Decolonial Marxism: Essays from the Pan-African Revolution - Walter Rodney
Published in 2022 by Verso, London, UK and New York, NY
336 pages
ISBN: 978-1-83976-411-0
Colonization has been a key component in the historical and social development of contemporary capitalism. The Atlantic Slave Trade was a key driver of economic development for colonizing nations, as the imperial ambitions of Britain, France, Spain, and the Netherlands led them to violently extract natural resources and free labor from the African continent, the Caribbean, and South America. Far from aiding in developing Africa and other “Third World” nations, the West was able to accumulate its wealth through the exploitation and purposeful underdevelopment of Africa.
No scholar has illustrated this phenomenon of underdevelopment more clearly than Guyanese political activist and historian Walter Rodney. Writing at the height of the African independence movements of the 1960s and 70s, Rodney not only theorized about decolonization but actively participated in it as well. In his highly influential 1972 book, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Rodney argued that Europe placed Africa under horrific conditions that inhibited its ability to autonomously develop, enriching itself in the process. His work was widely felt both in and outside of the academy, as activists and revolutionaries utilized Rodney’s theory of underdevelopment in their struggles for independence. Rodney himself was on the frontlines of these struggles, as his Pan-Africanist thought led him to unite class struggles across Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas.
After a period of intense political activism, on June 13, 1980, Rodney was assassinated by a car bomb explosion in Georgetown, Guyana. While his murderers have never been formally identified, it is widely believed that Guyanese president Linden Forbes Burnham coordinated -- or at least was complicit in -- the assassination, as Rodney’s militant activism and open criticism of Burnham as “authoritarian” and a “pseudo-socialist” posed a threat to his position of power (adding another stain against Burham’s legacy, which includes openly allowing Jim Jones and his followers to settle in Guyana and then allegedly attempting to cover up their mass suicide event). At only 38 years old at the time of his death, Rodney still managed to leave an indelible mark on the world and the Pan-Africanist struggle. One of the keys to Rodney’s incisive insights can be attributed to his fusion of Pan-Africanist thought with Marxism.
Karl Marx’s impact on the history of philosophy and political theory can be felt far and wide. While some have accused Marx’s work of privileging a Eurocentric perspective on economics, this is a one-dimensional perspective. Marx consistently argued that colonialism was a central driving force for the rise and perpetuation of capitalism. Rodney’s utilization of Marxism is not a matter of theoretical convenience; rather Rodney saw Marxism and decolonial thought as inseparable. Rodney believed that Marx’s thought could be applied to the struggle for African liberation and debates around African socialism during the 1970s. Rodney was a prolific writer during his life, yet several of his works have only recently been published. Collecting several of Rodney’s previously unpublished essays in one volume, Decolonial Marxism: Essays from the Pan-African Revolution illustrates Rodney’s application of a Marxist theory of development to tangible historical events and social contexts in the Global South.
Overview:
Bringing together a wide collection of previously unpublished essays from Rodney, Decolonial Marxism illustrates Rodney’s ability to apply classical Marxist theory to Pan-African thought. Rodney articulates what the theory and praxis of Marxism mean for the formerly colonized nations of the Global South as he applies Marx’s theory of development to the discourse of African socialism during the 1960s and 70s. Drawing on the importance of thinkers and political figures such as Amílcar Cabral and C.L.R. James, Rodney unearths how Marxism, a philosophy founded in Western Europe, can speak to the African context.
Covering a wide range of topics, such as the role of class struggle in Africa and the Caribbean, the growing role of formal education in Tanzania, and the effects of colonialism on the Global South, Rodney provides a snapshot image of Africa and the Caribbean during the 1970s. Rodney’s analysis spreads across multiple continents as he discusses the essential role that slavery played in the underdevelopment of Africa, the development of Ujamaa under Nyerere’s Tanzania, and the transition from a colonized state to socialism, and what national liberation means in the global emancipatory context of Pan-Africanism. In each of these essays, we see Rodney rigorously applying the internationalism of Marxism to the specific historical, social, and economic contexts of formally colonized nations.
