On Monday, February 8th at the Brecht Forum (451 West Street btw. Bank & Bethune Streets, New York, NY) filmmaker Clairmont Chung will be screening what looks to be a fantastic new documentary on Guyanese scholar, activist and author Walter Rodney, best known as the author of How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972), who was assassinated in 1980 for his wide-reaching and popular political beliefs of post-independence Guyana and other countries in the West Indies.
Educated at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica and the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, Rodney was awarded his PhD with honors in African History. An advocate for the downtrodden in the Caribbean, Rodney was among the many who fought for the empowerment of Black folks of the region and publicly rejected the authoritarian role of the middle-class political elite, making him especially poplular among Rastafarians in Jamaica with whom he shared his vast knowledge of African history. When the Jamaican government banned Rodney in October 1968 from ever returning to the country, riots broke out because of his advocacy for the working poor in that country, eventually claiming the lives of several people and causing millions of dollars in damages. These riots, which started on October 16, 1968, are now known as the Rodney Riots, and they triggered an increase in political awareness across the Caribbean. This is documented in his book, The groundings with my brothers.
Walter Rodney is a personal hero of mine. I always said that eventually I would do a doc on him but I'm glad that Chung beat me to the punch. Come out and support it if you can.
For more info on Walter Rodney, go to the website for The Guyana and Caribbean Political & Cultural Center for Popular Education website or to Wikipedia, from which I compiled many of the facts above.
(this is also posted on Shadow And Act's website)
trailer - W.A.R. Stories: Walter Anthony Rodney doc
