by making it impossible for Africans to make an impact and develop the resources of the continent. Subsequently, the capitalists extended their exploitation from inside Europe and the United States to cover the whole of Africa.