Development 10

White racist notions are so deep-rooted within capitalist society that the failure of African agriculture to advance was put down to the inherent inferiority of the African. It would be much truer to say that it was due to the white intruders, although the basic explanation is to be found not in the personal ill-will of the colonialists or in their racial origin, but rather in the organised viciousness of the capitalist/colonialist system.

Walter Rodney (1973/1983): 344

Walter Rodney (1942-1980) was a Marxist historian and politician from Guyana. Born into a working-class family, he studied in Guyana and Jamaica and taught in Hamburg and Tanzania, amongst other places. In 1980 he was killed in a bomb attack during the election campaign for the Working People's Alliance. In 2015, a commission of inquiry found that the attack had been carried out by Guyanese government agencies.

In his book, Rodney analysed the social and economic history of Africa from the 14th century to the end of the colonial era. In the 15th century, Europe and Africa were still at the same level. He argued that from then on, through enslavement, imperialist domination, colonisation and general exploitation, Africa became dependent on the West. In his view, this explained Africa’s impoverishment and misery after the end of the colonial era.

Walter Rodney (1973, from reprint 1983): How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications, Dar-Es-Salaam: London and Tanzanian Publishing House, p. 344

1972