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The Groundings with My Brothers
Walter Rodney
68 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1971
70 people are currently reading
2455 people want to read
About the author
Walter Rodney
26 books588 followersIn 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, the African continent, and the Caribbean. In each locale, Rodney found himself a lightning rod for working class Black Power. His deportation catalyzed twentieth-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 38-year-old Rodney was assassinated.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 82 reviews
April 19, 2020
At is core, Groundings is a book about revolutionary solidarity and applying radical intellectualism in service of oppressed people. Walter Rodney has numerous fascinating insights in this book, including and especially his definition / conception of "black.” Rodney essentially includes all discernibly "non-white" people into the "black" category, as all such people are oppressed / colonized (to varying degrees, of course) by the white power structure. Thus, Rodney’s conception of “race” is that it is a power dynamic between those with it (whites) and those without it (non-whites).
As such, Rodney notes that "Black Power" is designed to empower the hundreds of millions of non-white people in Africa and Asia, as well as the millions in the Americas, with a particular emphasis on members of the African diaspora. To the contrary, he defines "white power" as essentially a system of domination over non-white people, no matter the circumstances or context. Importantly, Rodney distinguishes between white people in power (such as the USSR) and white power, by asserting that the latter necessarily entails the socioeconomic and political domination of non-white people, while the former does not. Similarly, a Black person in power is not the same as "Black power," as evidenced by the many "independent" black nations hat are still thoroughly dominated by the global white power structure. With regard to these black people in power, specifically the ones in Jamaica, Rodney assails them as “white-hearted” brothers.
Rodney's depiction of the role of violence in the revolutionary struggle is gripping (there are shades of Fanon here). As is his telling of African history and culture, which he would later take to another level in "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa." In making the argument that Africans have contributed to the development of human history as much as any other person, Rodney notes that skin color by itself is insignificant, except when justifying the oppression of others.
The main purpose of this books is to detail the process of "Groundings," wherein Rodney sat with members of the Rastafarian community in Jamaica and led discussions on political education. Rodney explains how and why political education generally, and knowledge of African history and culture specifically, can be used for liberation purposes (rather than to gain favor white white folks or white-run institutions).
To conclude, Groundings with my Brothers is a testament to Rodney's political vision: intellectualism in service of the revolutionary potential of oppressed people. I highly recommend this book.
As such, Rodney notes that "Black Power" is designed to empower the hundreds of millions of non-white people in Africa and Asia, as well as the millions in the Americas, with a particular emphasis on members of the African diaspora. To the contrary, he defines "white power" as essentially a system of domination over non-white people, no matter the circumstances or context. Importantly, Rodney distinguishes between white people in power (such as the USSR) and white power, by asserting that the latter necessarily entails the socioeconomic and political domination of non-white people, while the former does not. Similarly, a Black person in power is not the same as "Black power," as evidenced by the many "independent" black nations hat are still thoroughly dominated by the global white power structure. With regard to these black people in power, specifically the ones in Jamaica, Rodney assails them as “white-hearted” brothers.
Rodney's depiction of the role of violence in the revolutionary struggle is gripping (there are shades of Fanon here). As is his telling of African history and culture, which he would later take to another level in "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa." In making the argument that Africans have contributed to the development of human history as much as any other person, Rodney notes that skin color by itself is insignificant, except when justifying the oppression of others.
The main purpose of this books is to detail the process of "Groundings," wherein Rodney sat with members of the Rastafarian community in Jamaica and led discussions on political education. Rodney explains how and why political education generally, and knowledge of African history and culture specifically, can be used for liberation purposes (rather than to gain favor white white folks or white-run institutions).
To conclude, Groundings with my Brothers is a testament to Rodney's political vision: intellectualism in service of the revolutionary potential of oppressed people. I highly recommend this book.
January 24, 2021
Walter Rodney is objectively one of the greatest intellectuals who has ever lived. He was an organic intellectual, grounded with the masses wherever he settled. Read this to understand how one can be an effective intellectual. It is a manual.
January 4, 2021
“The black people in the West Indies have produced all the culture that we have, whether it be steel band or folk music. Black bourgeoisie and white people in the West Indies have produced nothing! Black people who have suffered all these years create. That is amazing.”
That IS amazing! What an empowering and honest text.
That IS amazing! What an empowering and honest text.
January 25, 2026
succinct, clarifying, vital!!
Read
November 9, 2021Loved it, concise, angry, intelligent, vital
October 19, 2024
not to be dramatic but this is life changing and world shifting read. i will return to this on a yearly basis at least.
February 22, 2020
A great book that looks at the importance of internationalism among the oppressed. Rodney finds the commonalities through which solidarity can be formed and it remains as relevant today as when it was written
September 20, 2020
This series of lectures on Black Power, its relation to the Caribbean, about African history and its role in the liberation of Black people and revolutionary intellectual praxis ('groundings') were groundbreaking when they appeared - and still are. Three elements that stand out for me as urgent today are, firstly, Rodney's resolutely internationialist vision of Black Power uniting oppressed peoples of color across the America's and Asia (and his related disentanglement of white power from white-colored people, with the Soviet Union as a case in point); secondly, the stress put on African popular and community life as sources of pride and anti-colonial, anti-capitalist practice (and not just the row of great African kings, queens and empires); and finally, the titular 'groundings', Rodney's expression for his time spent with the marginalized Rastafari community in Jamaica as a model for militant intellectual practice and political education outside the academy, within the community, with Rodney not just being the one teaching, but, foremost, the one being taught.