Deeper Dive:
The book is divided into four main sections, each covering a broad swath of topics. In the first section, titled “Marxist Theory and Mass Action,” Rodney provides the theoretical framework that will inform his analysis of colonialism in Africa. He begins with a tribute to revolutionary poet and anticolonial activist Amílcar Cabral, who was assassinated in 1973. Rodney was highly influenced by Cabral’s thought and activism, as he writes, “Cabral’s greatness is tied into the forward movement of the labouring population of the Guinea-Bissau, Africa and the Third World. Not only is he a product and spokesman for that movement, but he has been an active agent in moulding the force of change in an anti-imperialist direction” (6). Taking the differing application of Marxism to the Soviet Union and Maoist China as a point of departure, Rodney is deeply focused on applying the principles of Marxism outside of its typical European context. One of Rodney’s foremost concerns is how Marxist theory can inform and shape revolutionary practice within the specific context of post-colonial Africa and the Caribbean. Utilizing a rigorous application of dialectical materialism, Rodney subjects Marxist theory to scrutiny in the face of imperialism and the exploitation of African nations, often interrogating the connections between labor and the historical process, as well as the role of the historian in effecting revolutionary change.
The second section of the book, titled “Development and Underdevelopment,” sees Rodney investigating the relationship between race and class in the context of colonialism and the underdevelopment of the Global South. Here, we see the seeds that would inform his larger work, most notably How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972). He discusses the historical context of Africa’s underdevelopment, illustrating how trade relations, technological development, and competition between colonial powers led to the extraction of resources from the African continent and the enslavement of its population for free labor. He also argues that slavery and colonialism were tools that served to stabilize and expand the reach of capitalism by bolstering the capitalist/colonial nations and their influence on the global economy.
In the third section, titled “Their Pedagogy and Ours,” Rodney turns to the impact of colonial education and pedagogy in national liberation struggles. He argues that the colonial education system serves to reify bourgeois ideology by naturalizing and universalizing arbitrary hierarchies and imposing them upon African contexts. By taking an idealist approach rather than the dialectical materialist one found in the scientific socialism of Marxism, colonial pedagogies alienate the population from their material conditions of existence and disconnect them from one another, which serves to bolster capitalist class relations and further secure hegemonic grip of imperialism. Rodney then turns toward the education system of Tanzania as an example of radically emancipatory pedagogy. Tanzania utilizes the majority-spoken local language of Swahili over the colonial language of English and emphasizes the role of self-reliance in their pedagogy, which Rodney believes are essential elements of radical education that should be replicated in other formally colonized countries.
The fourth and final portion of the book, titled “Building Socialism,” tackles one of the thorniest issues in Lefist literature: how to practically build socialism in the context of global capitalism. To begin, Rodney once again turns toward Tanzania, specifically Nyerere’s program of Ujamaa (“cooperative economics”). According to Rodney, just as Mao understood the contradictions within Chinese society and adjusted Marxism to fit their particular context, Nyerere’s program of Ujamma is the Tanzanian attempt to do something similar. Rodney believes that such an economy must prioritize the worker and be committed to an internationalist revolutionary stance while also being pragmatic and flexible to make necessary adjustments according to shifting contexts. He also believes that several of the essential questions regarding the transition to socialism are difficult to answer in the abstract, but will crystalize and move through the dialectical process in practice. He finishes the book with an essay on decolonization, arguing for a materialist analysis of the current uneven distribution of wealth and the extraction of resources from the Global South. Combating a purely idealist form of decolonization, Rodney centers the role of labor within the economic model of colonialism and points toward a way beyond it. For Rodney, national independence is not the end of the process of decolonization; rather, it is just the beginning.
