Who was Walter Rodney? Is the question that Conscious Lyrics radio magazine will address this weekend, according to Shujah Reiph host/producer of the program.
The two-hours radio program will air on radio on Saturday, March 20, 12 noon, & on Sunday, March 21, at 12:30 noon. The special program is to mark Rodney’s 68th birthday celebration. Walter Rodney was born in Georgetown, Guyana on March 23, 1942.
To help answer the question on this Caribbean scholar Dr. Rodney, Reiph will be joined by Dr. Hubert Devonish professor at University of the West Indies Mona Campus Jamaica. Dr. Devonish is a Guyanese native and lived neighbor to Dr. Rodney in the 1960s in George Town Guyana.
"I first met Walter in 1968 after the Jamaica riot and his returned from Tanzania," said Dr. Devonish.
Rodney has been described by many of his peers as a Caribbean scholar par-excellence. In 1966, at the age of 24 he was awarded a Ph.D. with honors in African History. In 1968 he took up a teaching appointment at the University of the West Indies, this was a period of great political activity in the Caribbean as the countries begun their post colonial journey.
It was in Jamaica when Rodney developed the concept "groundings with my brothers". Professor Rodney started to become popular with the working poor of Jamaica he begun to attract the attention of the government. So, when he attended a Black Writers’ Conference in Montreal, Canada, in October 1968, the Hugh Shearer-led Jamaican Labor Party Government banned him from re-entering the country. This action sparked widespread riots and revolts in Kingston.
"Professor Devonish will mainly elaborate on the period of Dr. Rodney’s life after the Jamaica revolts," confirmed Reiph.
The program will also feature one of Dr. Rodney’s scholarly lectures on Caribbean history. Dr. Rodney was assassinated on June 13, 1980, by a bomb in the middle of Georgetown, Guyana.