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Walter Rodney

175 quotes

“We were told that violence in itself is evil, and that, whatever the cause, it is unjustified morally. By what standard of morality can the violence used by a slave to break his chains be considered the same as the violence of a slave master? By what standards can we equate the violence of blacks who have been oppressed, suppressed, depressed and repressed for four centuries with the violence of white fascists. Violence aimed at the recovery of human dignity and at equality cannot be judged by the same yardstick as violence aimed at maintenance of discrimination and oppression.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Development cannot be seen purely as an economic affair, but rather as an overall social process which is dependent upon the outcome of man’s efforts to deal with his natural environment.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Imperialism is itself a phase of capitalist development in which Western European capitalist countries, the U.S.A., and Japan established political, economic, military, and cultural hegemony over other parts of the world which were initially at a lower level and therefore could not resist domination. Imperialism was in effect the extended capitalist system, which for many years embraced the whole world—one part being the exploiters and the other the exploited, one part being dominated and the other acting as overlords, one part making policy and the other being dependent.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All of the countries named as “underdeveloped” in the world are exploited by others; and the underdevelopment with which the world is now preoccupied is a product of capitalist, imperialist, and colonialist exploitation. African and Asian societies were developing independently until they were taken over directly or indirectly by the capitalist powers. When that happened, exploitation increased and the export of surplus ensued, depriving the societies of the benefit of their and labor. That is an integral part of underdevelopment in the contemporary sense.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“By paying attention to the wealth created by human labor out of nature, one can immediately appreciate that very few underdeveloped countries are lacking in the natural resources which could go into making a better life, and in those cases it is usually possible for two or three territories to combine together for their mutual benefit. In fact, it can be shown that the underdeveloped countries are the ones with the greatest wealth of natural resources and yet the poorest in terms of goods and services presently provided by and for their citizens.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In a way, underdevelopment is a paradox. Many parts of the world that are naturally rich are actually poor and parts that are not so well off in wealth of soil and sub-soil are enjoying the highest standards of living. When the capitalists from the developed parts of the world try to explain this paradox, they often make it sound as though there is something “God given” about the situation.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Africa trades mainly with the countries of Western Europe, North America, and Japan. Africa is also diversifying its trade by dealing with socialist countries, and if that trade proves disadvantageous to the African economy, then the developed socialist countries will also have joined the ranks of the exploiters of Africa.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“African economies are integrated into the very structure of the developed capitalist economies; and they are integrated in a manner that is unfavorable to Africa and insures that Africa is dependent on the big capitalist countries. Indeed, structural dependence is one of the characteristics of underdevelopment.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is a substantial difference between the dependence of the s on the and the subjugation of the colonies under a foreign capitalist yoke. The capitalist countries are technologically more advanced and are therefore the sector of the imperialist system which determined the direction of change. [...] A formerly colonized nation has no hope of developing until it breaks effectively with the vicious circle of dependence and exploitation which characterizes imperialism.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Science and technology derive from the effort to understand and control the natural environment. Familiarity with the history of science is essential to an awareness of the development of society.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Religion is an aspect of the superstructure of a society, deriving ultimately from the degree of control and understanding of the material world. However, when man thinks in religious terms, he starts from the ideal rather than with the material world (which is beyond his comprehension). This creates a non-scientific and metaphysical way of viewing the world, which often conflicts with the scientific materialist outlook and with the development of society.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Communalism is one phase through which all human society passed.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The first prerequisite for mastery of the environment is knowledge of that environment.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If there is no class stratification in a society, it follows that there is no state, because the state arose as an instrument to be used by a particular class to control the rest of society in its own interests.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is said that Ghana obtained its gold by “silent” or “dumb” barter which was described as follows:”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Gold is required in large quantities only in a society which produces a very large economic surplus and can afford to transform part of that surplus into gold for prestige purposes (as in India) or into coinage and money to promote capitalism (as in Western Europe).”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Africa in the fifteenth century was not just a jumble of different “tribes.” There was a pattern and there was historical movement. Societies such as feudal Ethiopia and Egypt were at the furthest point of the process of evolutionary development. Zimbabwe and the Bachwezi states were also clearly on the ascendant away from communalism, but at a lower level than the feudal states and a few others that were not yet feudal such as those in the Western Sudan.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Europeans were anxious to acquire gold in Africa because there was a pressing need for gold coin within the growing capitalist money economy.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“West Africans had developed metal casting to a fine artistic perfection in many parts of Nigeria, but when it came to the meeting with Europe, beautiful bronzes were far less relevant than the crudest cannon.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“African rulers found European goods sufficiently desirable to hand over captives which they had taken in warfare. Soon, war began to be fought between one community and another for the sole purpose of getting prisoners for sale to Europeans, and even inside a given community a ruler might be tempted to exploit his own subjects and capture them for sale. A chain reaction was started by European demand for slaves (and only slaves) and by their offer of consumer goods—this process being connected with divisions within African society.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“John Hawkins made three trips to West Africa in the 1560s, and stole Africans whom he sold to the Spanish in America. On returning to England after the first trip, his profit was so handsome that Queen Elizabeth I became interested in directly participating in his next venture; and she provided for that purpose a ship named the Jesus. Hawkins left with the Jesus to steal some more Africans, and he returned to England with such dividends that Queen Elizabeth made him a knight. Hawkins chose as his coat of arms the representation of an African in chains.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In speaking of the European slave trade, mention must be made of the U.S.A., not only because its dominant population was European but also because Europe transferred its capitalist institutions more completely to North America than to any other part of the globe, and established a powerful form of capitalism—after eliminating the indigenous inhabitants and exploiting the labor of millions of Africans.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The simple fact is that no people can enslave another for centuries without coming out with a notion of superiority, and when the color and other physical traits of those peoples were quite different it was inevitable that the prejudice should take a racist form.