Walter Rodney

Walter Anthony Rodney was born on 23 March 1942 in Georgetown, British Guiana, into a working-class family.

Rodney attended the University College of the West Indies, graduating with a first-class honours degree in history in 1963. He earned his PhD in African History from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London in 1966, at the age of 24. He lectured at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. His most notable work, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, was published in 1972 and became a foundational text in African and Caribbean studies. He returned to Guyana and co-founded the Working People's Alliance political party.