Walter
Rodney, a leading historian of Africa, a political activist and Caribbean
intellectual before his untimely death in 1980, taught African History in
Jamaica at the University of the West Indies Mona Campus in the late 1960s.
Lewis' article revisits Rodney's political activism during this period within
the context of pre-existing social movement among the urban poor and
Rastafarian brethren. Rodney was expelled from the island in 1968 by the
Jamaican government. Lewis argues that his expulsion was based on the fear that
Rodney's interactions with the urban poor and Rastafarian brethren could lead
to the emergence of a radical political ideology which would pose a threat to
the Jamaican political system and its power structure.
This
republication, along with
Walter Rodney's
Intellectual and Political Thought (The Press UWI 1998), also by the same
author, is timely as it marks the 30
th anniversary of Rodney's
expulsion from Jamaica on 16 October 1968.