How Europe Underdeveloped Africa

by Walter Rodney, Angela Y. Davis (Foreword)

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa is an ambitious masterwork of political economy, detailing the impact of slavery and colonialism on the history of international capitalism. In this classic book, Rodney makes the unflinching case that African “mal-development” is not a natural feature of geography, but a direct product of imperial extraction from the continent, a practice that continues up into the present. Meticulously researched, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa remains a relevant study for understanding the so-called “great divergence” between Africa and Europe, just as it remains a prescient resource for grasping the multiplication of global inequality today.

In this new edition, Angela Davis offers a striking foreword to the book, exploring its lasting contributions to a revolutionary and feminist practice of anti-imperialism.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Africa, Economics, Race, Theory

432 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

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, 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.

Reviews

[Huyen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite some naïve visions of the success of communism in the Soviet Union and China that might sound very silly to us (considering the book was written in 1972), this book still has some very persuasive points that explain African underdevelopment. The main theme of the book is that underdevelopment was made possible by positive feedback loops starting with the uneven development in earlier centuries enforced by European constant exploitation of raw materials and human labor from Africa. It traces the root of underdevelopment Africa back to the pre-colonial period. The “natural” path of development from communalism to feudalism and capitalism in Africa was messed up by the European slave trade. The trade in slave was facilitated by African rulers’ greed for luxury goods and European products. The effect of this trade was devastating in that it caused considerable dislocation and disruption in the local economy, caused internal conflict as a result of slave raiding and a huge loss of African labor. (Rodney ignored the Arab slave trade, which caused an equivalent loss of human beings, but over a longer period and at slower rate). This process did not enter the productive process and did not contribute to generating wealth in Africa. Africa started to be highly dependent on export of raw materials and lost its spirit of technological innovation.
The intrusion of European capitalists did not mean the transmission of technology, ideas or knowledge. During the colonial period, Europe further hindered Africa’s development by expatriating surplus from all production activities and cash crop farming. Africans were reduced to basic labor jobs which never stimulated technological advances or improved means of production. The claims made by Europeans colonialists to have “civilized” and modernized the Africans was convincingly refuted by the notoriously modest amount of investment in social welfares in all colonies and the racial discrimination in access to these services between the whites and the natives. Many African "capitalists" were discouraged to own assets or were not allowed to emerge, so they did not have enough capital to invest. Industrialization was blocked by colonial governments and no modern skills or technical know-how were transmitted to the local people. Education was very limited and basically did not go beyond the primary level.
Walter Rodney challenges the concept of tribalism widely used in European journalism which means Africans have a basic loyalty to tribes rather than nations and retain fundamental hatred among themselves. He argues that the African states during the 19th century were multi-ethnic and no major wars due to ethnic differences occurred at that time (still true today). Europeans’ policies of divide and rule were the cause of the animosity among different peoples and blocked the evolution of national solidarity that happened elsewhere in Asia. the failure of Africa was mainly due to its political weakness and a low level of consciousness among the peoples of different tribes with no common social purpose (do most people have a COMMON social purpose at all? I doubt that).
Walter Rodney also points out some interesting effects of colonialism which I myself never thought of such as the detrimental impacts on the Africans as a physical species due to chronic hunger and malnutrition, starvation in villages because able-bodies males were taken to the plantations and the role of education in instilling a sense of racial inferiority and subordination among the African people.
The book could be much more convincing if it made comparisons between Africa and Asia/ Latin America. But bear in mind, this is 1972, where all the colonies were still embroiled in all sorts of conflicts, it was harder to predict the outcome of all that process in the following decades.
Often when i read this book, I reflected upon Guns Germs and Steel and think probably the combination of both is a pretty good explanation for Africa’s underdevelopment. However, that’s up to 1972. From then on, the question is still open to more investigation.

[Zanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first three chapters, on development in general, and development in Africa before the arrival of Europeans, and development in Europe, were quite dull, though the second has many fascinating snippets of information, it was too brief a tour to give the subject the kind of attention that would make it enjoyable rather than necessary, and I wasn't convinced that measuring social conditions in the various African societies against a very Eurocentric model of so-called development was actually needed or even appropriate. Nonetheless, the book became much better, in my opinion, when it arrived at the main subject, the exploitation of Africa and Africans by Europeans.

The last three chapters cover the period of slavery, the period of colonialism, independence, and "the supposed benefits of colonialism for Africa". These chapters are full of excellent material that remains highly relevant given that Europeans continue to assert that colonialism was beneficial and to exploit African countries and other regions. Like many texts, this one makes clear how Europeans gained our wealth through plunder and exploitation.

Among the many things pointed out by Rodney that I hadn't known or realised the importance of before, or just found especially salient, were:

- The effect of depopulation by the European slave trade, which removed able-bodied adults from Africa. It seems obvious that this would cause economic problems for the preyed-on region, but I had never thought of this, because I had not grasped the sheer scale of that slave trade.

- The effect of European monopolies and trade rules on technology and innovation in Africa, and, relatedly, the huge benefits of trading internally and locally. Globalization of capitalism == neo-colonial exploitation, and to fight it, ditch oppressive trade treaties, support local industries, trade with your neighbours.

- "Throughout the colonial period the [difference between the prices of exported raw materials and imported manufactured goods] got worse [in Europe's favour]. In 1939, with the same quantity of primary goods colonies could buy only 60% of manufactured goods which they bough in the decade 1870-80 before colonial rule. By 1960, the amount of European manufactured goods purchasable by the same quantity of African raw materials had fallen still further. There was no objective economic law which determined that primary produce should be worth so little. Indeed, the developed countries sold certain raw materials like timber and wheat at much higher prices than a colony could command. The explanation is that the unequal exchange was forced upon Africa by the political and military supremacy of the colonizers, just as in the sphere of international relations unequal treaties were forced on small states in the dependencies, like those in Latin America"

- Colonies were taxed. Africans paid for "the upkeep of the governors and police who oppressed them and served as watchdogs for private capitalists... taxes and customs duties were levied in the nineteeth century with the aim of allowing the colonial powers to recover the costs of the armed forces which they dispatched to conquer Africa. In effect, therefore, the colonial governments never put a penny into the colonies."

- "Finally, when all else failed, colonial powers resorted widely to the physical coercion of labor - backed up of course by legal sanctions, since anything which the colonial government chose to do was 'legal.' [...] the simplest form of forced labour was that which colonial governments exacted to carry out "public works." Labor for a given number of days per year had to be given free for these "public works" - building castles for governors, prisons for Africans, barracks for troops, and bungalows for colonial officials. A great deal of this forced labor went into the construction of roads, railways and ports to provide the infrastructure for private capitalist investment and to facilitate the export of cash crops. Taking only one example from the British colony of Sierra Leone, one finds that the railway which started at the end of the nineteenth century required forced labour from thousands of peasants driven from the villages. The hard work and appalling conditions led to the death of a large number of those engaged in work on the railway. In British territories, this kind of forced labor (including juvenile labor) was widespread enough to call forth in 1923 a "Native Authority Ordinance" restricting the use of compulsory labor for porterage, railway and road building. More often than not, means were found of circumventing this legislation. An international Forced Labor Convention was signed by all colonial powers in 1930, but again it was flouted in practice."