December 7, 2019
Breaking down barriers and so much more. Read this book. Walter Rodney was an exceptional scholar, revolutionary activist, listener, pan-Africanist, human being, and much more. A hero of the Caribbean and a hero of mine.
August 3, 2022
4.5 stars.
This was a really interesting read by an incredibly sharp and insightful Marxist and Pan-Africanist, who had a really remarkable grasp of global imperialism. I really loved David Austin’s piece on Rodney included in this book that goes a bit into the Montreal history of Black radicalism:
“I first encountered The Groundings with My Brothers as a high school student in the late 1980s, at Third World Books and Crafts in Toronto. I was finding my way in the world, and reading Walter Rodney alongside Malcolm X, Frantz Fanon and C. L. R. James was a crucial part of my political and intellectual development. As a child of Jamaican parents, and as someone who had been attuned to Jamaican politics at an early age, I was struck by Rodney’s acute analysis of Jamaican society. But the impact of The Groundings on me went even further, influencing my decision to study in Montreal, the city where I had spent part of my childhood. The move was motivated by the discovery that three of The Groundings’ chapters were based on speeches that Rodney delivered in Montreal during and just after the historic Congress of Black Writers (11–14 October 1968), and I wanted to discover why this city had been such an important site of black radical politics, a phenomenon that I have since explored.
In 1968 Walter Rodney was an academic who, despite his youthful twenty-six years of age, had already established a name for himself in Tanzania, England and Jamaica as a first-class historian. But it was politics that brought Rodney to Montreal, and his participation in the Congress of Black Writers was not only important for the event but also marked a significant turning point in his political life when the coincidence of his participation in the Congress and his expulsion from Jamaica by the government of Hugh Shearer thrust Rodney onto the international stage.”
Rodney had really interesting comments of the social place and class loyalties Chinese communities within the Caribbean had relative to others elsewhere, reminding me of something a British colonial administrator Robert Townsend Farquhar wrote about the prospects of bringing Chinese labour into the Caribbean to replace slave labour, both about the anxieties that “the Chinese will soon assimilate with the slaves, and become their partizans in case of insurrection” but colonial objectives that would ensure the opposite would happen: “…if, after all, insurrection, from whatever cause, among the Negro slaves should take place, the planter might always with certainty depend upon the assistance of the Chinese labourers, who would thus form a barrier between him and the discontented Negroes.”
This helps contextualize what Rodney says about the Chinese diaspora within the Caribbean who had taken the role of reactionary colonial allies, as the British had always hoped they would, when constructing racial hierarchies within colonial policy:
“The Chinese, on the other hand, are a former labouring group who have now become bastions of white West Indian social structure. The Chinese of the People’s Republic of China have long broken with and are fighting against white imperialism, but our Chinese have nothing to do with that movement. They are to be identified with Chiang Kai-shek and not Chairman Mao Tse-tung. They are to be put in the same bracket as the lackeys of capitalism and imperialism who are to be found in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Whatever the circumstances in which the Chinese came to the West Indies, they soon became (as a group) members of the exploiting class. They will have either to relinquish or be deprived of that function before they can be reintegrated into a West Indian society where the black man walks in dignity”
Rodney also had a very fascinating analysis of how the Christian faith intersected with racial politics and the history of white supremacy that imperialism upheld:
“That is why Black Power advocates find it necessary to assert that BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL. The most profound revelation of the sickness of our society on the question of race is our respect for all the white symbols of the Christian religion. God the Father is white, God the Son is white, and presumably God the Holy Ghost is white also. The disciples and saints are white, all the Cherubim, Seraphim and angels are white – except Lucifer, of course, who was black, being the embodiment of evil. When one calls upon black people to reject these things, this is not an attack on the teachings of Christ or the ideals of Christianity. What we have to ask is ‘Why should Christianity come to us all wrapped up in white?’ The white race constitutes about 20 per cent of the world’s population, and yet nonwhite peoples are supposed to accept that all who inhabit the heavens are white. There are 650 million Chinese, so why shouldn’t God and most of the angels be Chinese? The truth is that there is absolutely no reason why different racial groups should not provide themselves with their own religious symbols. A picture of Christ could be red, white or black, depending upon the people who are involved. When Africans adopt the European concept that purity and goodness must be painted white and all that is evil and damned is to be painted black, then we are flagrantly self-insulting.”
Rodney actually discusses Christian history in Africa quite a bit in Chapter 4, particularly the tradition as it developed in Ethiopia, and it was extremely interesting. One thing I especially enjoyed was his analysis of the Rastafari and I have been looking for a Marxist interpretation of that tradition, and Rodney provides a fascinating take on it:
“And even when there were not great leaders present, the mass of the people have constantly been acting against this system. In our epoch the Rastafari have represented the leading force of this expression of black consciousness. They have rejected this philistine white West Indian society. They have sought their cultural and spiritual roots in Ethiopia and Africa. So that whether there is a big flare-up or not, there is always the constant activity of the black people who perceive that the system has nothing in it for them, except suppression and oppression.
Now the government is terribly afraid of the question of colour. This is something I’ve learned from living in Jamaica for a period of time. They would much rather you talk about Communism, so that they could tell country people, ‘He is a Communist, he wants to take your goats and chickens,’ and do those Jamaican peasants want you to take their goats? No man! And they are very right, too, so what government men are afraid of is the question of colour. They are afraid of that tremendous historical experience of the degradation of the black man being brought to the fore. They do not want anybody to challenge their myth about ‘Out of many, one people’ and a harmonious multiracial society, and they show it in various ways. They will ban people from coming to the country like James Foreman, Stokely Carmichael. They will ban the literature of Malcolm X, Elijah Mohammad, Stokely Carmichael. The black Jamaican government, in case you do not know it, have banned all publications by Stokely Carmichael, publications by Elijah Mohammad, all publications by Malcolm X. I hope Stokely does not go and write a book on cookery or some such thing. It would be banned in Jamaica.”
