Hi Abdou!
I'm glad you enjoyed the article. I have a copy of the book you are reading and it is truly inspirational. Walter Rodney was a great man who made an impact not only in the Caribbean but also in Africa. If you have not read How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, I urge you to. Have a good evening.
Buharry.
-----Ursprungligt meddelande-----
Från: abdou sanneh <[log in to unmask]>
Till: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Datum: den 12 maj 2002 11:34
Ämne: Re: FWD: The Walter Rodney factor in West Indian literature
>Mr Gassama thanks for your background information on
>Walter Rodney.I am now reading one of his book-The
>history of the upper Guinea coast.I was happy with
>your posting because it gave a detail information
>about Rodney's role not only as a scholar but a
>political activist.My brother from the philosophy of
>Marcus Garvey to Walter Rodney, I belief
>rastafarianism and reggae music is nothing order than
>a resistance and protest against oppression,
>de-humanisation,colonialism, imperialism etc.I think
>for most of us fighting against oppression in Africa,
>Walter Rodney is an inspiration.
>Abdou Karim Sanneh
>Manchester UK
>--- MOMODOU BUHARRY GASSAMA <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> The Walter Rodney factor in West Indian literature
>>
>>
>> by Al Creighton - First posted in Stabroek News on
>> June 18th. 2000
>>
>> On October 16, 1968, news of the expulsion of
>> historian Dr Walter Rodney from Jamaica swept
>> rapidly across the Mona Campus of UWI - Rodney had
>> first gone to Mona as an undergraduate and following
>> his Honours Degree in history in 1963, had gone to
>> the School of Oriental and African Studies at the
>> University of London (SOAS) as a doctoral student.
>> He had then returned as a lecturer in the History
>> Department at Mona, and West Indian Literature has
>> never been the same since.
>>
>> As the new Michaelmas began in October 1968, Rodney
>> had left the campus to attend a black writers
>> conference in Canada and, after having secretly
>> followed his every movement in Kingston and beyond,
>> the Jamaican government seized that opportunity to
>> deny the Guyanese academic re-entry into the
>> country. Despite the grand historic state visit of
>> His Imperial Majesty Haile Selasse I of Ethiopia to
>> Kingston in 1966, the government felt very insecure
>> about Africanness, about communism/socialism and
>> radical politics and viewed anything proclaiming
>> itself as black with great suspicion. Since joining
>> the staff at UWI, Walter Rodney had attracted their
>> attention because of his venturing beyond the safe
>> boundaries of the campus to teach African history in
>> some of the more depressed communities and because
>> of his embracing of scientific socialism.
>>
>> Black Power from North America was already a major
>> influence in the Caribbean and a Rastafarianism that
>> had been becoming much more outgoing and articulate
>> had been claiming its place in a society in need of
>> greater consciousness of its cultural heritage.
>> Independent Jamaica was six years old and struggling
>> to find itself in the middle of ideological racial
>> voices shouting from the left and from the right.
>> The Jamaica Labour Party government led by Hugh
>> Shearer belonged emphatically to the right, a
>> position it fiercely defended by marshalling such
>> forces as police activity, the banning of literature
>> and persons, among other impositions. One was
>> allowed to be as revolutionary as one fancied within
>> the Ivory Tower on the campus at Mona (already ceded
>> as foreign territory) but bringing such dangerous
>> academic activity out in the local communities as
>> the likes of Rodney, Clive Y. Thomas, Arnold
>> Bertram, Rupert Lewis, Ralph Gonsalves and later
>> Trevor Munroe were doing was not to be tolerated.
>>
>> Already there were signals that the literature was
>> responding to the socio-political developments by
>> challenging authority. The powerful urban
>> sub-culture that gave rise to the Rude-Boy
>> phenomenon had only recently expressed itself in
>> ska, rock steady and reggae music between 1963 and
>> 1967. This grew into more systematic songs of
>> political protest in 1968. The social, cultural,
>> political and ethnic conflicts including
>> Rastafarianism and the urban sub-culture were
>> reflected in Eddie (Kamau) Brathwaite's impactful
>> books of poems Rights of Passage (1967) and Masks
>> (1968) to be followed by Islands in 1969. When
>> Rodney was declared persona non grata, the literary
>> revolt immediately escalated.
>>
>> The banning triggered off an explosion which started
>> among students on the campus. They barred the gates,
>> shut down classes and marched seven miles to Gordon
>> House (the seat of parliament) in downtown Kingston,
>> fighting police road blocks and tear gas at several
>> points. During the day they were joined by sixth
>> formers from some secondary schools and after they
>> returned to Mona, groups of people on the streets
>> took up the cause in a series of riots in the city.
>> While violence spread across Kingston, the students
>> kept the campus closed for two weeks, joined by
>> several lecturers and even winning the sympathy of
>> then Vice Chancellor Sir Philip Sherlock, who is,
>> among other things, a published poet and compiler of
>> folk literature.