In the last chapter, Rodney dismisses the still popular argument that colonialism somehow benefited the colonies. "The argument suggests that, on one hand, there was exploitation and oppression, but on the other hand, colonial governments did much for the benefit of Africans and they developed Africa. It is our contention that this is completely false. Colonialism had only one hand - it was a one-armed bandit. What did colonial governments do in the interest of Africans? Supposedly, they built railroads, schools, hospitals and the like. The sum total of these services was amazingly small."

First, he points out the paltriness of the total expenditure on social services in the colonies, then he shows how the vast majority of these services were provided for white settlers and expatriates:

"it is well known that whites created an infrastructure to afford themselves leisured and enjoyable lives"

"Ibadan, one of the most heavily populated cities in Africa, had only about 50 Europeans before the last war. For those chosen few, the British colonial government maintained a segregated hospital service of 11 beds in well-furnished surroundings. There were 34 beds for the half-million blacks [...] altogether the 4,000 Europeans in the country in the 1930s had 12 modern hospitals, while the African population of at least 40 million had 52 hospitals."

Rodney goes on to discuss how exploited workers in unhealthy industries, such as miners, had no access to health care, and rural areas which produced cash crops had no social services at all. Social services to which Africans did have access were provided solely to facilitate exploitation.

"[Roads and railways] had a clear geographical distribution according to which particular regions needed to be opened up to import-export activities. Where exports were not available, roads and railways had no place. The only slight exception is that certain roads and railways were built to move troops and make conquest and oppression easier"

"Apologists for colonialism are quick to say that the money for schools, hospitals, and such services in Africa was provided by the British, French or Belgian taxpayer [...] It defies logic to admit that the profits from a given colony in a given year totalled several million dollars and to affirm nevertheless that the few thousand dollars allocated to social services in that colony was the money of European taxpayers!"

I will leave out huge swathes of material on areas like banking, agriculture (the disastrous creation of monocultures, for example) and industry, and discussion of the negative economic, political and social effects of colonialism in this chapter, including on the status of women. Colonialism created the conditions for neo-colonial exploitation and dependence. But the one thing I found most interesting and impressive about Rodney's work is his discussion of education.

Pre-colonial education in Africa was outstandingly relevant, he explains, in contrast to colonial education, the main purpose of which "was to train Africans to help man the local administration at the lowest ranks and staff the private capitalist firms staffed by Europeans. In effect, that meant selecting a few Africans to participate in the domination and exploitation of the continent as a whole [...] it sought to instill a sense of deference towards all that was European and capitalist. Education in Europe was dominated by the capitalist class. The same class bias was automatically transferred to Africa; and to make matters worse the racism and cultural boastfulness harboured by capitalism were also included in the package of colonial education. Colonial schooling was education for subordination, exploitation, the creation of mental confusion, and the development of underdevelopment."

Rodney quotes statistics showing the small number of school places. The levels of secondary education were low, and higher education almost non-existent. What education there was included generous doses of propaganda. The more education a person received, the more alienated and separated from their culture they became. Abdou Moumini is quoted: "colonial education corrupted the thinking and sensibilities of the African and filled him with abnormal complexes". The church played its part: "[its] role was primarily to preserve the social relations of colonialism [...] therefore, [it] stressed humility, docility, and acceptance."

Despite this (and this is the exciting part), Africans struggled hard to gain education, and the fruit of that struggle, ultimately, in combination with other aspects of liberation struggle, was independence.

"The educated played a role in African independence struggles far out of proportion to their numbers, because they took it upon themselves and were called upon to articulate the interests of all Africans."

"If there is anything glorious about the history of African colonial education, it lies not in the crumbs which were dropped by European exploiters, but in the tremendous vigor displayed by Africans in mastering the principles of the system that had mastered them. In most colonies, there was an initial period of indifference towards school education, but once it was understood that schooling represented one of the few avenues of advance within colonial society, it became a question of African clamoring and pushing the colonialists much further than they intended to go."

Africans everywhere put their money (often savings were hard won through self-denial) into building schools, and put pressure on colonial institutions to provide schooling. Administrations were unwilling to comply. The Beecher report on education in Kenya:

Illiterates with the right attitude to manual employment are preferable to products of the schools who are not readily disposed to enter manual employment

Kenya had two independent school associations (as mentioned by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, although I forget in which book), which were immediately closed when the Mau Mau war for liberation broke out.

"it was not really necessary to get the idea of freedom from a European book. What the educated African extracted from European schooling was a particular formation of the concept of political freedom. But, it did not take much to elicit a response from their own instinctive tendency for freedom [...] that universal tendency to seek freedom manifested itself among Africans even when the most careful steps were taken to extinguish it [...] Teachers were supposed to have been steeped in the culture of domination [...] but in the end, many of them stood in the vanguard of national liberation movements."

The chapter ends by emphasising that the mass of the people were involved in winning independence, but a detail account of the process would require a long text for each state, so it is not given. The post-independence (or postcolonial) situation and neo-colonial exploitation is left for other books to address.

[Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why does Africa seem to be lagging behind general global development? I believe that it is not only the current and aftereffects of European domination,but the mindset of Africans themselves.
The same type of destruction of traditional culture took place on other continents by Europeans, but Africa seems to have borne the brunt of it all.
There is a self-evident intolerance within the Caucasian psyche for African features and values, and thus there has been a continuous process of assimilation.
I am Black, and am totally enamoured by jet-black skin and exaggerated buttocks on black women. I say 'exaggerated', but this is only in context of comparison with Caucasians.
Africans are more attached to their traditional cultural values than any other groups of people that I have seen. Modern life seeks to do away with tradition, for a more scientific approach. But the paternalism plainly evident to Africans with open minds, is revealed in the type of 'scientific' approach namely Western.
African science has been totally removed from the equation, because Western eyes fail to recognize the nature of it.
Thus many Africans are pursuing a fleeting illusion in their quest to assimilate western culture as promulgated in the education system they are exposed to.
My feeling is that Africa will always lag behind until Africans rediscover their full self-worth and totally immerse themselves into their own science and education system, which exists in a parallel paradigm to Western belief systems.

[BookOfCinz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is what I call required reading!

It took awhile for me to get into reading this very robust book but I am really happy I did. It is true what they say, this book is very dense and a lot of things may go over your head so I recommend taking at least a month or two to read it so everything can sink in.