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When Europeans put millions of their brothers (Jews) into ovens under the Nazis, the chickens were coming home to roost. Such behavior inside of “democratic” Europe was not as strange as it is sometimes made out to be. There was always a contradiction between the elaboration of democratic ideas inside Europe and the elaboration of authoritarian and thuggish practices by Europeans with respect to Africans.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The opportunity presented by European slave dealers became the major (though not the only) stimulus for a great deal of social violence between different African communities and within any given community. It took the form more of raiding and kidnapping than of regular warfare, and that fact increased the element of fear and uncertainty.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“During the colonial epoch, the British forced Africans to sing,”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Today, the Italians have (hard) wheat foods like spaghetti and macaroni as their staple, while most Europeans use the potato. The Italians took the idea of the spaghetti-type foods from the Chinese noodle after Marco Polo returned from travels there, while Europe adopted the potato from American Indians. In neither case were Europeans enslaved before they could receive a benefit that was the logical heritage of all mankind, but Africans are to be told that the European slave trade developed us by bringing us maize and cassava.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The abandonment of traditional iron smelting in most parts of Africa is probably the most important instance of technological regression.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He who makes the powder wins the war.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So long as there is political power, so long as a people can be mobilized to use weapons, and so long as a society has the opportunity to define its own ideology and culture, then the people of that society have some control over their own destinies, in spite of constraints such as those imposed as the African continent slipped into orbit as a satellite of capitalist Europe. After all, although historical development is inseparable from material conditions and the state of technology, it is also partially controlled by a people’s consciousness at various stages.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Revolution is the most dramatic appearance of a conscious people or class on the stage of history; but, to greater or lesser extent, the ruling class in any society is always engaged in the developmental process as conscious instruments of change or conservatism.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One biographer (a European) had this to say of Shaka”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Warfare comprises not just the encounter of individual soldiers, but (more importantly) a pattern of tactics and strategy in relationship to the opposing forces taken as a whole.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“An army has to be trained, disciplined, and organized so that it is a meaningful unit in peace and in war.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It must be recognized that things such as military techniques were responses to real needs, that the work of the individual originates in and is backed by the action of society as a whole, and that whatever was achieved by any one leader must have been bounded by historical circumstances and the level of development, which determine the extent to which an individual can first discover, then augment, and then display his potential.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Shaka took up many of the military and political techniques of and greatly improved them. That is development. It is a matter of building upon what is inherited and advancing slowly, provided that no one comes to “civilize” you.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Samori Toure was a military genius and a political innovator, who went further than the others in setting up a political administration where a sense of loyalty could prevail over the above clans, localities, and ethnic groups.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All Europeans had derived ideas of racial and cultural superiority between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries, while engaged in genocide and the enslavement of non-white peoples.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is widely accepted that Africa was colonized because of its weakness. The concept of weakness should be understood to embrace military weakness and inadequate economic capacity, as well as certain political weaknesses: namely, the incompleteness of the establishment of nation-states, which left the continent divided, and the low level of consciousness concerning the world at large, which had already been transformed into a single system by the expansion of capitalist relations.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is only the organization and resoluteness of the working class which protects it from the natural tendency of the capitalist to exploit to the utmost.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the epoch of imperialism, the bankers became the aristocrats of the capitalist world.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The simplest form of forced labor was that which colonial governments exacted to carry out “public works.” Labor for a given number of days per year had to be given free for these “public works”—building castles for governors, prisons for Africans, barracks for troops, and bungalows for colonial officials. A great deal of this forced labor went into the construction of roads, railways, and ports to provide the infrastructure for private capitalist investment and to facilitate the export of cash crops.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Portuguese have the worst record of engaging in slavery-like practices, and they too have been repeatedly condemned by international public opinion. One peculiar characteristic Portuguese colonialism was the provision of forced labor not only for its own citizens but also for capitalists outside the boundaries of Portuguese colonies. Angolans and Mozambicans were exported to the South African mines to work for subsistence, while the capitalists in South Africa paid the Portuguese government a certain sum for each laborer supplied.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The contribution to sterling reserves by any colony was a gift to the British treasury, for which the colony received little interest. [...] Men like Arthur Creech-Jones and Oliver Lyttleton, major figures in British colonial policy-making, admitted that in the early 1950s Britain was living on the dollar earnings of the colonies.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Colonialism meant a great intensification of exploitation within Africa—to a level much higher than that previously in existence under communalism or feudal-type African societies. Simultaneously, it meant the export of that surplus in massive proportions, for that was the central purpose of colonialism.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Africa’s contribution to European capitalism was far greater than mere monetary returns. The colonial system permitted the rapid development of technology and skills within the metropolitan sectors of imperialism. It also allowed for the elaboration of the modern organizational techniques of the capitalist firm and of imperialism as a whole. Indeed, colonialism gave capitalism an added lease of life and prolonged its existence in Western Europe, which had been the cradle of capitalism.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The mining that went on in Africa left holes in the ground, and the pattern of agricultural production left African soils impoverished; but, in Europe, agricultural and mineral imports built a massive .”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Undoubtedly, European capitalism achieved more and more a social character in its production. It integrated the whole world; and with colonial experience as an important stimulus, it integrated very closely every aspect of its own economy—from agriculture to banking. But distribution was not social in character. The fruits of human labor went to a given minority class, which was of the white race and resident in Europe and North America. This is the crux of the dialectical process of development and underdevelopment, as it evolved over the colonial period.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Scientific advance is most generally a response to real need.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is the practice of monopoly concerns to move into new fields which supplement or even replace their old business. That is necessary to avoid their entire capital from being tied up in products that go out of fashion.”
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source