Finally, the Verene Shepherd piece included near the end of the book was also just excellent! She’s one of my heroes. I learned a lot from her about women in the 1831-32 Christmas war of liberation, and Shepherd was also the one who wrote the UN letter demanding a stop to TMX and CGL pipelines until full, prior, and informed consent was received from Indigenous peoples whose lands those projects traverse. A lesson that imperialism and colonial dominance is still ongoing, and hence why Rodney is still a remarkably relevant Black Marxist voice we should pay attention to in this moment of struggle.
This was a really interesting read by an incredibly sharp and insightful Marxist and Pan-Africanist, who had a really remarkable grasp of global imperialism. I really loved David Austin’s piece on Rodney included in this book that goes a bit into the Montreal history of Black radicalism:
“I first encountered The Groundings with My Brothers as a high school student in the late 1980s, at Third World Books and Crafts in Toronto. I was finding my way in the world, and reading Walter Rodney alongside Malcolm X, Frantz Fanon and C. L. R. James was a crucial part of my political and intellectual development. As a child of Jamaican parents, and as someone who had been attuned to Jamaican politics at an early age, I was struck by Rodney’s acute analysis of Jamaican society. But the impact of The Groundings on me went even further, influencing my decision to study in Montreal, the city where I had spent part of my childhood. The move was motivated by the discovery that three of The Groundings’ chapters were based on speeches that Rodney delivered in Montreal during and just after the historic Congress of Black Writers (11–14 October 1968), and I wanted to discover why this city had been such an important site of black radical politics, a phenomenon that I have since explored.
In 1968 Walter Rodney was an academic who, despite his youthful twenty-six years of age, had already established a name for himself in Tanzania, England and Jamaica as a first-class historian. But it was politics that brought Rodney to Montreal, and his participation in the Congress of Black Writers was not only important for the event but also marked a significant turning point in his political life when the coincidence of his participation in the Congress and his expulsion from Jamaica by the government of Hugh Shearer thrust Rodney onto the international stage.”
Rodney had really interesting comments of the social place and class loyalties Chinese communities within the Caribbean had relative to others elsewhere, reminding me of something a British colonial administrator Robert Townsend Farquhar wrote about the prospects of bringing Chinese labour into the Caribbean to replace slave labour, both about the anxieties that “the Chinese will soon assimilate with the slaves, and become their partizans in case of insurrection” but colonial objectives that would ensure the opposite would happen: “…if, after all, insurrection, from whatever cause, among the Negro slaves should take place, the planter might always with certainty depend upon the assistance of the Chinese labourers, who would thus form a barrier between him and the discontented Negroes.”
This helps contextualize what Rodney says about the Chinese diaspora within the Caribbean who had taken the role of reactionary colonial allies, as the British had always hoped they would, when constructing racial hierarchies within colonial policy:
“The Chinese, on the other hand, are a former labouring group who have now become bastions of white West Indian social structure. The Chinese of the People’s Republic of China have long broken with and are fighting against white imperialism, but our Chinese have nothing to do with that movement. They are to be identified with Chiang Kai-shek and not Chairman Mao Tse-tung. They are to be put in the same bracket as the lackeys of capitalism and imperialism who are to be found in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Whatever the circumstances in which the Chinese came to the West Indies, they soon became (as a group) members of the exploiting class. They will have either to relinquish or be deprived of that function before they can be reintegrated into a West Indian society where the black man walks in dignity”
Rodney also had a very fascinating analysis of how the Christian faith intersected with racial politics and the history of white supremacy that imperialism upheld:
“That is why Black Power advocates find it necessary to assert that BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL. The most profound revelation of the sickness of our society on the question of race is our respect for all the white symbols of the Christian religion. God the Father is white, God the Son is white, and presumably God the Holy Ghost is white also. The disciples and saints are white, all the Cherubim, Seraphim and angels are white – except Lucifer, of course, who was black, being the embodiment of evil. When one calls upon black people to reject these things, this is not an attack on the teachings of Christ or the ideals of Christianity. What we have to ask is ‘Why should Christianity come to us all wrapped up in white?’ The white race constitutes about 20 per cent of the world’s population, and yet nonwhite peoples are supposed to accept that all who inhabit the heavens are white. There are 650 million Chinese, so why shouldn’t God and most of the angels be Chinese? The truth is that there is absolutely no reason why different racial groups should not provide themselves with their own religious symbols. A picture of Christ could be red, white or black, depending upon the people who are involved. When Africans adopt the European concept that purity and goodness must be painted white and all that is evil and damned is to be painted black, then we are flagrantly self-insulting.”
Rodney actually discusses Christian history in Africa quite a bit in Chapter 4, particularly the tradition as it developed in Ethiopia, and it was extremely interesting. One thing I especially enjoyed was his analysis of the Rastafari and I have been looking for a Marxist interpretation of that tradition, and Rodney provides a fascinating take on it:
“And even when there were not great leaders present, the mass of the people have constantly been acting against this system. In our epoch the Rastafari have represented the leading force of this expression of black consciousness. They have rejected this philistine white West Indian society. They have sought their cultural and spiritual roots in Ethiopia and Africa. So that whether there is a big flare-up or not, there is always the constant activity of the black people who perceive that the system has nothing in it for them, except suppression and oppression.