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa is what I call required reading because it shows us how colonialism continues to impact a lot of Africa to this day. We see how a lot of the practices and things done to countries in Africa impacted the people, culture and changed the course of their history. We also see how Europe continues to benefit from colonialism to this day.

I loved how Rodney unequivocally shut down the argument about “there were some benefits to colonialism” or “the continent did benefit from Europe”. We hear this off handed remarks a lot and I enjoyed the research that went behind showcasing how wrong that is.

In a world where we are told to forget the pass and move on, this book shows us how there are institutions in place that makes it hard. I highly recommend reading this.

[Randall Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Africa, under communalism, had no classes and had equality in distribution. Carthage flourished from 1200 to 200 B.C. By 732 A.D, Europe stopped the Muslim advance, when African forces were already deep into France. Imagine white teachers telling their students that while non-whites were happily enjoying baths in Maghreb (later Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia), white people in Oxford, England considered that washing oneself was “a dangerous act”. Few whites understand that trans-Saharan trade “was as great an achievement as crossing the ocean.” It brought in trade and literate Islamic culture, however iron tools came to Africa later than they came to Europe, so, technology and skills were more limited. When Cecil Rhodes went in Zimbabwe and saw its ruins, they assumed they had to have been built by white people. Slavery was not a “mode of production” until the whites came. Europeans arriving in Africa were often impressed by what they saw: clean straight streets some 120 feet wide, pillars encased in copper, palaces, and galleries. Communalist Africa meets the fledgling capitalist nations of Europe. Africa gets tapped for slaves when the indigenous of the Americas prove either unwilling to slave for the white invaders, or too susceptible to smallpox. The English currency, the guinea, was once made from gold taken from Guinea. Queen Elizabeth I enjoyed the slave trade and gave a ship strangely named Jesus to go to Africa to steal more slaves. When Elizabeth gave John Hawkins a knighthood for stealing blacks from Africa at gunpoint, John made his own coat of arms from an image of blacks in chains. Barclays Bank was set up by two slavers needing a place to put their tainted profits. James Watt got his steam engine financing from slavers. In the 18th century, France was getting 20% of its income from theft and slavery. “In the 1830’s slave-grown cotton accounted for about half the value of all the exports from the United States.” Slavery does not allow for industrial development which is why the U.S. North developed industry while the South did not.

When France prattled on about “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” you can be sure they were not discussing their enslaved blacks around the world. Rational Americans were upset to learn about My Lai in Vietnam, but few connected the violent dots to past U.S. slavery and brutal settler-colonialism against the Native Americans. Trade at the time was in the interest of European Capitalism and nothing else. Funny how Europeans had no religious problem seeing the theft of human beings “through warfare, trickery, banditry and kidnapping” as “trade”. Did anyone of us get taught in school that 15 to 20% of all slaves died on the journey across the Atlantic? Or of the countless slave deaths after capture before they arrived bound at the African coast? Do whites think about how many blacks also died in those pointless African wars for yet more captives? How many were killed or injured in those wars to produce the captives? Such an outflow of society could only claw at the remaining African social fabric. During this time, raiding other people’s captives had become more lucrative than gold mining. How do you develop your country through harnessing or working with nature under such circumstances? How do you even grow your food, let alone develop industry?

Did you know the British forced Africans to sing: Rule Britannia, Britannia rule the waves, Britons never never shall be slaves”? How developed would Britons be now, if they were forced instead to be some else’s slaves for centuries? Then there were all the shitty consumer goods Europe dumped on Africa, intentionally undercutting African industry and products. As a result, “people forgot even the simple techniques of the forefathers”. Basic technological regression. No one mentions that Italians should be grateful to China for spaghetti after Marco Polo introduced them to the noodle. But many mention that Africans should be grateful to Europe for the corn and the cassava. Japan was the only non-white country to be spared. Look how England destroyed India’s vibrant cloth industry but not that of Japan. Walter tells us “it would not have been in the interest of capitalism to develop Africa” which is why state-capitalist countries of the 60’s and 70’s instead stepped in to work with Africa like China, Czechoslovakia, and the Soviet Union. During the slave trade, one horse brought to Africa was worth 15 captives. The Portuguese basically were restricted to along the coast where their cannons were effective. Slave trading for Africans had an extra cost because whites didn’t always show up each year to buy them, due to their own wars and revolutions. African leaders were reduced to being “middlemen for European trade” during the colonial period. For Walter, “modern imperialism is inseparable from capitalism.” Arabs only exploited African labor in a “feudal context”. Liberia became a de facto colony for the U.S. because of the rubber. Firestone’s profits through buying one million acres of land at six cents an acre there, made Firestone. In fact, Firestone took 160 million dollars of rubber out of Liberia, while the Liberian government received only 8 million dollars in return.

Colonel Grogan says of the Kikuyu, “We have stolen his land. Now we must steal his limbs. Compulsory labor is the corollary of our occupation of the country.” The French banned the Mandja people from hunting because it interfered with cotton cultivation for export. Europeans bought African resources like palm oil and ground nuts at crazy prices far below market value. Cadbury’s job was exploiting African cocoa workers. Lobbyists like Cadbury controlled their own government as well – a nice trick. Think Africa has always been poor? In 1952, Guinea “earned France about 5.6 million dollars (bauxite, coffee, bananas) in foreign exchange.” The U.S. got its uranium for its first atomic bomb from the Belgian Congo. Africa had plenty of Manganese, Chrome, Columbite and Copper taken also to keep western capitalism going. Soap companies like Lever began making margarine because they required the same materials: oils and fats. Donald Trump probably has enough oils and fats in him to create a whole vat of I Can’t Believe it’s not Butter.

All roads and railways created by colonists, not surprisingly, led down to the sea. These were built at great human cost – no payment, just lashes. No cranes, no earth movers, just black humans forced at gunpoint by whites. How civilized. Europe’s capital accumulation comes from overseas – now we can see better how moral that was. As Walter says, Africans came into colonization with a hoe, and left with a hoe. See Africa forced to become have destructive monocultures instead of food security – Sudan & Uganda = cotton, Tanzania = sisal, Senegal & Gambia = groundnuts, Liberia = rubber, Dahomey and Nigeria = palm oil, and “two African colonies were told to grow nothing but peanuts.” When Oxfam says, save the starving children of Africa, they won’t tell you those kids are starving because of the effects of colonialism and capitalism. Kenyans didn’t have tooth decay until they were forced to adopt a western diet. Throughout Africa, the church taught the colonized the “value” of docility, humility and acceptance – the church preserved “the social relations of colonialism”. When the Mau Mau Rebellion broke out in Kenya, Britain leapt into action – they closed all the schools, because they could no longer control Kenyan minds. Think of Africa as three centuries of slavery with a chaser of one century of colonialism. “Foreign investment is the cause, not a solution to our economic backwardness. What is colonialism if it is not a system of ‘foreign investment’?” In terms of lack of development, think of Africans as needing more protein, doctors, engineers, agriculturalists, lawyers, administrators and even welders. For Africa importing experts is very expensive. Also, note that socialist countries had no part in the theft of Africa. In 1980, this book’s author Walter is assassinated by a car bomb; some clearly did not like what he had to say on behalf of the people of Africa. An amazing important book I’m super glad I finally read.