Commendations:
Decolonial Marxism is an exemplary work from Rodney in several key respects. As we see in his other work, Rodney displays a brilliant understanding of theory and how to put it into praxis. Throughout these essays, Rodney deftly applies Marxist theory to the discourses that enveloped Africa and the Caribbean during the 1960s and 70s. The breadth of his knowledge is undeniably impressive, as he discusses the history of slavery, economic trade routes, political differences, the underdevelopment of the Global South, and the role of education in both colonial and decolonial contexts. Accompanying this breadth is also a depth that illustrates Rodney’s firm grasp on theory, as he dives deeply into Marxist theory while keeping it clear and accessible for the average reader. Rodney keenly applies dialectical materialism to the post-colonial context, especially in Tanzania, and his work serves as a fantastic example for contemporary Marxists on how to analyze the class structure of a particular society at a specific historical moment and develop a cogent and unique revolutionary strategy.
This unwavering commitment to historical materialism and revolutionary praxis is one of Rodney’s key strengths. It offers a necessary rejoinder to rebuff a certain branch of contemporary postcolonial scholarship often mired in idealism. In my experience, much of contemporary Western academic decolonial studies all too often calls on individuals to “decolonize our minds” by simply adding more diverse authors to their syllabi, patting themselves on the back for employing decolonial rhetoric while ignoring or actively suppressing protests against modern settler-colonial regimes. By contrast, Rodney’s colonialism is inextricably linked to a tangible political project rooted in a mass class struggle to change the material conditions of workers around the world. For Rodney, “decolonialization is going to be totally inseparable from a total strategy for liberation that encompasses a control of the material resources, which encompasses a restructuring of the society so that those who produce have the principal say in how their wealth is going to be distributed” (300).
Since the burgeoning of decolonial studies as an academic discipline, particularly at Binghamton and Duke, Marxism has too often crudely been castigated as simple “class reductionism” and charged with being a Eurocentric, Western epistemology. Instead of viewing Marxism as a rigid, frozen school of thought trapped within the confines of its cultural and national origin in Western Europe, Rodney saw that the tradition was “an ongoing social product which has to be adapted to their own society” (50).
As such, rather than a stagnant, finished product, Marxism is a vibrant and complex collage of practice and thought that could be applied in different ways according to specific contexts. Far from conflicting with anticolonial thought, Marxism in Rodney’s eyes was a powerful tool that could be utilized to further the revolutionary struggles in the Global South. Contemporary decolonial studies’ narrow focus on culture, consciousness, and epistemology, while important to consider, often occludes the roles of class formation and mass organization. By taking decolonial thought outside of the confines of the academy and into the hands of the laboring class, Rodney follows Nyerere’s dictum that “ Educational transformation alone, will never lead to the total liberation of society. Indeed, it is dialectically impossible for profound change to take place in the old educational system without antecedent and concomitant transformations of all aspects of the political economy.” [1]
Rodney’s intervention illustrates the importance of Marxism as a global force for mass organization which can challenge the powers of capitalism and imperialism. In a brilliant move of revealing the dialectics between the universal and the particular, Rodney writes, “Marxism can only be of value if whatever it takes to be the universal is applied to the particular; and it is in the very particularity of the exercise that one will demonstrate that the universal is actually universal and that it is applicable” (70). This echoes the Hegelian notion of retroactivity, and that each failure of the dialectic is, in a way, a “necessary failure.” Instead of resolving contradictions to reach a higher synthesis, Hegel insists that we dig further down into more intractable and fundamental contractions, each dialectic process fueling the next stage of the dialectic. As such, when it comes to history, when Hegel says “The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the coming of the dusk,” we see that each particular is an attempt to resolve the universal contradiction which can only be evaluated in retrospect. Rodney takes this insight to illustrate how Marxism can only be deemed universal if it is placed into the particularity of specific geopolitical and social contexts and succeeds in addressing its needs.
As such, Rodney’s work continues to be relevant in analyzing the state of contemporary African communities. Since Rodney’s tragic murder, much of what he lamented about Africa’s underdevelopment has unfortunately continued and even accelerated in the decades of neoliberalism. Income inequality is exponentially increasing, not only in Africa but globally as well, leaving many workers in a state of perpetual financial precarity. Much to the chagrin of the likes of Steven Pinker, the material conditions of the average worker around the world are getting worse, not better. In the decades since Rodney’s passing, Leftist organizations have not been able to coalesce around a unified vision and build cogent political power. Rodney’s analysis in these essays is prescient, as he predicted that there would be many obstacles to face in building an anti-colonial future.