>>
>> The issue forced widely publicized debates in
>> parliament with the government claiming that
>> national security was under threat and appealing to
>> nationalist and patriotic sentiments against an
>> invasion of foreign subversive communist academics.
>> The academic community responded with a sudden rise
>> of public intellectualism, at first to defend itself
>> against government attack, while explaining the
>> legitimacy of its activities and its right to become
>> involved in public affairs to the public. This was
>> mixed with protest and new outlets for radical
>> thought. Many new periodical publications emerged.
>> Among the most important were Tapia and Moko Jumbie
>> (Trinidad), Abeng and Savacou (Jamaica).
>>
>> Abeng, taking its name from the shell/horn used by
>> slaves as a means of coded communication, was among
>> the most devoted to political protest while others
>> played a more lasting role in the growth of creative
>> literature. Tapia (a name taken from a form of slave
>> housing) was published by Tapia House in Trinidad as
>> a journal which changed its name to The Trinidad and
>> Tobago Review and still survives. It has contributed
>> considerably to the development of the literature
>> through its publication of work and of critical
>> articles. But a much more substantial role was
>> played by Savacou, started on the Mona campus.
>>
>> Savacou 3/4 made quite a stir in West Indian
>> literary criticism when it published a collection of
>> poetry in 1970 which came out of radical
>> developments in the literary form. It was the first
>> major publication of a new poetry including the now
>> very important dub poetry which grew out of the
>> Walter Rodney uprisings. It brought creole poetry to
>> the fore and moved literary/scribal poetry much
>> closer to oral forms, performance poetry, oral
>> literature and the oral tradition.
>>
>> Rodney's direct influence had much to do with this
>> in more ways than one. His activities in Jamaica in
>> 1968 deepened the alliance of West Indian writing
>> and literature with grassroots sensibilities and a
>> proletarian consciousness, which continued at the
>> core of the new poetry. This kind of communal focus
>> was also a part of the protest at his banning which
>> continued even a year after, because in 1969,
>> another Guyanese academic at Mona, economist Dr C.Y.
>> Thomas was expelled by the JLP regime. In addition,
>> Rodney's was the kind of historiography that came
>> out of close attention to proletarian and peasant
>> points of view. He published the famous Groundings
>> With My Brothers out of his experiences in the
>> depressed Kingston communities and How Europe
>> Underdeveloped Africa.
>>
>> After October 1968 there developed the Yard Theatre
>> movement (not to be confused with the earlier
>> "Backyard theatre"). In Yard theatre, there were
>> performances of poetry, readings and other oral
>> presentations often accompanied by music,
>> particularly drums. The African drum and the Rasta
>> drum were prominent, as were reggae music and reggae
>> rhythms. The creole verse of Louise Bennett set the
>> pattern for countless performances, became much more
>> popular than previously and influenced many other
>> poets to write in the creole language(s).
>>
>> The trilogy of Eddie Kamau Brathwaite (The
>> Arrivants) was also very popular with several
>> readings performed in yard theatre concerts.
>> Brathwaite himself often appeared to read and there
>> were powerful recordings made of him reading to the
>> accompaniment of drums.
>>
>> In keeping with Rodney's 'groundings with brothers'
>> concept, yard theatre was performed, not in
>> established theatres, but in a variety of
>> unconventional venues and in communities. Out of
>> this grew 'performance poetry' and 'dub poetry' (not
>> to be confused with DJ dub which grew out of the
>> dance hall phenomenon).
>>
>> These new forms which were published in Savacou
>> developed to become very influential not only in the
>> rise of dub poetry but in West Indian literature
>> generally. Oral performances of the literature
>> intensified, 'Rapso' rhythms and verse developed in
>> Trinidad as did 'performance poetry' in England.
>> Established poets such as Dennis Scott and Mervyn
>> Morris made profound use of 'Dread talk' and creole
>> sensibilities in literary verse while many prose
>> fiction writers freely explored the range of
>> linguistic forms strongly influenced by
>> consciousness of the oral tradition. West Indian
>> literature has gained and diversified in value out
>> of this.
>> The work of Dr Rodney in Jamaica and the waves that
>> were generated by his expulsion can claim some of
>> the responsibility for these advancements.
>>
>> Note:
>> Revolutionary literature, largely in the form of
>> reggae lyrics intensified and helped Michael
>> Manley's People's National Party to sweep aside
>> Shearer's JLP in the 1972 elections. Manley made
>> full use of the music, the new literature and its
>> underlying consciousness in his campaign. He also
>> revoked the ban on Rodney and Thomas but, strangely,
>> it took him some three years to do it.
>>
>> * Arnold Bertram, a former UWI student Union
>> Chairman, became a Minister in Manley's Cabinet.
>>
>=== message truncated ===
>
>
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