[William Gwynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up as some wider reading for one of my history modules at University. It felt wrong to say that I was "looking forward to" reading this, as of course it engages with a very dark part of history that continues to this day, but I think it is incredibly important to know about.

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa systematically examines how Europe exploited Africa on a political, social and economic stage. To do this, it gives a very light establishment of Africa pre-European influence, and takes us through the last five centuries. Of course, there is not enough time in this to go in depth into case studies, but it really is a horrifying overview of the broad impacts European influence has had across the entirety of the continent, and places a key focus on making clear this relationship of exploitation still exists today.

Whilst this is scattered with specialist terminology especially in regards to economic policies, Walter Rodney establishes what these terms mean and provides examples so that even if you had no prior knowledge of this terminology at all, you will still be able to follow the analysis and the picture that unfolds.

As I said, this is a dark read that is horrifying throughout, but it was highly educational in a way that teaches you a lot, but does not overwhelm you. Walter Rodney provides a wide picture that means it is accessible to those who have a deep knowledge of the topics covered, as well as those who know nothing other than the title.

[Sunny Lu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every single person needs to read this !!!!!!!!! Especially colonized peoples in the fight for liberation and colonizers who must be obligated to learn about the full extent of their oppressive histories

[Elizabeth Gabhart · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm struggling to choose a rating for this book. When it was written in 1972, the author undoubtedly drew on cutting edge historical research, but the book seems pretty out of date now. Ditto for his romanticization of life in China, Russia, and Korea under socialism. At the time it was written, these countries portrayed a rosy portrait to the rest of the world, which modern scholars now know was bogus. In 1972, it seemed as though socialism made citizens' lives uniformly better, while capitalism made people's lives worse. Today, we have a more nuanced picture. Socialism and capitalism are both sometimes forces for evil, sometimes for good.

I definitely don't blame to author for writing a book that became out of date almost fifty years later. However, I'm puzzled by the modern scholars who seem to revere this book for its wisdom and insight, as though we haven't learned so much more about the world since it was written.

[Justin Goodman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliantly straightforward. Rodney managed to contextualize a broad array of African histories, rebut the various racisms and imperialist chauvinisms - that are still with us today - and collate all this within a clear theory of historical patterns/trends towards African independence. Maybe my favorite choice is each chapter concluding not with a tsunami of end notes to cross check, but with further reading suggestions. It's here you see the populist spirit of the work itself. Despite being nearly half a century old at this point it's staying power is a testament to this spirit, Rodney's unpampering style, and, tragically, to how his generation's most radical were successfully suppressed by neo-colonial/neo-liberal forces (Rodney himself was killed by a car bomb 8 years after publication, in 1980).

I've often seen this book paired with Eduardo Galleano's Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent in being a primer for its respective continent. I would recommend it if you haven't read it, though expect a very different style from Rodney's.

I'm still trying to educate myself on African history and politics, so I can't recommend much there. This stream from the Vijay Prashad's Progressive International marking the 60th anniversary of Patrice Lumumba's assassination (the 17th) was incredibly informative for me though and I would recommend it.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have no clue why this has above a 3.0 rating. This book and the underlying logic are nonsensical. There is certainly some interesting history of African cultures, but the heart of the book is a harsh critique of capitalism (which the author conflates with colonialism) and socialism (which the author conflates with perfection).

The fact that the author lauds North Korea should be enough to demonstrate how ideologically committed he was. This is the ravings of a zealot more than a study of Europes underdevelopment of Africa.

Unfortunately, the obvious knowledge and understanding of the continent and it's people is there, but the conclusions are so heavily weighted by the Marxist paradigm that everything becomes an oversimplification of factors to good (socialism) v evil (capitalism).

My only thought is people are appreciating this as a period piece that captures a sentiment. But if you want that, read Fannon. Fannon is far more honest and raw emotion rather than vapid fake facts and historical contortions. Perhaps that's the biggest issue with this book, if you want to believe it, then all of the rants become truth. If you dont, it's all dumb. If you fact check or have a grasp of African history, you spend half the book wondering if this is satire!

[mehta · Rating 4 out of 5]

(hi guys it's good to be back!)

colonized populations like african countries were often self-sufficient and judiciously developing before colonizers like european imperialists plundered their economy under the guise of 'civilizing' these 'lesser people'—but colonization didn't help develop africa; it stole from africans the exponential margins of potential financial, educational and social success that was theirs to rightfully gain. walter rodney was assassinated, but he left behind a piece of work that is a truly seminal piece of de-colonial work that i think anyone looking to educate themselves should read. this was originally written in the late 1900s so some of the factual information is no longer relevant (like the interspersed commentary on the soviet union), but otherwise, this was a truly eye-opening read.

[Andrew]

It's such a shame to me that too many postcolonial ideas at the present moment are hopelessly romantic and boil everything down to ahistorical notions of a West full of BAD THINGS and a Global South full of INDIGENOUS WISDOM, without considering the complexity and economic conditions that undergird it all – little more than melanin theory with an academic pedigree. If you want to know what honest postcolonial thinking looks like – rooted in Marxist dialectic, showing how the processes of imperialism and colonialism occur within the capitalist order, and how it is the cruel logic of markets, based on a gentleman's agreement between colonial militaries, multinational enterprises, and local compradors that dictates the exploitation of the poorest people. Granted, Rodney was writing in the '70s, and he suffers a bit from an excessive faith in the Leninist project, but that's my only major reservation. The rest is straightforward and devastating.

[Ursula · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing! Incredible! Eye-opening, ground-breaking, gripping, exciting, wonderful!

I love this book and I wished I had read it years ago. Not only does it throw open the colonial exploitation of Africa, but it brings pre-Colonial and pre-European-Slave-Trade Africa to life. Rodney puts together a biting criticism of Europe's interaction with Africa starting in the 15th century with trading, both the slave trade and the trade in goods. This essentially killed inter-Africa trade, forcing African civilizations to only trade with European and other western economies. This also changed the economies of African civilizations to suit what the traders wanted, whether human beings, cotton, or minerals. When European powers grew as a result of the profits from trade, they then carved Africa into its current state and entered the continent to force more and more production of things that would increase profit for the western markets. Banks, industries, and nations prospered by the use of underpaid, sometimes forced African labor. Meanwhile, civilizations fell apart and education came to a stand-still. This book left me further convinced in the concept of reparations, not just for slavery, but for the destruction of an entire continent and all the people that came from there in the last 500 years.