Now the government is terribly afraid of the question of colour. This is something I’ve learned from living in Jamaica for a period of time. They would much rather you talk about Communism, so that they could tell country people, ‘He is a Communist, he wants to take your goats and chickens,’ and do those Jamaican peasants want you to take their goats? No man! And they are very right, too, so what government men are afraid of is the question of colour. They are afraid of that tremendous historical experience of the degradation of the black man being brought to the fore. They do not want anybody to challenge their myth about ‘Out of many, one people’ and a harmonious multiracial society, and they show it in various ways. They will ban people from coming to the country like James Foreman, Stokely Carmichael. They will ban the literature of Malcolm X, Elijah Mohammad, Stokely Carmichael. The black Jamaican government, in case you do not know it, have banned all publications by Stokely Carmichael, publications by Elijah Mohammad, all publications by Malcolm X. I hope Stokely does not go and write a book on cookery or some such thing. It would be banned in Jamaica.”
Finally, the Verene Shepherd piece included near the end of the book was also just excellent! She’s one of my heroes. I learned a lot from her about women in the 1831-32 Christmas war of liberation, and Shepherd was also the one who wrote the UN letter demanding a stop to TMX and CGL pipelines until full, prior, and informed consent was received from Indigenous peoples whose lands those projects traverse. A lesson that imperialism and colonial dominance is still ongoing, and hence why Rodney is still a remarkably relevant Black Marxist voice we should pay attention to in this moment of struggle.
July 5, 2024
It has it all. The verso edition .... Wonderful. From the proper text which is a constant Leninist outrage towards revolution and against the bourgeoisie's überbau (I feel Germanic today, Oslo is starting to change me), to the emotional essays that come after it, reminding that struggle not only succeeds the ways we may intend.
A great human who got the most horrible of honours for a political activist
A great human who got the most horrible of honours for a political activist
November 15, 2023
The Groundings With My Brothers by Walter Rodney is a classic work about Black power, education, and the necessity of community in both. Rodney goes in detail about what Black power means, defying popular watered down notions and reveiling a revolutionary unifying understanding of what Black Power is. He discusses this in the context of Jamaca, having lived there and taught with and learned from the Rastafarian people. With this context, we learn about the racism of the Jamacan government (even post-Independence) and how African history is tied to the region.
Not only is this useful historical context and breakdown of white supremacy in the Caribbean and global context, but this is an important work pedagogically. Education and power comes from sharing within a community, understanding your power as a collective. It's about defying the academic norm of isolation from (being above) the common person and about connecting scholarship and activism in the communities most impacted by the issues.
In this edition, the original work is framed by an introduction and essays about the work that come together to show the importance of this work both historically and how it continues to be relevant. I really enjoyed these essays and thought they added a lot as well. Parts of this a little difficult to fully grasp without some context, but these essays help with that.
Not only is this useful historical context and breakdown of white supremacy in the Caribbean and global context, but this is an important work pedagogically. Education and power comes from sharing within a community, understanding your power as a collective. It's about defying the academic norm of isolation from (being above) the common person and about connecting scholarship and activism in the communities most impacted by the issues.
In this edition, the original work is framed by an introduction and essays about the work that come together to show the importance of this work both historically and how it continues to be relevant. I really enjoyed these essays and thought they added a lot as well. Parts of this a little difficult to fully grasp without some context, but these essays help with that.
September 16, 2020
A very nice book on Walter Rodney's work as an academic activist. He discusses the role of these figures that, using the power they acquire by being ingrained in the capitalist system and benefiting from it, participate in revolutionary action that jeopardises their position within this system. He also discusses the importance of contemplating history and internationalism to explore the current state of affairs and how this is especially relevant for non-white populations that have been forced or coerced to move and migrate by white European peoples. "The Groundings with My Brothers" is a set of Rodney's essays/lectures that relate to the time when he was in Jamaica doing his activism. It also includes what are probably the best African history explainers I have come across. In the end, we have a few impressions of Walter's work from his wife - Pat Rodney - and others which met him through his short yet impactful life.
September 15, 2022
Walter Rodney's assassination in 1980 left an enormous and as-yet-unfilled gap in scholarship, be it for Colonialism, Black Power Studies, African History, Marxism, Caribbean Studies, and multiple disciplines in politics and other social sciences. This short book is a testament to his vast knowledge and immensely personal and political activism. It is a hard read, seeing as how it is 2022 and nothing much has changed with respect to White Supremacy's links to State Power and Black Oppression. I am left to despair the state of the world more than ever, knowing that a human being of such forceful intelligence and personality was erased by the forces he spent his life fighting against. I continue to hope the Black Power Movement takes hold again, with force, since White Power is not going away otherwise. An essential work for those interested in the history of colonial systems and the Black Struggle. An erudite and impassioned plea for change.
March 26, 2023
I could say loads about Rodney’s writing but I actually want to write on the additions of other contributors in this book. Groundings was initially writing over 50 years ago, and so the 5 (or 6?) additional essays from collaborators like Patricia Rodney, Verene Shepard, and Randall Robinson are really a great way to provide concise reflections on the original text’s continued relevance in the 21st Century. The context they offer on Rodney’s life, the Caribbean since his passing, and the impact of his work on the world really helped me understand how to move forward with this knowledge. The Walter Rodney Foundation (which had its annual symposium on Friday) is doing great work and I hope to visit them in Atlanta someday (next year’s symposium??)
