Walter Rodney (1942–1980)

Although written in 1972 – and the language is somewhat dated – this book seems to hold up very well and still offers a compelling explanation of the relationship between underdeveloped countries and the capitalist countries.
Walter Rodney takes the view that Africa and, by extension, other colonized countries need a radical departure from the international capitalist system to develop in a way that meets their own needs and priorities. While heavily focussed on the economic side of show more development, he also emphasizes the destruction of the former African social systems, and the need to create new social structures to build a fulfilling egalitarian society.
Helpfully for me, Rodney begins with a historical overview of Africa before colonialism, highlighting the continent's transition from communalism to early class-based societies. He explores various regions, such as Egypt, Ethiopia, Nubia and Zimbabwe, and describes their varied societal structures and economic activities. In his description, Africa's pre-contact state was generally transitional, moving towards more advanced class-based societies.
In looking at the impact of European contact, Rodney shows a variety of uneven consequences on political, military and ideological spheres. He describes in detail the economic and social consequences of slave capturing and trading, and how it came to an end when the needs of modernized industry required compliant, not forced, workers.
The end of the slave trade, however, marked a shift in focus to the exploitation of Africa's resources and a new form of colonialism. Rodney argues that European economic growth and dominance relied heavily on resources extracted from Africa, perpetuating a cycle of exploitation.
The late 19th century period of colonization facilitated the export of surplus profits to Europe, leading to the expropriation of African land and minerals. The colonial period saw the establishment, aided by African intermediaries, of monopolies, extractive practices and the integration of African economies into a global capitalist system for the benefit of Europe and North America.
Rodney identifies many impacts of colonialism, including the destruction of traditional states, the undermining of women's roles, ethnic divisions, monoculture and a limited and exploitative education system. He argues that colonial development hindered Africa's progress by preventing the formation of local industries and perpetuating dependency on Western markets. He also rejects the argument that Africa benefited by colonialization through development, pointing out that education, transportation, financial structures and other developments focused solely on creating conditions for profitable development by the colonizing countries. These systems inhibited the building of vigorous indigenous societies.
In the postscript, Rodney underscores the need for Africa's true development to focus on internal needs rather than conforming to the exploitative relationships of the international capitalist market. Rodney says that Africa needs to reject Western-centric approaches in order to address its own internal priorities for genuine progress. “[Exceptional leaders] were those who either completely rejected the worldview of capitalism, or at least stuck honestly to those idealistic tenets of bourgeois ideology, such as individual freedom – and, through experience, they could come to realize that the ideals remained myths in a society based on the exploitation of man by man.”
This book gave me a much clearer view of how international development works under capitalism, with plenty of concrete examples and statements of principles. While it is based in a particular history and a Marxist analysis, it seems to apply well to contemporary situations, including the colonialism of settlers in North America. The forms of (under)development available to Indigenous peoples here in Canada continue to benefit the colonizers and small numbers of leaders who are willing to continue under capitalist economic development. As in Africa, American Indigenous peoples need to identify their own priorities. show less

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.

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.

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 show more 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. show less