I usually reserve five stars for books that I consider feminist as well as good. This book, written in the late 1960's, is not feminist because the author frequently refers to all of society as "man". However, at the same time, he points out that the western world "has yet to emancipate women" [paraphrase there] and includes other observations that I consider admirable for a pre-second-wave male writer to make.

I am hungry to read an update of this book about the events in Africa in the last 40 years, with a focus on the Bahutu and Batutsi issues in Rwanda and Brundi, the independence of the white-ruled states of Namibia and Botswana, the breakdown of Somoli governance, and of course, the lifting of Apartheid in South Africa. I'd like to know about the status of manufacturing on the continent and any kind of efforts to move away from monocrop economies to more diversified and healthy economies. How is the discovery of oil in Nigeria and Angola affecting those nations from this viewpoint?

[Kab · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF 12% Excruciatingly of another era. Starts from false premises, does not question that man must dominate nature and that progress follows a single inexorable path from hunting communalism to slave-owning states to feudalism to capitalism to socialism. Permanent growth and producing for an anonymous market remain the aim while the summit of development is when the state accumulates the surplus. Among alarming postulations:

However morally indefensible slavery may have been, it did serve for a while to open up the mines and agricultural plantations in large parts of Europe and notably within the Roman Empire.

[Imane · Rating 5 out of 5]

What's there to say about this classic of post-colonial theory except that it should be mandatory reading for everyone? Although the first two chapters of the book (which counts 6) were a bit *tedious* to get through, they do the necessary job to set the scene for the range of diverse modes of life pre-triangular trade and pre-colonial capitalist exploitation in Africa. Europe and the USA didn't fill their coffers by picking up money from trees; the riches that were appropriated were done on African soil by exploited African labour under brutal conditions. Rodney does the necessary task to thoroughly outline the trajectories taken by colonial projects in Africa and how they manifested themselves over many centuries to both contribute to the capitalist system in Europe and the USA as well as its expansion as a system of oppression and extraction in Africa. Rodney also has a somewhat biting tone at times, which was very à propos (he made fun of Portugal so much that if I was the country I'd just hide in shame lmao). MANDATORY READING!

[kripsoo · Rating 5 out of 5]

