The life and times of late Guyanese historian and political activist, Walter Rodney, continues to inspire millions of social activists today including an environmental rights focused civil society group, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), says its Director, Dr Nnimmo Bassey.   

Dr Bassey disclosed this on Tuesday, June 14, 2022, at an online conference tagged: ‘Conversation with Walter Rodney’ in memory of Rodney who was assassinated on Friday, June 13, 1980, was co-facilitated and anchored by him and Ken Henshaw, a Civil Society Activist, with participants from across the country.

Referencing late Walter Rodney’s book, ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’, Dr Bassey surmised that it provided academic insights that spurred African Nationalists to confront imperialism and colonialism.

To him, the present generation of young Africans were lacking in the sense of patriotism that fueled the neo-African nationalism that extricated the continent from the political grip of Europe and America, hence the need for a platform that empowers young people to appreciate and leverage knowledge from heroes like Rodney.

Lead Discussant at the virtual conference and an International Scholar in African American Affairs, Professor Horace Campbell, made a case for mainstreaming the advantageous narratives of Africa and her heroes, especially their sterling achievements.

The Professor of Political Science and African American Studies at Syracuse University alerted on the existential imperialist agenda to emplace an invidious perception of nothing good about Africa whilst the Western world continues to plunder its vast and limitless resources as raw materials for their industrial revolutions.

The globally acclaimed academic reminisced that despite being was assassinated 42 years ago, Walter Rodney’s ideals and concepts, which he worked to propagate, still resonates, adding that capitalism exploited resources to the detriment of the people.

Prof. Campbell posited that Africa’s potentials were still emasculated by the socio-political, socio-economic and socio-cultural challenges confronting it, pointing out that one of such were the security challenges facing Nigeria, which he said was distracting the country from leveraging on its youth population to leapfrog to greatness, regretting that incapability of her youths to drive a revolution of progress to push Africa up the ladder.

Quoting extensively from Rodney’s books, the intellectual juggernaut observed that the irony that people who were endowed with resources are poor, found expression in the Niger Delta as the oil wealth is yet to have positive impact on the people, identifying brain drain, which lures brilliant minds from poor third world countries to the developed world, as a greater evil perpetuated by capitalism beyond destruction of natural resources.