Cure for Guyana’s politics (Part 1)

Dear Editor,
In Minette Bacchus’s letters to the editors dated June 15 and June 18, 2017 respectively, and with captions “This is a Dictatorial Party Whose Leaders Were Never Elected” and “Rodney was no Saint”, reference was made to Mr Ivan Van Sertima (1935-2009, aged 74) as someone worthier of recognition in Guyana than Dr. Walter Rodney (1942-1980, aged 38). Both great Guyanese have dominated on the world stage, and their works live on in various academic fields, such as history, anthropology, economics, politics and philosophy.
I will not dwell on the works of Mr Van Sertima in this article. Suffice to say that what Rodney has done for Guyana exceeds and triumphs any works done by other Guyanese.
My conviction is that, of the Guyanese icons, Dr Walter Rodney is the pre-eminent Guyanese. While both deserve awards and the naming of institutions in their honour, as do several other Guyanese, having a Walter Rodney Day as a national holiday is quite deserving for this great son of Guyana’s soil.
Walter Rodney’s magnum opus and seminal book, on “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa”, was published in 1972, when Walter was thirty years of age. The book became required reading in several universities across different continents.
In the introduction to the book, which encompassed communalism, feudalism, capitalism, colonialism and imperialism; Vincent Hardy, Robert Hill and William Strickland referred to the book as “an unparalleled work of historical analysis”.
Walter was a revolutionary scholar akin to Jean-Paul Sartre’s description of Che Guevara, thus “I believe this man was not only an intellectual, but the most perfect man of his time”. Walter Rodney died as a martyr for the freedom of Guyanese, during his remarkable efforts to diminish the colossal oppression and subjugation of the masses. There is a visceral connection between the political, social, and working-class groups to the life and works of Rodney that transcends status and race. Rodney’s death was as a result of his efforts on behalf of progressive people against human degradation of Africans, Indians, Europeans, Chinese, native Americans and other race admixtures.
Without prejudice, it is my view that a national holiday for Walter Rodney would be most fitting.
Vincent Harding, on first meeting Rodney, noted: “Like many persons at the conference, my first impression of this slightly built, soft spoken, dark skinned brother from Guyana was his capacity to speak without notes – and without rhetorical flourish – for more than an hour, and yet have his highly informative material so carefully and cogently organized that it would have been possible to take it directly from a transcript and publish it…”.
After the cancellation of his appointment at the University of Guyana in 1974, the following was noted in the Introduction of ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’: “Walter Rodney, the revolutionary-scholar, began once more to dig deeply into the soil of his native land. In spite of invitations and appeals from many places, he steadfastly refused to leave Guyana on any permanent basis…Father Bernard Drake, a priest who was a reporter for the Catholic Standard, was fatally stabbed in the back as he stood observing a pro-WPA demonstration outside the court building… From that point on, a repressive situation deteriorated into police beatings and escalating threats of “extermination” by Burnham against Walter and other leaders of the opposition WPA.… He had ominously told some of us in this country that we might not see him again… For Walter Rodney, the WPA was one element of the job, and his research and writing was another. He saw no contradiction between them. All elements of the task were held firmly together by the righteous integrity of his life, the disciplined power of his visions, and his undying love for the people and their possibilities…But, as it was said of Malcolm X, so it could be said of Walter: “He become much more than there was time for him to be.”
Rodney was multilingual; fluent in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French and Swahili. Any serious student of African history will consider it necessary to read the seminal work of one of Guyana’s finest sons.

Sincerely,
Nigel Hinds