في هذا الكتاب القيم يروي مؤلفه والتر رودني قصة تخلف إفريقيا عن ركب التقدم ومساهمة أوروبا الفاعلة والكبيرة في هذه النتيجة التي باتت ظاهرة للعيان ويريد والتر من وراء سرد قصة دور أوروبا في تخلف إفريقيا أن يشرح دور إفريقيا في الشؤون الدولية وذلك عن طريق الرجوع لماضيها منذ أول مملكة حتى وصلنا إلى الاستعمار الغربي الأوروبي ويريد المؤلف أن يربط بين هذا التاريخ وهذا الماضي وما يجري اليوم في إفريقيا وحالتها على الصعيد الدولي غير أنه لا بد من التنويه إلى أن المنهجية التي يوظفها والتر تنطلق من وجهة نظر اشتراكية كانت سائدة في مناطق كثيرة من العالم إبان صدور كتابه إذن الكتاب لم يخرج عن سياق النظرة الاشتراكية في التطور والتنمية فالمؤلف نادى بشكل واضح منذ بداية الكتاب بفكرة أن تنمية إفريقيا وتطورها مرهونة بالانفكاك من النظام الرأسمالي الدولي الذي كان السبب الرئيس لتخلف إفريقيا لقرون خمسة متواصلة وأكثر من ذلك كما يبين الكتاب في مقدمته وكان يأمل والتر رودني أن يصل هذا الكتاب إلى أيادي الأفارقة خاصة الذين يريدون تفحص طبيعة الاستغلال التي مورست ضدهم وضد أجدادهم وهو يعرف بشكل مطول مفهوم التخلف الذي يشكل حجز الزاوية لفهم بقية الكتاب ويتميز مفهوم التخلف بعدد من الصفات: هنا يركز رودني على نوع من المقارنة لفهم مفهوم التنمية فمناطق إفريقيا وآسيا وأمريكا اللاتينية متخلفة قياسا بأوروبا وشمال أمريكا وعدد قليل من الدول الصناعية في العالم ثانيا يتضمن مفهوم التخلف ليس فقط عدم المساواة الاقتصادية النسبي بين عدد من الدول والقارات وإنما يتضمن إضافة إلى ذلك مسألة في غاية الأهمية وهي علاقات الاستغلال الاقتصادي بين دولتين أو أكثر و في هذه الحالة يصبح المستغل (بكسر الغين) متطورا وناميا في حين يكون فيه المستغل (بفتح الغين) متخلفا وهنا يشير والتر إلى أن التخلف في دول قارة إفريقيا وآسيا وأمريكا اللاتينية واضح من خلال عدد من المؤشرات من ضمنها: كمية الفولاذ المستخدمة (وهو مؤشر لمستوى التصنيع والصناعة) الإنتاج الزراعي، معدل الوفيات بين الأطفال، سوء التغذية، وجود الأمراض التي في الغالب لا توجد في الدول المتطورة صناعيا وانتشار الأمية ويقول والتر إن من ضمن صفات التخلف الأخرى ما يمكن اعتباره عدم القدرة على التركيز على قطاعات من الاقتصاد التي يمكن لها أن تحقق نسب نمو عالية كما أن العلاقات بين مختلف القطاعات الاقتصادية هي إما غير موجودة وإما موجودة لكنها ضعيفة، ورافق ذلك تلاش للتوفير المتراكم بعد هذا التقديم المفاهيمي لمصطلح التخلف ينتقل والتر لتقديم نظرة عامة لما كان عليه حال المجتمع الإفريقي النقي والمجتمعات الإفريقية المعقدة التي كانت موجودة قبل قدوم الأوروبيين بشكل عام يكمن القول إن العائلة ورابطة الدم والقرابة هي العوامل المحددة لملكية الأرض وفي استجلاب العمال للعمل في الأرض وفي توزيع م��رجات العمل وهذا لا يتطابق على الإطلاق ونظام الإقطاع أو الرأسمالي الذي يعمل فيه عبيد الأرض أو العمال المأجورون وهم في العادة من خارج عائلة سيد الأرض أو صاحب المصنع كما يشير الكتاب في فصله الثاني إلى مظاهر أخرى في الثقافة الإفريقية قبل عام 1445 وهي الموسيقى والرقص والفن والدين ثم الدين هنا انتشر في الحياة الإفريقية كما هو الحال في مجتمعات ما قبل الإقطاع الأخرى مثل أستراليا وأفغانستان ومثل الفايكونج في الدول الإسكندنافية ويقول والتر إنه وعلى الرغم من أن إفريقيا أظهرت قدرا كبيرا من التشكيلات الاجتماعية (مثل جماعات الصيد والإقطاع والمشاعية) غير أن أغلبية المجتمعات الإفريقية قبل قدوم الأوروبيين كانت في مرحلة انتقالية من ممارسة الزراعة والصيد والرعي في مجتمعات العائلة إلى ممارسة الأنشطة نفسها في نطاق دول ومجتمعات مشابهة للإقطاع وهنا يقدم والتر عددا من الأمثلة ليوضح هذه النقطة على وجه التحديد مثل القدماء المصريين وأمثلة أخرى ولم يتردد والتر في توجيه النقد لما وصفه بأخطاء الباحثين التقليديين التي كانت تصف بروز الحضارة الأوروبية الحديثة كشيء حققه الأوروبيون بأنفسهم منفردين دون الاعتماد على أحد وبدلا من ذلك يجادل والتر في أن التجارة مع الأمم غير الأوروبية كانت المفتاح الرئيس لتحقيق الهيمنة الأوروبية فقد انخرطت أوروبا في تجارة الرقيق والعبيد منذ القرن الخامس عشر وصاعدا وكان لذلك أثر كبير في صعود الحضارة الأوروبية فقد تم توظيف العبيد في مناجم الذهب والفضة في الولايات المتحدة وإفريقيا والذهب والفضة كانا في غاية الأهمية لصناعة النقد في الاقتصاد الأوروبي المتنامي وكان لهذه الفرص الجديدة أثر كبير أيضا في فرص الاستكشاف وتراكم الثروة فالكثير من مناحي المجتمع الأوروبي والاقتصاد كان متأثرا بتجارة العبيد وهنا نشير إلى صناعة السفن والتأمين وإقامة الشركات والزراعة الرأسمالية والتكنولوجيا وإنتاج الآلات وإقامة العلاقات التجارية في أوروبا ونتيجة لهذا النوع من التجارة فقد نشأت مدن موانئ مثل ليفربول في إنجلترا وإشبيلية في إسبانيا وهي مدن أقيمت نتيجة لتجارة العبيد وارتبطت هذه المدن لاحقا بعضها ببعض وصادف ذلك بروز مراكز التصنيع وبداية الثورة الصناعية في بريطانيا ويرى والتر أن إحدى النتائج السلبية التي صاحبت تجارة العبيد هي نمو العنصرية البيضاء تجاه الأفارقة وجاء ذلك بشكل كبير كطريقة لعقلنة استغلال عمل العبيد التي اعتمدت عليه أوروبا بشكل متزايد وبالتالي جاءت فترة الاستعمار التي دفعت فيها إفريقيا أيضا ثمنا باهظا ولعبت فيه إفريقيا دورا كبيرا في تنمية وتطوير أوروبا والنظام الرأسمالي الدولي وخلال هذه الفترة الاستعمارية تورط الكثير من القطاعات الاقتصادية الأوروبية في استغلال الموارد والمصادر الإفريقية ومن ضمنها خدمات السفن والنقل والبنوك وسمح النظام الكولونيالي أيضا بنمو سريع للتكنولوجيا والمهارات في القطاعات الرئيسة الاقتصادية في مراكز الإمبرياليات الأوروبية والاستعمار منح الرأسمالية عمرا أطول وبقاء أطول في أوروبا الغربية ومثالا على التطورات التكنولوجية يمكن الإشارة إلى التطورات في المعدات الحربية لأن التنافس على المستعمرات شجع نوعا من الطرق الجديدة لشن الحروب (المدمرات والغواصات) وفي البحث العلمي وفي الشحن (الثلاجات وحاملات النفط وأنواع جديدة من التجهيزات الخاصة بالموانئ) ونتيجة لكل ذلك كان هناك تقاسم في العمل على المستوى الدولي إذ اقتصر عمل الأفارقة في المناجم ما يعني ضمان النمو والتوظيف والمهارات في الأمم الأوروبية وهناك فوائد أخرى للاستعمار تجلت في الحصول على الفن الإفريقي القيم واستخدام الجنود الأفارقة للحرب نيابة عن الشعب الأبيض على أرض إفريقيا وفي مواقع أخرى من العالم وكان للسلوك الأوروبي تجاه الأفارقة أثر كبير في تطور بل لنقل تخلف إفريقيا بشكل عام فالأثر المباشر لتجارة العبيد كانت عندما كانوا يرسلون عبر المحيط الأطلسي ما أدى إلى تراجع في المواليد ونمو السكان وهذا بدوره أثر في توافر العمل والعمال في الأسواق الإفريقية أما ما تبقى من أفارقة فقد كان الكثير منهم منهمكا في اصطياد العبيد والحصول على بضائع كان يرغب فيها الأوروبيون وهو الأمر الذي أدى إلى إهمال الصناعات المحلية سواء الزراعية أو التكنولوجية كما يجب أن ننوه إلى أن شراء التكنولوجيا الذي يعتبر طريقة أخرى لإحداث النمو في المجتمع كان غائبا في هذه الفترة بسبب طبيعة الاتصال بين الأوروبيين والأفارقة وهي طريقة لم تكن تساعد على نشر الأفكار الإيجابية والتكنولوجيا من أوروبا المتحضرة إلى إفريقيا المتخلفة و غير أن أحد أهم الآثار للتوسع في تجارة الرقيق هو تدمير الروابط الداخلية التي أقيمت في إفريقيا قبل أن تدهمهم تجارة الرقيق ويشير والتر هنا إلى أنه قبل قدوم الاستعمار كان الأفارقة يصنعون تاريخهم وتطورهم بشكل مناسب ويمكن تفسير ذلك بأن التأثير الأوروبي بقي محصورا في المناطق الساحلية وبالتالي تأثرت المنظومة الأيديولوجية والسياسية والعسكرية بشكل قليل ويعطي أمثلة كثيرة على مجتمعات بقيت تنمو بشكل مستقل مثل رواندا فكثير من هذه المجتمعات أثبتت أنها قوية ويحسب لها حساب غير أنه خلال فترة الاستعمار كانت الآلية الأساسية لعدم تطور إفريقيا هي مصادرة الفائض المنتج من قبل العامل الإفريقي وكذلك الموارد الطبيعية وإضافة إلى ذلك فإن الاستعمار كان يعني الإزالة الافتراضية للقوة السياسية الإفريقية وإعاقة مزيد من التطور والتضامن الوطني وإهمال الصناعات المحلية وعدم كفاية المرافق الصحية والفرص التعليمية وكل هذه الأمور بعضها مع بعض تسهم وأسهمت في التخلف باختصار لقد حقق رودني والتر مبتغاه في الكتاب عندما أثبت أن التدخل الأوروبي أسهم بشكل كبير فيما وصلت إليه إفريقيا اليوم فما من أمة أوروبية دخلت في إفريقيا إلا وتذوقت طعم الربح والرخاء ولكن المشكلة الرئيسة في مقاربة رودني والتر هي تأكيده الزائد على الحد المنظور الاشتراكي بخاصة بعد أن ركز على النجاحات السوفياتية التي تبدو الآن ضربا من الماضي ومستغربا كما قلل من شأن عوامل التخلف الداخلية التي تستند إلى الطريقة التي ينظم بها المجتمع نفسه ومع ذلك نقول إن الكتاب ممتاز وكتب بطريقة سهلة القراءة ومساهمة مهمة في فهم كيف آلت الأوضاع في افريقيا وكيف كان للعامل الخارجي أثر كبير في هذه الدينامية التاريخية

