The Groundings With My Brothers
by Walter Rodney
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"I have sat on a little oil drum, rusty and in the midst of garbage, and some black brothers and I have grounded together."-Walter Rodney In his short life, the Guyanese intellectual Walter Rodney emerged as one of the leading thinkers and activists of the anticolonial revolution, leading movements in North America, South America, the African continent, and the Caribbean. In each locale, Rodney found himself a lightning rod for working class Black Power. His deportation catalyzed twentieth show more century Jamaica's most significant rebellion, the 1968 Rodney riots, and his scholarship trained a generation how to think politics at an international scale. In 1980, shortly after founding of the Working People's Alliance in Guyana, the thirty-eight-year-old Rodney would be assassinated. In this classic work published in the heady days of international black power, Groundings with My Brothers details the global circulation of emancipatory ideas, but also offers first-hand reports of Rodney's mass movement organizing. Introduced and contextualized by leading Caribbean scholar-activists, this updated edition brings Rodney's legacy to a new generation of radicals. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
I want to first say that the reason I am not rating this book is because I took a break and came back to it, and my memory of the first half of the book is a little hazy. I just believe that while this book is good, since I started this book I went through a whole semester of college.
Talking about college I want to mention that this past semester I took a course on the history of North and West Africa, and I really enjoyed it. While reading these essays/speeches in the last few chapters I really connected what I learned in that class with what Rodney was writing about. I really want to reread this book relatively soon because I now know a lot more about African History.
I found Rodney’s writings on Black Power the most interesting show more and the chapter on African History and Culture. They were probably the most enlightening to me, and as someone that wants to be a history teacher I would love to bring one or two of these chapters into a class.
I will say though that the commentaries section was not really my thing, and I did skim it. It wasn’t bad and when I’m interested in learning more about Rodney I will reread it, but I just wasn’t drawn into them.
In the end I feel this was a good introduction into Rodney’s writings and thoughts before tackling one of his more well known works in the future. Let’s just say that I expect to be reading another book of Rodney’s before 2024. show less
Talking about college I want to mention that this past semester I took a course on the history of North and West Africa, and I really enjoyed it. While reading these essays/speeches in the last few chapters I really connected what I learned in that class with what Rodney was writing about. I really want to reread this book relatively soon because I now know a lot more about African History.
I found Rodney’s writings on Black Power the most interesting show more and the chapter on African History and Culture. They were probably the most enlightening to me, and as someone that wants to be a history teacher I would love to bring one or two of these chapters into a class.
I will say though that the commentaries section was not really my thing, and I did skim it. It wasn’t bad and when I’m interested in learning more about Rodney I will reread it, but I just wasn’t drawn into them.
In the end I feel this was a good introduction into Rodney’s writings and thoughts before tackling one of his more well known works in the future. Let’s just say that I expect to be reading another book of Rodney’s before 2024. show less
The groundings with my brothers is about the life and times of Walter Rodney. He was the author of many papers and articles published in magazines and journals throughout the world. On his return home to Guyana he became a member and later a leading spokesman of the Working People's Alliance in opposition to the ruling party in the government.
The chapters are based on speeches. There were five commentaries included.
Rodney's lectures in and about Jamaica.
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Author Information
19+ Works 1,982 Members
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 the striving of the black working classes of show more North America and the Caribbean basin. show less
Common Knowledge
- Important places*
- Guyana
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Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, Anthropology, General Nonfiction, History
- DDC/MDS
- 305.896 — Society, government, & culture Social sciences, sociology & anthropology Social group - Age, Gender, Ethnicity Ethnic and national groups Other ethnic and national groups Africans and people of African descent; Blacks of African origin
- LCC
- F1896 .N4 .R6 — Local History of the United States, Canada and Latin America Latin America. Spanish America Greater Antilles Jamaica
- BISAC
Statistics
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- 212
- Popularity
- 153,612
- Reviews
- 4
- Rating
- (3.36)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 10
- ASINs
- 4
