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Walter Rodney (1942–1980)

Författare till How Europe Underdeveloped Africa

18+ verk 1,369 medlemmar 13 recensioner

Om författaren

Walter Rodney was an internationally renowned historian of colonialism and a leader of Black Power and Pan-African movements across the diaspora, most notably with the Guyanese Working People's Alliance. His life and work brought together the struggles for independence on the African continent with visa mer the striving of the black working classes of North America and the Caribbean basin. visa färre

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How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney i African/African American Literature (september 2021)

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Sadly my copy of this is corrupted so unreadable after page 99. The first hundred pages or so indicate that this is a very important book, albeit one delivered in quite dry prose. Worth coming back to.
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elahrairah | 9 andra recensioner | Jan 24, 2024 |
Very interesting and informative analysis of the processes through which capitalism generated colonialism, and that in turn manufactured underdevelopment in Africa.

This is a very dense, and at times slightly scattered read, so it requires a lot of undivided attention (which I didn't necessarily always have while listening to the audiobook). The book is also a bit dated now, so some points would need updating.

Still, an illuminating read.
 
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bookforthought | 9 andra recensioner | Nov 7, 2023 |
If you’re interested in the history of African colonization, you should definitely include this book in your reading list. It follows the resurgence in African history in the 1960s (“resurgence” meaning it was finally taken more seriously by academia) and the recent African independence movement in the 20th century. I’m fairly familiar with African Francophone history but am not an expert in 20th century world history, even so there are a couple of points I don’t think hold up.

The general thesis of the book I think is spot on: colonialism was fueled by capitalism, and capitalism was fueled by colonialism, especially colonialism in Africa. Capitalism was just a budding concept when colonialism began, so it is impossible to say how one might have developed without the other. That being said, I don’t think socialist and communist countries are innocent parties in colonialism. Dr. Rodney mentions that North Korea should be an example to newly independent countries, and though I don’t know much about North Korea in the 70s, and even if North Korea is significantly less colonialist than more capitalist countries, it certainly fails any test of humanitarianism today. Similarly, Dr. Rodney praises China’s lack of exploitation of Africa. I’m not sure if that was true in the 70s, but today’s Belt and Road Initiative makes clear that even socialist China is more than willing to exploit developing countries to make a profit.

Even if you agree with socialist ideas, I think the book goes a little far in glorifying socialism as anti-colonialism. I think Dr. Rodney is dead on right that capitalism is inherently linked in many ways to exploitation and colonialism (either in flag or economics), and the book is worth ready even only as a historic work in itself. This laid a lot of groundwork for future studies of colonialism and the impact it continues to have on modern Africa.
… (mer)
 
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Sennie_V | 9 andra recensioner | Mar 22, 2022 |
An extremely well-researched text detailing the effects on African people and societies of their asymmetrical relationship with European states and capitalists starting in the 16th century.

So much so, that it was somewhat hard for me to read. There were a lot of numbers, figures, and specific anecdotes which clearly were important for backing up his argument, but slowed down my reading of the book. Regardless, I took a lot out of it. I feel like I can explain how Western European states and investors contributed to the suffering of Africans and the relative poverty they face now compared to wealthier societies and more powerful states.

All that said, the author is a Marxist-Leninist. This might just be the first book I've read that speaks positively of East Germany.
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100sheets | 9 andra recensioner | Jun 7, 2021 |

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Verk
18
Även av
1
Medlemmar
1,369
Popularitet
#18,786
Betyg
4.0
Recensioner
13
ISBN
49
Språk
5

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