January 8, 2023
When you sit to read this book you will really understand why it became a priority for imperialists to assassinate Walter Rodney. Groundings is a great introduction to him and I honestly wish I had read it first, even before How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. In an ideal world, I think this is the kind of text that high school aged African kids living in the Americas would interact with before departing for University. The final essay is the most important!
May 21, 2023
Walter Rodney was a Guyanese intellectual who famously wrote, "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa" and was killed for it later in his life. In this book, he outlines what he learned in discussion with the marginalized Rastafarian community in Jamaica as well as with black student activists in the Caribbean.
Good perspective for those on the left who organize, since our work is often based on groundings.
Good perspective for those on the left who organize, since our work is often based on groundings.
April 4, 2021
I'm a big fan. A fascinating slice of history and chronicles of an academic/activist! no one was doing it like walter x
January 16, 2019
Short, eloquent, a fantastic book to read after reading Freire. First book of Rodney’s that I’ve read, but am definitely excited to dive more into his work.
November 11, 2025
Walter Rodney does a great job at explaining the issue of trying to dismantle colonization even after a country becomes independent. In this case, he delves into the instance of post colonial Jamaica. The country banned slavery in the early 19th century and became independent in 1962. Yet still by 1968, the likes of Kwame Toure and Walter Rodney were banned. And the publications of those two as well as Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad were banned as well. A very contradicting act to ban Pan Africanists, yet still declare Marcus Garvey a national hero. This was due to the fact that even though their Prime Minister Hugh Shearer was a black man, he was still peddling to white capitalism and its colonial dominance. In retrospect black activism was respected, but in reality black power stood as a threat. Even Rastafarianism, a religion dedicated to the prowess of Ethiopia, was denounced by the government of Jamaica in the 60s.
This brings about the point that black power is not about denouncing all other races. It is about evening the playing field and bringing everyone to an equal level. Moreover celebrating black achievement through artistic, educational, academic, spiritual and political gain. And standing up for the fact that black people being forcibly ill fed, ill clothed, uneducated, and unemployed is wrong. However white power perpetuates the thought that white is right and all else is below. This is proved in slavery in the Caribbean and Americas as black people were told they were inferior. This is proved in the beginning of anthropology as black people were told they were inferior. This is proved in the European colonization of Africa as black people were told they are barbarous, uncivilized, and ultimately inferior without the advent of the European and their religion of Christianity.
Walter Rodney stresses the importance of knowing Africa’s history and its long list of achievements before European colonization. Most notably Ancient Egypt but there is also Ancient Ethiopia and also their specific situation of never being colonized. Sudan when it used to hold the ancient city of Meroe. The Mali Empire and Timbuktu as well as Mansa Musa. The kingdoms in Benin, Congo, Zimbabwe, Ghana and Nigeria and more.
It always seems as a surprise when a group of people stand up for their rights. After black people have fought for other peoples demands whether in WWI, WWII, Vietnam, Korea, etc it should only be fair that they can choose to fight for themselves for once. Jose Marti was quoted at the very end of this book with the passage “rights are to be taken, not requested; seized, not begged for”
This brings about the point that black power is not about denouncing all other races. It is about evening the playing field and bringing everyone to an equal level. Moreover celebrating black achievement through artistic, educational, academic, spiritual and political gain. And standing up for the fact that black people being forcibly ill fed, ill clothed, uneducated, and unemployed is wrong. However white power perpetuates the thought that white is right and all else is below. This is proved in slavery in the Caribbean and Americas as black people were told they were inferior. This is proved in the beginning of anthropology as black people were told they were inferior. This is proved in the European colonization of Africa as black people were told they are barbarous, uncivilized, and ultimately inferior without the advent of the European and their religion of Christianity.
Walter Rodney stresses the importance of knowing Africa’s history and its long list of achievements before European colonization. Most notably Ancient Egypt but there is also Ancient Ethiopia and also their specific situation of never being colonized. Sudan when it used to hold the ancient city of Meroe. The Mali Empire and Timbuktu as well as Mansa Musa. The kingdoms in Benin, Congo, Zimbabwe, Ghana and Nigeria and more.
It always seems as a surprise when a group of people stand up for their rights. After black people have fought for other peoples demands whether in WWI, WWII, Vietnam, Korea, etc it should only be fair that they can choose to fight for themselves for once. Jose Marti was quoted at the very end of this book with the passage “rights are to be taken, not requested; seized, not begged for”
November 1, 2024
Not sure if the book was great or if it's just kickass to read an author who's both an academic and serious organizer. Walter Rodney walks the walk. Knowledge should obviously serve liberation and not blind alley epistemologies!
April 30, 2021
The Groundings with My Brothers is a collection of essays from activist/academic/revolutionary Walter Rodney. I loved reading it and learned a lot about liberation from Rodney's struggles in the Caribbean. Some of my highlights are:
1) Rodney's Article defining Black Power -> In multiple chapters, Rodney writes a broad critique against colonialism, capitalism, and white power. I love how he expresses solidarity with non-black poc in his definition of Black Power
The Black people of whom I speak, therefore, are non-whites - the hundreds of millions of people whose homelands are in Asia and Africa, with another few millions in the Americas. A further subdivision can be made with reference to all people of African descent, whose position is clearly more acute than that of nonwhite groups."
but also addresses how some nonwhite groups have become more welcomed into society than black people.
