Audiobook13 hours
How Europe Underdeveloped Africa
Written by Walter Rodney and Angela Davis
Narrated by Mirron Willis
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
The classic work of political, economic, and historical analysis, powerfully introduced by Angela Davis.
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 20th 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 his magnum opus, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Rodney incisively argues that grasping "the great divergence" between the west and the rest can only be explained as the exploitation of the latter by the former. This meticulously researched analysis of the abiding repercussions of European colonialism on the continent of Africa has not only informed decades of scholarship and activism, it remains an indispensable study for grasping global inequality today.
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 20th 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 his magnum opus, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Rodney incisively argues that grasping "the great divergence" between the west and the rest can only be explained as the exploitation of the latter by the former. This meticulously researched analysis of the abiding repercussions of European colonialism on the continent of Africa has not only informed decades of scholarship and activism, it remains an indispensable study for grasping global inequality today.
More audiobooks from Walter Rodney
Decolonial Marxism: Essays from the Pan-African Revolution Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Groundings With My Brothers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to How Europe Underdeveloped Africa
Related audiobooks
The Delectable Negro: Human Consumption and Homoeroticism within US Slave Culture Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A People's History of the World: From the Stone Age to the New Millennium Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Christopher Columbus and the Afrikan Holocaust Slavery and the Rise of European Capitalism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 50th Anniversary Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Guerrilla Warfare Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Communist Manifesto Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A People's Guide to Capitalism: An Introduction to Marxist Economics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5African Origin of Civilization: The Myth or Reality Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5From Babylon to Timbuktu Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5State and Revolution Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Haitian Revolution, The: The History and Legacy of the Slave Uprising that Led to Haiti’s Independence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Planet of Slums Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Power to the People: The Black Panther Speeches Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition, Third Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hitler's American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Macat Analysis of Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Haile Selassie: The Life and Legacy of the Ethiopian Emperor Revered as the Messiah by Rastafarians Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mis-Education of the Negro Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Moving Against the System: The 1968 Congress of Black Writers and the Making of Global Consciousness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5American Nightmare: The History of Jim Crow Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Imperialism the Highest Stage of Capitalism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
African History For You
African Origin of Civilization: The Myth or Reality Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Under Fire: The Untold Story of the Attack in Benghazi Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Forgotten Slave Trade: The White European Slaves of Islam Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Kebra Nagast: The Lost Bible of Rastafarian Wisdom and Faith Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cleopatra: The Queen who Challenged Rome and Conquered Eternity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Arabs: A History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Handful of Hard Men: The SAS and the Battle for Rhodesia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Man-Eaters of Tsavo, and Other East African Adventures Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Jew a Negro: Being a Study of the Jewish Ancestry from an Impartial Standpoint Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black History: History in an Hour Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Africa Is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds: Ebola and the Ravages of History Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pirate Enlightenment, or the Real Libertalia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hannibal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mansa Musa and and Timbuktu: The History of the West African Emperor and Medieval Africa’s Most Fabled City Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gandhi Before India Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Red Land, Black Land: Daily Life in Ancient Egypt Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Of This Our Country: Acclaimed Nigerian writers on the home, identity and culture they know Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Thousand Hills: Rwanda's Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Slave Ship: A Human History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5African Founders: How Enslaved People Expanded American Ideals Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5City of Thorns: Nine Lives in the World's Largest Refugee Camp Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for How Europe Underdeveloped Africa
Rating: 4.414835141758242 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
182 ratings15 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This insightful book is a must read for all Africans.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book carefully analysed the question of why Africa was underdeveloped. The next level would be how Africa can educate itself out of the design it finds itself
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This publication is highly recommended for everyone. The topics are relevant and the insights are timeless in addressing the root cause of Africa’s problems today.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Equally as informative as it is dry. Like reading a thorough textbook.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Walter Rodney was a great gift to Caribbean thought. His contributions to our appreciation of our African-ness remains critical to our place in the Diaspora, Africa and the World.
A true leader who was taken away far too soon. He gave his life on seaech for truth and true freedom. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is a book that should be read by every African
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5First published in 1972 and listened to in 2022. A fantastic insight to the origin of our problems in Africa. This book should have been made compulsory reading in every secondary school in Africa. The author not only accurately analyzed the genesis of our problems in Africa but also predicted the trajectory of most African nations in 2022. Walter Rodney was definitely ahead of his time and it’s too bad that he never saw the actualization of his dreams for Africa. His death at the young age of 43 robbed Africa of one of its greatest minds. But I am glad that I got to listen to his wisdom through this medium.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5His ability to clearly visualise and understand the problems, and causes of under development is outstanding.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fantastic book, a must read for everyone especially the African extraction.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The book provides insights on the way that European countries secured their wealth from taking the raw resources of Africa, putting systems in place that restricted opportunities for Africans to control their own countries and helping us to understand the challenges that still exist today in many African countries.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It is good to see Africa from different perspectives. It is good to listen about Africa history and slavery.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The book explores the reasons as to why Africa got mired in poverty mainly on the account of European colonization.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A highly informative and thought provoking piece. A must read!
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Just excuses and finger pointing,if it wasn't for Europeans they would still be in the stone age.
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Guyanan intellectual Walter Rodney wrote this book directly after the 1960s wave of African independence declarations, to show why Africa was so underdeveloped compared to the 'First World', and who was to blame for this. A consistently intelligent and politically involved Marxist thinker, Rodney was one of the second generation of black socialists to write about African issues, after the tradition of CLR James and Eric Williams, the former of whom tutored Rodney. "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa" is probably Rodney's magnum opus of popular science, aimed at a general public, and very accessible and informative.Rodney describes in chronological sequence the development of Africa as a continent and the way in which the Europeans interfered with it. Going from the earliest African empires and states and their social relations, via the first wave of slave-trading, to full-blown colonialism, Rodney shows us how Europeans consistently attacked, pillaged, exploited, suppressed, enslaved, divided and discriminated against Africans, and the enormous impact the various stages of slavery and colonialism had in destroying the indigenous opportunities for coming out of feudalism into capitalist and industrialized societies. It is truly remarkable, given how short a time Africa has had to develop on its own as a modern society, how quickly African states have been able to modernize, and how strong the resilience of the various African peoples is to the enormous destruction they have had to endure. Rodney shows us all this with excellent writing and sensible use of 'bourgeois' sources, allowing the interested layman to gain all the necessary broad background information on the history of European involvement in Africa.Of necessity, the book is sometimes rather annoyingly concise and vague about the specifics of colonial policies, destruction of early indigenous development etc., things about which one would want to know more. Rodney provides a reading list for more information at the end of every chapter, but since this book is from the 1960s, it is dubious whether such lists are still useful considering the improvements made in radical scholarship on Africa since. The timing of the book also makes it such that there is practically nothing on African states since independence, as most independence declarations had happened only shortly before its publication. Moreover, Rodney is very saccharine about the influence of the 'socialist' states such as the USSR and China on Africa, which he exclusively paints in positive terms. Certainly the Leninists have had a vastly better influence on African development than any Western nation ever has, but the USSR and China had their own interests to defend in Africa as well, and were not there purely for humanitarian purposes, as Rodney sometimes makes it seem. Nonetheless, this is a good general book on the legacy of European destruction in Africa, and it thoroughly refutes all the common arguments in defense of colonialism in that continent.