[Gigisxm · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been trying to finish this book for 3 years. I'd pick it up get angry amd have to step away.
The inhumanity and intentionality is infuriating.
This book should be required reading. It should have been on my syllabus at school. But it wasn't and you want to know why? Because i live in a European colony (let's call a spade a spade) and they would rather teach us about nos ancêtres les gaulois instead of exposing their dirty deeds. Walter Rodney went deep and exposed not only how these empires were built but also how they intentionally tanked any development in Africa.
Any discussion of reparations is immediately ostracized but that is the only discussion that should be happening. From the slave trade to the pillaging of Africa was solely for ecomic gain and reparations is the only way forward. Apologies without restitution is futile.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
#Goodreadsreadingchallenge
39/12
#bookreview
#bookstagram #sxmbibliophile #islandgirlreads

[Rashida · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just read this for class. It is a political/economic commentary on capitalism from the perspective of a socialist. If you care or wonder about the socioeconomic conditions of African nations and why it is the way it is read this book- a little bit at a time.

[T · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a shame that this book is edited so poorly. Please do not buy the Verso print edition of this classic ...

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Everyone with a Western-centric education should consider reading this book. Yes it is dated and flawed in numerous ways, however it meticulously conveys a truth that is unfortunately still often ignored even 50 years later: The riches of the Enlightenment in Europe did not come for free, and they certainly don’t prove any intrinsic superiority of the West. Instead, they were built on the exploitation of a continent (and beyond), both through slavery and colonialism.

Rodney argues (using a Marxist analysis) that Europe was able to exploit Africa because there were slight differences that put Europe in a capitalist phase while Africa was not, so that Africa was not equipped to compete and the differences blew up until the gap was unbridgeable. He is thorough in his analysis and I learned a lot about everything from the internal slave trade within different regions in Africa, up to European soap monopolies that were built on African resources.

It isn’t an easy read. In addition to being dense and technical, the prose is often long-winded and repetitive. Some maps and illustrations would really help (hopefully those will be included in the new edition coming out in October 2018, which will also include an introduction by Angela Davis). I found it useful to refer to Marx and Fanon for context.

The book has numerous flaws. For all its long in-depth analyses, there were also plenty of one sentence asserted comments that seemed very overblown, unsupported, outside Rodney’s scope of knowledge, and/or just generally problematic. To give just a few examples: He erases Native Americans, claims to explain the cause of the Holocaust in terms of colonialism, and gives a one line economic explanation for the Civil War. He also describes the Americas as as having barely emerged from the hunting stage (no mention of e.g. the Mayans or the Aztecs) right after a long chapter combating misconceptions and clarifying the extent of state formation in Africa before colonialism. The list goes on.

As other reviewers have noted, possibly the biggest flaw is Rodney’s uncritical praise of the Soviet Union and communism. I wonder if perhaps information about the atrocities committed by Stalin had not reached him at this time and place.

Despite the flaws, the book has really deepened the way I think about colonialist exploitation and I look forward to the new edition next fall.

[Irene · Rating 5 out of 5]

The next time I hear someone wonder why we haven't been visited by advanced alien civilisations I'm just going to stare into their eyes and slowly hand them this book without saying anything.

Brilliantly structured and detailed, Rodney paints a vivid picture of pre-colonial Africa from a cultural, political and economic perspective, with an emphasis on the pre-capitalist economic structures that existed, followed by the arrival of Europeans and the absolute horror than ensued. If you're interested in anti-racist literature, this will give you some much needed context for how the world works and why it got that way.

[Gabriella · Rating 2 out of 5]

Note: I read this book as part of my home library system’s Read More in 2024 Challenge. Challenge Prompt: Read a title that has been on your TBR for the longest.

Hmm...

I'm so sorry to this man, who is an incredible person important to so many academics (or people trained in the academy) trying to chart a path of action that does not betray their values. Unfortunately, my reading of Walter Rodney's How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, felt very similar to my experience with bell hooks' All About Love. Again, it's not at all a bad thing that Walter Rodney's work has been critical for so many people's political formations!! It just creates a scenario where many of the ideas in these books have been reproduced in countless Twitter threads and sound bites, to the point where I felt that I'd already encountered this book's main points without ever reading it. I long for the days when I could read foundational texts and be appropriately awed by them, but at least for me, these instances are few and far between--I have been too ruined by the internet, I fear.

Unfortunately, my reading experience was even more hampered by my general disinterest in anthropology. Rodney's analysis of the historical achievements of pre-colonial African societies made me think of one of my favorite quotes from Jamaica Kincaid's A Small Place, which may be the last "essential reading" book that I actually found to be essential. On Page 41, she says that "As for what we were like before we met you [the colonizer], I no longer care. No periods of time over which my ancestors hold sway, no documentation of complex civilizations, is any comfort to me. Even if I really came from people who were living like monkeys in trees, it was better to be that than what happened to me, what I became after I met you."

Reader, I COULD NOT agree more. At this point in my life, no one ever has to sell me on the validity of pre-colonial African culture OR enslaved African-American culture, because there is no part of either culture that feels shameful to me anymore. Unfortunately, this book spent a lot of time trying to "make the case" in a way that felt very monotonous to me.

I don't mean to suggest that I didn't learn things while reading this book, because I certainly did! Rodney explains how trade and coordination between Europe advanced particularly due to the slave trade, and that really made something click in my head. Like colonization was really their continental bonding strategy!!! This book also helped me understand the particular periods of Europe's colonization of Africa as distinct epochs with renewed or revised strategies of domination, versus a uniform imperial practice that was pretty much the same from the start of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade to the point of African independence.

I learned how exploitation of the African colonies took the edge off the internal contradictions and recurring crises of capitalism, because the Europeans could outsource their issues to the colonies. In the worst times (like the Great Depression), there was even more brutal treatment of and lower wages for African workers. In the best times, surplus in Africa was how the capitalist “metropoles” gave crumbs to their workers back home—increased wages, more commodities, social safety net benefits, etc. This made even unionized/radical workers in Europe directly complicit in the colonial exploitation of workers, something that Rodney astutely calls out as a very intentional Faustian deal.

