Mr Gassama thanks for your background information on
Walter Rodney.I am now reading one of his book-The
history of the upper Guinea coast.I was happy with
your posting because it gave a detail information
about Rodney's role not only as a scholar but a
political activist.My brother from the philosophy of
Marcus Garvey to Walter Rodney, I belief
rastafarianism and reggae music is nothing order than
a resistance and protest against oppression,
de-humanisation,colonialism, imperialism etc.I think
for most of us fighting against oppression in Africa,
Walter Rodney is an inspiration.
Abdou Karim Sanneh
Manchester UK
--- MOMODOU BUHARRY GASSAMA <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> The Walter Rodney factor in West Indian literature
>
>
> by Al Creighton - First posted in Stabroek News on
> June 18th. 2000
>
> On October 16, 1968, news of the expulsion of
> historian Dr Walter Rodney from Jamaica swept
> rapidly across the Mona Campus of UWI - Rodney had
> first gone to Mona as an undergraduate and following
> his Honours Degree in history in 1963, had gone to
> the School of Oriental and African Studies at the
> University of London (SOAS) as a doctoral student.
> He had then returned as a lecturer in the History
> Department at Mona, and West Indian Literature has
> never been the same since.
>
> As the new Michaelmas began in October 1968, Rodney
> had left the campus to attend a black writers
> conference in Canada and, after having secretly
> followed his every movement in Kingston and beyond,
> the Jamaican government seized that opportunity to
> deny the Guyanese academic re-entry into the
> country. Despite the grand historic state visit of
> His Imperial Majesty Haile Selasse I of Ethiopia to
> Kingston in 1966, the government felt very insecure
> about Africanness, about communism/socialism and
> radical politics and viewed anything proclaiming
> itself as black with great suspicion. Since joining
> the staff at UWI, Walter Rodney had attracted their
> attention because of his venturing beyond the safe
> boundaries of the campus to teach African history in
> some of the more depressed communities and because
> of his embracing of scientific socialism.
>
> Black Power from North America was already a major
> influence in the Caribbean and a Rastafarianism that
> had been becoming much more outgoing and articulate
> had been claiming its place in a society in need of
> greater consciousness of its cultural heritage.
> Independent Jamaica was six years old and struggling
> to find itself in the middle of ideological racial
> voices shouting from the left and from the right.
> The Jamaica Labour Party government led by Hugh
> Shearer belonged emphatically to the right, a
> position it fiercely defended by marshalling such
> forces as police activity, the banning of literature
> and persons, among other impositions. One was
> allowed to be as revolutionary as one fancied within
> the Ivory Tower on the campus at Mona (already ceded
> as foreign territory) but bringing such dangerous
> academic activity out in the local communities as
> the likes of Rodney, Clive Y. Thomas, Arnold
> Bertram, Rupert Lewis, Ralph Gonsalves and later
> Trevor Munroe were doing was not to be tolerated.
>
> Already there were signals that the literature was
> responding to the socio-political developments by
> challenging authority. The powerful urban
> sub-culture that gave rise to the Rude-Boy
> phenomenon had only recently expressed itself in
> ska, rock steady and reggae music between 1963 and
> 1967. This grew into more systematic songs of
> political protest in 1968. The social, cultural,
> political and ethnic conflicts including
> Rastafarianism and the urban sub-culture were
> reflected in Eddie (Kamau) Brathwaite's impactful
> books of poems Rights of Passage (1967) and Masks
> (1968) to be followed by Islands in 1969. When
> Rodney was declared persona non grata, the literary
> revolt immediately escalated.
>
> The banning triggered off an explosion which started
> among students on the campus. They barred the gates,
> shut down classes and marched seven miles to Gordon
> House (the seat of parliament) in downtown Kingston,
> fighting police road blocks and tear gas at several
> points. During the day they were joined by sixth
> formers from some secondary schools and after they
> returned to Mona, groups of people on the streets
> took up the cause in a series of riots in the city.
> While violence spread across Kingston, the students
> kept the campus closed for two weeks, joined by
> several lecturers and even winning the sympathy of
> then Vice Chancellor Sir Philip Sherlock, who is,
> among other things, a published poet and compiler of
> folk literature.
>
> The issue forced widely publicized debates in
> parliament with the government claiming that
> national security was under threat and appealing to
> nationalist and patriotic sentiments against an
> invasion of foreign subversive communist academics.
