How Europe Underdeveloped Africa | Walter Rodney

Foreword by Angela Davis

How did deliberate colonial policies systematically impoverish a resource-rich continent? Walter Rodney investigates in How Europe Underdeveloped Africa.

About the Book:

The classic work of political, economic, and historical analysis, powerfully introduced by Angela Davis

In his short life, the Guyanese intellectual Walter Rodney emerged as one of the leading thinkers and activists of the anticolonial revolution, leading movements in North America, South America, the African continent, and the Caribbean.

In each locale, Rodney found himself a lightning rod for working class Black Power.

His deportation catalyzed 20th century Jamaica's most significant rebellion, the 1968 Rodney riots, and his scholarship trained a generation how to think politics at an international scale.

In 1980, shortly after founding of the Working People's Alliance in Guyana, the 38-year-old Rodney would be assassinated.

In his magnum opus, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Rodney incisively argues that grasping "the great divergence" between the west and the rest can only be explained as the exploitation of the latter by the former.

This meticulously researched analysis of the abiding repercussions of European colonialism on the continent of Africa has not only informed decades of scholarship and activism, it remains an indispensable study for grasping global inequality today.

Summary:

Economic exploitation, imperialist policies, and historical inequality. Walter Rodney delivers a groundbreaking critique in How Europe Underdeveloped Africa.

Frequently Asked Questions About How Europe Underdeveloped Africa:

• Q: Is this book an abstract economic textbook or a narrative history?
  A: This text is a masterwork of political economy and global history. Instead of relying on dry, isolated statistical data, it uses a compelling, systemic narrative to analyze how international trade, slavery, and colonial rule directly shaped the modern structural divide between the West and Africa.
• Q: What is the core thesis or economic argument presented by the author?
  A: Walter Rodney challenges the idea that African "underdevelopment" is a natural state due to geography or internal failures. Instead, he presents a Marxist framework proving that European industrial development and wealth were directly fueled by the systemic extraction of Africa's natural resources and human labor, meaning the two regions developed in direct, inverse proportion to each other.
• Q: Does this specific Verso edition contain any unique features or modern additions?
  A: Yes. This premium edition features a powerful, extensive modern foreword by the iconic activist and scholar Angela Davis. Her introduction analyzes Rodney's enduring legacy and links his historic post-colonial scholarship directly to contemporary anti-imperialist and intersectional feminist movements.
• Q: Who was Walter Rodney and what credentials did he bring to this research?
  A: Dr. Walter Rodney was an internationally renowned Guyanese historian, intellectual, and prominent Pan-African activist. He earned his Ph.D. in African History from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and taught globally before his political organizing as a founder of the Working People's Alliance led to his tragic assassination in Guyana at age 38.
• Q: Does the book blame outside forces entirely, or does it address internal responsibilities?
  A: It balances historical extraction with internal political critique. While showing how colonial monopolies structurally damaged African economies, Rodney also analyzes the compliance of certain historical African elites. He actively argues that a clear understanding of this historical architecture is essential for modern citizens to successfully dismantle neocolonial economic dependencies today.

About the Author:

Walter Rodney: Guyanese Historian

Walter Rodney was an internationally renowned historian of colonialism and a leader of Black Power and Pan-African movements across the diaspora, most notably the Guyanese Working People's Alliance.

His life and work brought together struggles for independence on the African continent with the strivings of the black working classes of North America and the Caribbean basin. On June the 13th, 1980, Rodney was assassinated, most likely by the then-president of Guyana.

He was 38 years old.

Bibliographic Data:

• Full Title: How Europe Underdeveloped Africa
• Author(s): Walter Rodney (Featuring a Foreword by Angela Davis)
• Publisher & Imprint: Verso Books
• Publication Date: November 27, 2018
• Binding Format: Trade Paperback
• Condition: Pre-Owned / Very Good
• Edition: Reprint / New Edition Profile
• Print Length: 416 Pages
• Language: English
• ISBN-13: 9781788731188
• ISBN-10: 1788731182
• Library of Congress (LCCN): 73-162981
• Primary Genre (BISAC): HISTORY / Africa / General
• Sub-Genres (BISAC): POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Economy; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Discrimination & Race Relations; HISTORY / Europe / General
• Dimensions: 5.5 x 1.1 x 8.0 inches
• Weight: 14.4 oz (approx. 0.90 lbs)

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