One of these obstacles Rodney foresaw was the ability of opportunistic figures within the anti-colonial movement to sidetrack the struggle against the forces of capitalism in favor of nationalistic policies and rhetoric. Rodney believed that political independence alone would not guarantee emancipation for the working peoples of Africa, and he sharply criticized those, such as Senghor, who eschewed traditional Marxist and anticapitalist praxis in favor of “African socialism” that “leaves capitalism and imperialism unchallenged” (Chapter 13). Rodney identified the difficulty that could arise in the transition between colonialism and colonialism could be disrupted by the institution of a neocolonial state by the national bourgeoisie who cloak themselves in revolutionary rhetoric. Even in the second decade of the twenty-first century, this is still a timely and pressing reminder of just how much work is left to do if we hope to build a livable future.
Critique:
On the other hand, this volume suffers from a few small shortcomings. First and foremost, as a collection of previously unpublished essays written within the context of specific events, it is unfortunate that no dates are attached to any of these entries. It would have been immensely helpful to have a brief paragraph before each essay to introduce the work and aid the reader in situating Rodney’s writing in a historical context. Even if a simple date were added to the beginning of each essay, that would be an important addition to situate Rodney’s work within his own life and bibliography to see how his ideas developed over time.
Additionally, since many of Rodney’s essays in this volume have overlapping themes, they can often be overly repetitive at times. This is mostly because these essays were written over a brief and specific period, address specific historical debates, and are organized by theme in the structure of this book. This is especially true if one is already familiar with Rodney’s larger work -- especially How Europe Underdeveloped Africa-- since Rodney repeats and elaborates upon several of the themes found in earlier works.
Finally, while there is much within these essays that still finds relevance within our contemporary socio-political condition, some of the ideas are unfortunately a bit dated. Undoubtedly, this is to be expected, as the world has changed dramatically over the past half-century. The decline of Keynesian economics in the West in favor of neoliberal policies, the dissolution of the Soviet Union leading to Fukuyama’s “end of history,” and the resultant effect that free-market capitalism has eroded the foundations of democracy in favor of neocolonial authoritarianism are all developments that Rodney could not foresee. As such, in light of recent history, Rodney’s analysis seems overly hopeful at some times and incomplete at others. One cannot help but feel the sting of Rodney’s absence, wondering how he would explain why Ujamaa failed, or how he would have organized communities across the African diaspora.
Conclusion:
Overall, Decolonial Marxism is an enduring and essential collection of Rodney’s work, adding context to his larger corpus of work. While slightly repetitive and dated in places, Rodney’s work remains essential reading for anyone interested in the history of modern Africa and the effects of colonialism. Rodney remains one of the most accessible writers on the subject, seamlessly balancing critical theory with revolutionary praxis that will appeal to historians and activists alike. Decolonial Marxism offers a necessary corrective to the field of decolonial studies, reminding the reader that the material conditions of laborers must remain the center of Marxist analysis.
In his tribute to the recently assassinated Amilcar Cabral, Rodney wrote, “One can say that Amilcar Cabral still remains an active agent working against imperialism, both through the legacy of his thought and in the structures he left behind” (6). While much in the world Rodney left behind in the wake of his own assassination has changed, the lessons we can learn from his analysis and activism in Africa and the Caribbean remain timeless examples of how academics and activists today can fight for the liberation of all peoples. While the powerful might have killed Rodney’s body, they could not contain his spirit, as his ideas will live on and remain vibrant among anti-colonial activists and abolitionists across the globe.
[1]: Nyerere, J.K. (1971). “Education.” In Education and Black Struggle: Notes from a Colonized World, The Institute of the Black World, ed., pp.100-105. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Educational Review, 1974