When we go to Britain we don't expect to take over all of the British real estate business, all their cinemas and most of their commerce, as the European, Chinese and Syrian have done here. All we ask for there is some work and shelter, and we can't get that. Black Power must proclaim that Jamaica is a black society - we should fly Garvey's Black Star Banner, and we will treat all other groups in the society on that understanding - they can have the basic right of all individuals but no privileges to exploit Africans as has been the pattern during slavery and ever since."
2) I loved Chapter 4 since Rodney explains that learning African History is not to be used in defense against white supremacy or to follow European measurements of cultural relevancy/power. The importance of history is instead to unlearn the inaccurate portrayal of Africa and gain confidence in historical achievements/structures that colonialism removed. Chapter 4's theme could apply to other colonialized countries that had their histories and self-image taken away.
3) I also liked how "The Groundings with My Brothers" neatly connects from the last book I read, "Pedagogy of the Oppressed", and further details how to work with the people. Rodney details what intellectuals should do in their systems and what they should do alongside the masses. As Patricia Rodney states in the commentaries :
" groundings exemplified his approach to life: one where academics and activism were integrated and inseparable in the pursuit of equality, justice, and a common humanity."
1) Rodney's Article defining Black Power -> In multiple chapters, Rodney writes a broad critique against colonialism, capitalism, and white power. I love how he expresses solidarity with non-black poc in his definition of Black Power
The Black people of whom I speak, therefore, are non-whites - the hundreds of millions of people whose homelands are in Asia and Africa, with another few millions in the Americas. A further subdivision can be made with reference to all people of African descent, whose position is clearly more acute than that of nonwhite groups."
but also addresses how some nonwhite groups have become more welcomed into society than black people.
When we go to Britain we don't expect to take over all of the British real estate business, all their cinemas and most of their commerce, as the European, Chinese and Syrian have done here. All we ask for there is some work and shelter, and we can't get that. Black Power must proclaim that Jamaica is a black society - we should fly Garvey's Black Star Banner, and we will treat all other groups in the society on that understanding - they can have the basic right of all individuals but no privileges to exploit Africans as has been the pattern during slavery and ever since."
2) I loved Chapter 4 since Rodney explains that learning African History is not to be used in defense against white supremacy or to follow European measurements of cultural relevancy/power. The importance of history is instead to unlearn the inaccurate portrayal of Africa and gain confidence in historical achievements/structures that colonialism removed. Chapter 4's theme could apply to other colonialized countries that had their histories and self-image taken away.
3) I also liked how "The Groundings with My Brothers" neatly connects from the last book I read, "Pedagogy of the Oppressed", and further details how to work with the people. Rodney details what intellectuals should do in their systems and what they should do alongside the masses. As Patricia Rodney states in the commentaries :
" groundings exemplified his approach to life: one where academics and activism were integrated and inseparable in the pursuit of equality, justice, and a common humanity."
Read
January 1, 2022Good grounding / black consciousness intro from a caribbean perspective. Will be reading more of rodney!
November 4, 2020
A series of lectures by the great Walter Rodney about Black Power, African history and it's uses for social movements, and Caribbean politics and history.
Rodney embodied the ideal of what an academic/intellectual ought to be- deeply committed, engaged with the masses, and willing to learn from those he sought to teach.
"I was prepared to go anywhere that any group of black people were prepared to sit down to talk and listen. Because that is Black Power, that is one of the elements, a sitting-down together to reason, to 'ground', as the brothers say. We have to ground together."
Rodney embodied the ideal of what an academic/intellectual ought to be- deeply committed, engaged with the masses, and willing to learn from those he sought to teach.
"I was prepared to go anywhere that any group of black people were prepared to sit down to talk and listen. Because that is Black Power, that is one of the elements, a sitting-down together to reason, to 'ground', as the brothers say. We have to ground together."
July 5, 2020
“I was prepared to go anywhere that any group of black people were prepared to sit down to talk and listen. Because that is Black Power, that is one of the elements, a sitting-down together to reason, to ‘ground’ as the brothers say. We have to ‘ground together.’”
A small journey on hope/lessness and the socio-cultural manifestations of what moving forward can look like.
A small journey on hope/lessness and the socio-cultural manifestations of what moving forward can look like.
August 20, 2020
I was really inspired and interested in the concept of grounding which Rodney emphasises through this book: the imperative for connection and public education (and reciprocal learning) of any academic. Looking forward to reading How Europe Underdeveloped Africa after this !
September 15, 2017
This is powerful stuff my a powerful brother and son on the Guyanese soil.
November 16, 2020
This little book contains six sections based on speeches by Walter Rodney alongside six commentaries by other authors. Two capacities of Rodney become apparent when reading this. The first one is that he is a truly "organic" intellectual. Not only does he sharply dissect mainstream racist and right-wing ideologies. His writing and thinking is also solidly attached to real-world practice and contact with the masses, rather than being your average piece of prose from academia's ivory tower. This is in line with Rodney's own model of the activist intellectual, who does everything he can to put his position as an academic to direct societal use.
The second one is that he knows how to properly apply a Marxist lens. Rather than being vulgarly "economist", he is very deeply aware of the cultural and ideological persistence of racism - while at the same time constantly recalling its material roots in (neo)colonial exploitation. His cultural observations include some eye-opening thoughts about racialized beauty standards, Eurocentric university curriculums, and the importance of teaching African history in school. "So long as there are people who deny our humanity as blacks," Rodney asserts concisely, "for so long must we proclaim and assert our humanity as blacks."
