Remembering Walter Rodney, assassinated June 13, 1980

Guyanese Pan Africanist historian, anti-imperialist, Marxist, socialist activist and intellectual Walter Rodney was assassinated on June 13, 1980.

Walter Anthony Rodney was born on March 23, 1942, in Georgetown, British Guiana. He earned a first-class honours degree in history at the University College of the West Indies and completed his PhD in African History at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, by age 24. Rodney taught at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and lectured internationally, producing influential, essential works like How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972), which examined the effects of colonialism on African development.

Returning to Guyana in 1974, Rodney became a key figure in the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), opposing the government led by Forbes Burnham. He sought to unite Guyana’s ethnically divided population and advocate for social and economic justice. His activism led to government hostility, including legal charges and repeated threats to his life.

On June 13, 1980, Rodney was killed by a bomb hidden in a walkie-talkie, which exploded in his car, also injuring his brother Donald Rodney.

Rodney is remembered as a transformative scholar and activist. His works continue to inspire Pan-African and socialist movements around the world. Several memorials, lectures, and academic chairs have been established in his honor, including the re-establishment of the Walter Rodney Chair at the University of Guyana and annual commemorations on his birth and death anniversaries. His life remains a powerful example of intellectual and personal courage and commitment to social justice.