> The academic community responded with a sudden rise
> of public intellectualism, at first to defend itself
> against government attack, while explaining the
> legitimacy of its activities and its right to become
> involved in public affairs to the public. This was
> mixed with protest and new outlets for radical
> thought. Many new periodical publications emerged.
> Among the most important were Tapia and Moko Jumbie
> (Trinidad), Abeng and Savacou (Jamaica).
>
> Abeng, taking its name from the shell/horn used by
> slaves as a means of coded communication, was among
> the most devoted to political protest while others
> played a more lasting role in the growth of creative
> literature. Tapia (a name taken from a form of slave
> housing) was published by Tapia House in Trinidad as
> a journal which changed its name to The Trinidad and
> Tobago Review and still survives. It has contributed
> considerably to the development of the literature
> through its publication of work and of critical
> articles. But a much more substantial role was
> played by Savacou, started on the Mona campus.
>
> Savacou 3/4 made quite a stir in West Indian
> literary criticism when it published a collection of
> poetry in 1970 which came out of radical
> developments in the literary form. It was the first
> major publication of a new poetry including the now
> very important dub poetry which grew out of the
> Walter Rodney uprisings. It brought creole poetry to
> the fore and moved literary/scribal poetry much
> closer to oral forms, performance poetry, oral
> literature and the oral tradition.
>
> Rodney's direct influence had much to do with this
> in more ways than one. His activities in Jamaica in
> 1968 deepened the alliance of West Indian writing
> and literature with grassroots sensibilities and a
> proletarian consciousness, which continued at the
> core of the new poetry. This kind of communal focus
> was also a part of the protest at his banning which
> continued even a year after, because in 1969,
> another Guyanese academic at Mona, economist Dr C.Y.
> Thomas was expelled by the JLP regime. In addition,
> Rodney's was the kind of historiography that came
> out of close attention to proletarian and peasant
> points of view. He published the famous Groundings
> With My Brothers out of his experiences in the
> depressed Kingston communities and How Europe
> Underdeveloped Africa.
>
> After October 1968 there developed the Yard Theatre
> movement (not to be confused with the earlier
> "Backyard theatre"). In Yard theatre, there were
> performances of poetry, readings and other oral
> presentations often accompanied by music,
> particularly drums. The African drum and the Rasta
> drum were prominent, as were reggae music and reggae
> rhythms. The creole verse of Louise Bennett set the
> pattern for countless performances, became much more
> popular than previously and influenced many other
> poets to write in the creole language(s).
>
> The trilogy of Eddie Kamau Brathwaite (The
> Arrivants) was also very popular with several
> readings performed in yard theatre concerts.
> Brathwaite himself often appeared to read and there
> were powerful recordings made of him reading to the
> accompaniment of drums.
>
> In keeping with Rodney's 'groundings with brothers'
> concept, yard theatre was performed, not in
> established theatres, but in a variety of
> unconventional venues and in communities. Out of
> this grew 'performance poetry' and 'dub poetry' (not
> to be confused with DJ dub which grew out of the
> dance hall phenomenon).
>
> These new forms which were published in Savacou
> developed to become very influential not only in the
> rise of dub poetry but in West Indian literature
> generally. Oral performances of the literature
> intensified, 'Rapso' rhythms and verse developed in
> Trinidad as did 'performance poetry' in England.
> Established poets such as Dennis Scott and Mervyn
> Morris made profound use of 'Dread talk' and creole
> sensibilities in literary verse while many prose
> fiction writers freely explored the range of
> linguistic forms strongly influenced by
> consciousness of the oral tradition. West Indian
> literature has gained and diversified in value out
> of this.
> The work of Dr Rodney in Jamaica and the waves that
> were generated by his expulsion can claim some of
> the responsibility for these advancements.
>
> Note:
> Revolutionary literature, largely in the form of
> reggae lyrics intensified and helped Michael
> Manley's People's National Party to sweep aside
> Shearer's JLP in the 1972 elections. Manley made
> full use of the music, the new literature and its
> underlying consciousness in his campaign. He also
> revoked the ban on Rodney and Thomas but, strangely,
> it took him some three years to do it.
>
> * Arnold Bertram, a former UWI student Union
> Chairman, became a Minister in Manley's Cabinet.
>
=== message truncated ===


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