It is clear that the sections of this book are based off speeches as they are quite eclectic, not highly structured, and centered around conveying robust ideas rather than taking on some overly ambitious analysis. To me, the most interesting sections were the 3rd and the 6th one. The former treats the meaning and importance of black power in the West Indies region. It also expands a bit on Cuba and how this country overcame racial tension through socialist, egalitarian politics. The 6th chapter goes into some detail about Rodney's own experiences in Jamaica as an intellectual who dared to step far outside the academic comfort zone, and got banned from the country as a result. Even as someone from a very different, Western European context, the frustrating divide between academia's intellectualist preoccupations and grassroots activism is still a relatable aspect of what Rodney is writing about.
The commentaries that have been added in this new Verso edition are a bit of a mixed bag. I can hardly shed the impression that they've been included mainly to serve as filler because the book was too short. The most interesting and informative commentary is probably the one by Rodney's widow. Actually, I would suggest reading this as an introduction because it gives some very welcome context about Rodney's life and how the "Groundings" saw the light.
I want to note that Verene Shepherd's commentary is the most dubious. It claims postmodern criticism as the true heir of Rodney's thought (in my experience, postmodernism mostly widens the gap between academia and the real world through its masturbatory approach to theory). It makes the case for reparations to former colonies, which is positive in itself, but doesn't make any real mention of persisting neocolonial exploitation outside of the fact that Jamaica is still formally ruled by the British queen, and suggests that these reparations could be enough to fix the Third World's backwardness. The icing on the cake is the section where Shepherd - herself an institute director at the UWI - tries to claim Rodney's vision really influenced the UWI's model of "alignment of industry and academia"(!). Ah yes, nothing screams anti-colonial activism like neatly aligning your education model with corporate interests.
To summarize: the main text (especially chapters 3 and 6) is an interesting introduction to Marxist anti-racism and to the figure of Walter Rodney, even if it is closer to a manifesto than to a work of exhaustive analysis. The commentaries contain some relevant information but they don't add anything essential.
The second one is that he knows how to properly apply a Marxist lens. Rather than being vulgarly "economist", he is very deeply aware of the cultural and ideological persistence of racism - while at the same time constantly recalling its material roots in (neo)colonial exploitation. His cultural observations include some eye-opening thoughts about racialized beauty standards, Eurocentric university curriculums, and the importance of teaching African history in school. "So long as there are people who deny our humanity as blacks," Rodney asserts concisely, "for so long must we proclaim and assert our humanity as blacks."
It is clear that the sections of this book are based off speeches as they are quite eclectic, not highly structured, and centered around conveying robust ideas rather than taking on some overly ambitious analysis. To me, the most interesting sections were the 3rd and the 6th one. The former treats the meaning and importance of black power in the West Indies region. It also expands a bit on Cuba and how this country overcame racial tension through socialist, egalitarian politics. The 6th chapter goes into some detail about Rodney's own experiences in Jamaica as an intellectual who dared to step far outside the academic comfort zone, and got banned from the country as a result. Even as someone from a very different, Western European context, the frustrating divide between academia's intellectualist preoccupations and grassroots activism is still a relatable aspect of what Rodney is writing about.
The commentaries that have been added in this new Verso edition are a bit of a mixed bag. I can hardly shed the impression that they've been included mainly to serve as filler because the book was too short. The most interesting and informative commentary is probably the one by Rodney's widow. Actually, I would suggest reading this as an introduction because it gives some very welcome context about Rodney's life and how the "Groundings" saw the light.
I want to note that Verene Shepherd's commentary is the most dubious. It claims postmodern criticism as the true heir of Rodney's thought (in my experience, postmodernism mostly widens the gap between academia and the real world through its masturbatory approach to theory). It makes the case for reparations to former colonies, which is positive in itself, but doesn't make any real mention of persisting neocolonial exploitation outside of the fact that Jamaica is still formally ruled by the British queen, and suggests that these reparations could be enough to fix the Third World's backwardness. The icing on the cake is the section where Shepherd - herself an institute director at the UWI - tries to claim Rodney's vision really influenced the UWI's model of "alignment of industry and academia"(!). Ah yes, nothing screams anti-colonial activism like neatly aligning your education model with corporate interests.
To summarize: the main text (especially chapters 3 and 6) is an interesting introduction to Marxist anti-racism and to the figure of Walter Rodney, even if it is closer to a manifesto than to a work of exhaustive analysis. The commentaries contain some relevant information but they don't add anything essential.
November 27, 2022
The Groundings with My Brothers is a provocative text that situates the struggle for Black or Pan-African liberation in the hands of the people, which is to say, those on the "ground." In a supplemental essay included after Rodney's text, David Austin argues, "as important as it was for us to acquire knowledge of our African past, this was no substitute for being grounded in the more particular experiences and histories that have shaped us in the Americans" (96). Here, Austin articulates Rodney's sustained emphasis on the people and their unique, individual experiences in contrast to particular African histories that live in the halls of academia. This is not to suggest that Rodney rejects the sorts of African histories housed in libraries, quite the opposite, in fact. Rodney's point, however, endeavors to disrupt the stratification of knowledge and knowledge production that exists in many societies by suggesting that the people, too, have the power, right, and privilege to make history. Rodney clarifies this point in Chapter 6 when he writes, "Now, what is my position? What is the position of all of us because we fall in the category of the black West Indian intellectual, a privilege in our society? What do we do with that privilege? The traditional pattern is that we join the establishment; the black educated man in the West Indies is as much a part of the system of oppression as the bank managers and the plantation overseers...How do we break out of this Babylonian captivity?" (66). Rodney sustains this critique throughout The Groundings with My Brothers. This is a distinctly anti-capitalist critique that sees the intersection between race, class, and wealth accumulation as the larger battle worth fighting.
