how europe underdeveloped africa by walter rodney

It is without a doubt that European subjugation of Africa was morally abhorrent, but Rodney’s analysis is firmly based on materialist understandings that go deeper than surface-level idealistic moral critiques. Rodney offers an antidote to such poisonous lines of thinking by offering a historically sound explanation without resorting to moralizing on the evils of European imperialism and colonialism.

It is easy to dismiss colonialism and exploitation as being in the past and attributing the misery of Africans to a variety of euphemistic factors such as “culture” to justify the inequality of the current world order. Understanding the systemic reasons for Africa’s poverty and the historical events that led up to it can fill an important gap that can otherwise be filled unconsciously by pseudo-white-supremacist explanations. The problems Rodney outlines still haunt us today, and if anything, even less is being done than in the era of ‘flag independence’.įor anyone remotely interested in understanding how the current hierarchy of the world was constructed, reading this book is a must. Sadly, it is still as relevant as when it was written almost half a century ago. Walter Rodney’s How Europe Underdeveloped Africa presents a well-researched and compelling account detailing how Africa became the way it is. Being African I have always wondered why the continent which is the richest in natural resources is so far behind the rest of the world in development.

How europe underdeveloped africa by walter rodney