Rodney's perspective on "grounding" is a necessarily humbling but, more importantly, egalitarian experience. He writes, "I was prepared to go anywhere that any group of black people were prepared to sit down to talk and listen. Because that is Black Power, that is one of the elements, a sitting-down together to reason, to 'ground' as the brothers say. We have to 'ground together'" (67). Rodney's perspective on disrupting the social, cultural, and political gap that exists between a people's intelligentsia and its workers is one that shifts the bounds of power in a culture. That is to say, we cannot expect to create an egalitarian world if figures of exception exist. Hierarchical formulations, even ones with the best intentions, produce the kind of stratification that Rodney argues against in The Groundings with My Brothers, and he is far from subtle on this point: "Black bourgeoisie and white people in the West Indies have produced nothing! Black people who have suffered all these years create. That is amazing" (73).
Rodney also explores terms and concepts that are new to me but help me better understand certain contemporary phenomena. For example, his widow, Patricia Rodney, writes, "With Walter as my guide, I learned firsthand of the extreme socioeconomic disparities in Jamaica. Like many other former colonies, class and skin colour/tone played a significant role in the distribution of wealth and resources -- a phenomenon referred to by the late Professor Stuart Hall as 'pigmentocracy'" (80). The term "pigmentocracy" labels a disparity I have attempted, to varying degrees of success, to describe to my student when we, for example, discuss the characterization of complexion in the texts I ask them to read.
The Groundings with My Brothers is a short but necessary text for anyone interested in exploring race criticism from a distinctly international, non-American perspective.
Rodney's perspective on "grounding" is a necessarily humbling but, more importantly, egalitarian experience. He writes, "I was prepared to go anywhere that any group of black people were prepared to sit down to talk and listen. Because that is Black Power, that is one of the elements, a sitting-down together to reason, to 'ground' as the brothers say. We have to 'ground together'" (67). Rodney's perspective on disrupting the social, cultural, and political gap that exists between a people's intelligentsia and its workers is one that shifts the bounds of power in a culture. That is to say, we cannot expect to create an egalitarian world if figures of exception exist. Hierarchical formulations, even ones with the best intentions, produce the kind of stratification that Rodney argues against in The Groundings with My Brothers, and he is far from subtle on this point: "Black bourgeoisie and white people in the West Indies have produced nothing! Black people who have suffered all these years create. That is amazing" (73).
Rodney also explores terms and concepts that are new to me but help me better understand certain contemporary phenomena. For example, his widow, Patricia Rodney, writes, "With Walter as my guide, I learned firsthand of the extreme socioeconomic disparities in Jamaica. Like many other former colonies, class and skin colour/tone played a significant role in the distribution of wealth and resources -- a phenomenon referred to by the late Professor Stuart Hall as 'pigmentocracy'" (80). The term "pigmentocracy" labels a disparity I have attempted, to varying degrees of success, to describe to my student when we, for example, discuss the characterization of complexion in the texts I ask them to read.
The Groundings with My Brothers is a short but necessary text for anyone interested in exploring race criticism from a distinctly international, non-American perspective.
April 6, 2021
In October of 1968, Walter Rodney left Jamaica to speak at the Congress of Black Writers in Montreal. The Jamaican government told him to never return, effectively banning him from the country.
The Groundings with My Brothers, a collection of speeches that Rodney gave in that year, show exactly why the Jamaican government expelled him. Rodney was a revolutionary intellectual activist committed to educating and organizing with oppressed Black people for the sole purpose of revolution. He clearly recognized how even the Black Jamaican government “served the interests of a foreign, white capitalist system” and reenacted the same violence on Black people that their white oppressors did. Rodney called out the myth of the harmonious, multi-racial Jamaican society that was “designed to justify the exploitation suffered by the blackest of our population” and believed wholeheartedly in the revolutionary power of Black people learning African history.
To end with a quote from Rodney, here he speaks about the two principles of learning African history, “Firstly, the effort must be directed solely towards freeing and mobilizing black minds. There must be no performances to impress whites... Secondly, the acquired knowledge of African history must be seen as directly relevant but secondary to the concrete tactics and strategy which are necessary for our liberation. There must be no false distinctions between reflection and action, because the conquest of power is our immediate goal, and the African population at home and abroad is already in combat on a number of fronts.”
The Groundings with My Brothers, a collection of speeches that Rodney gave in that year, show exactly why the Jamaican government expelled him. Rodney was a revolutionary intellectual activist committed to educating and organizing with oppressed Black people for the sole purpose of revolution. He clearly recognized how even the Black Jamaican government “served the interests of a foreign, white capitalist system” and reenacted the same violence on Black people that their white oppressors did. Rodney called out the myth of the harmonious, multi-racial Jamaican society that was “designed to justify the exploitation suffered by the blackest of our population” and believed wholeheartedly in the revolutionary power of Black people learning African history.
To end with a quote from Rodney, here he speaks about the two principles of learning African history, “Firstly, the effort must be directed solely towards freeing and mobilizing black minds. There must be no performances to impress whites... Secondly, the acquired knowledge of African history must be seen as directly relevant but secondary to the concrete tactics and strategy which are necessary for our liberation. There must be no false distinctions between reflection and action, because the conquest of power is our immediate goal, and the African population at home and abroad is already in combat on a number of fronts.”
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