I had the biggest "OMG WHAT DID I JUST LEARN" moment when understanding just how Europe underdeveloped the food systems of its African colonies. Basically, the famines these colonies experienced (and still experience) were greatly exacerbated by the imposition of banana republics. By being forced to put the bulk of their efforts into mass-producing a small number of profitable crops, African peoples' agricultural systems became significantly less resilient in cases where one crop failed. Basically, European's profit motives made all famines even worse because African workers couldn’t grow non-profitable crops to offset any downturns in the harvest of profitable crops. Rodney even talks about research that showed that the new colonial diets fucked people’s teeth up, and as someone who had to get thousands of dollars worth of dental work last year, that specifically enraged me!!!

I felt this book picking up by the end, which probably speaks to my greater interest in 20th century history than any earlier time period, TBH. (Yes,my literary obsession with the origins of Gen X rears its head once more!) Even with my slightly increased enjoyment, I spent way too much of this audiobook counting down the minutes until it was over. I don’t like that feeling, even when it's an obviously important book. Because of its political importance, I can't say I wouldn't recommend this one, but I also will not judge anyone who leaves it on the shelf.

Reflection + Application Corner
Okay so this is the section tied to one of my goals in 2024, which is to more deeply reflect on the actions I can take in response to the nonfiction/issue-based books I read.

One topic that seemed to immediately lend itself to more application was Rodney's points about how the lack of investment in certain parts of the African colonies was directly tied to their agricultural--which is to say financial--potential. In several different chapters, he specifically calls out South Sudan as an example of this sort of disinvested, less profitable region. I immediately found myself wondering how that impacted the conditions that led to South Sudan's independence in 2011, along with the current war between the RSF and SAF, and resulting dire humanitarian crisis. (For more info, this thread
links to a really helpful visual explanation from creator lizar_tistry, along with a full talk that I am planning to watch over the weekend.) As of early February 2024, it seems that Sudan is now also experiencing a telecomms blackout. I was there would be ways to donate eSIMS to help with this, similar to the excellent campaign Mirna El Helbawi has organized to do so in Gaza. Unfortunately, this seems to not work since the eSIMs rely on local cellular networks and towers. I'm getting to the edge of my scientific/technological understanding here, but if anyone has heard about efforts to connect Sudanese people with internet access during this time, I'd greatly appreciate any resources.

Speaking of tech, the end of this book also made me think a lot about the current realities of child slavery and violent exploitation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where people are forced to risk their lives to mine cobalt for our iPhones, electronic vehicles, and military weapons. The afterword in this book focuses on how the suffering of the Congolese people (and other neocolonial subjects) is rooted in African governments' continued ambitions of serving the needs of the world market, before serving the needs of its own people. As someone whose ancestors were sold on that world market, but now has the buying power to contribute to other peoples' oppression on that same market, it's important to learn how to do something different. I am trying to learn how to maintain my existing electronic devices, so that I can refrain from purchasing new ones (if anyone has book recommendations for this, I'm all ears.) Beyond changing my purchases, I also am interested in learning about in-person actions I can take related to this issue. Right now, the path towards this feels less clear, though no less important, than with some other causes. In the absence of direct organizations in my area, I'll be trying to more closely follow the work of anti-imperialist organizations like Black Alliance for Peace /, which seems to have a particular presence in the DMV. Again, if people know more organizations working around these issues in Raleigh/Durham, I would be very thankful for any leads.

[Tariq Mahmood · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is invaluable as it is written from a black African's viewpoint without too much resentment. The arguments are well presented and I found them difficult to deny. The only real issue for me the socialist leaning of the author, he seemed to value social systems a lot more than history has demonstrated.

We know that the Nazis were fascists and treated all non-Aryan races with deep contempt, therefore very rightly blamed by history, but why have the European nations gotten off Scot free for their ill treatment of the black African race? Is it because maybe they haven't lost like the Nazis? After all history is written and controlled by the victors, which if true means that the model of subjugation started by enslaving the Africans will continue indefinitely, because if Europe has benefited and developed by following a policy of exploiting poor African states, than why should they change their winning strategy? Unfortunately the opposite is true as well. How can the long suffering African nations break out of this Stockholm syndrome without firstly the accused being penalized followed by long sessions of psychiatric sessions.

[Jerald Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

First I had bought and read this book as a teenager, then I had to read it in college. Now - I found it and wanted to read it again just for myself. Changed my thinking. I am going to re-read the mis-education of the negro.

[laurel [the suspected bibliophile] · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must-read, although parts of it have aged (this book was written 50 years ago), some has still very much (depressingly) remained the same.

[Tanroop · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is rightfully considered a classic.

Walter Rodney's examination of African underdevelopment, and the resultant development of Europe, is extremely well-done and very convincing. Crucially, he explores the fact that Africa was on a developmental trajectory of its own, both prior to the period of the slave trade and to colonization. This is a radical argument in itself, considering the vast attempts colonialists went to in order to paint Africa as "the dark continent" where history did not take place. He also expertly refutes some of the, sadly still extant, arguments that apologists for imperialism sometimes make.

There were times when I wished that Rodney had included footnotes and more quotations considering how impactful it was when he would refer to government reports and quotes, especially in the last chapter. I also felt that the book could maybe have been broken up into more chapters, as it clocks in at 6 chapters for about 350 pages.

At the same time, however, when I look back at the book I'm astonished at just how much ground Rodney covers. The economic, cultural, political, and intellectual aspects of underdevelopment are all explored in great detail and Rodney's examination of the looting of Africa is multi-faceted. I also have to say I was really impressed at how simply and effectively he communicates concepts like the means of production, superstructures, Lenin's theory of imperialism, class stratification, etc. I'm hard pressed to think about where I've seen historical materialism done this well, too. It really is impressive being able to communicate sophisticated arguments like that, and I expect the accessibility of the text is part of why it is so famous.

I do also have to note that the Verso Books Edition that I read was completely littered with errors and it became really distracting (and kind of frustrating), especially in the middle of the book. There were spelling mistakes, missing periods, nonsensical comma placement, etc. and I checked it against other copies of the book which didn't have those problems.

In sum, a great book. Despite the gravity of the crimes perpetrated against Africa both before and after formal colonization, Rodney manages to end on an optimistic note. When the peoples of Africa came together to win their independence, they had once more stepped onto the stage of history. Despite neo-colonialism and the continued deprivations on the continent, this presented a significant step forward and, he argues, is the prelude to making a new future.

[Julian · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Foreword to this book provides the most compelling case for the words that follow I have yet seen from a foreword. The speakers who vouch for Walter Rodney are in themselves highly esteemed academics and activists , such as Angela Davies, and they do nothing more than describe Rodney’s life. An academic executed for their political activity, for an era where activism and academia were more closely intertwined. What voice could be more valuable to listen to than one silenced for its poignancy?

This is not a man who simply understood the history of colonialism, but one who really believed in anti colonialism. While he describes a desolate situation, he speaks out of belief for the future and not to wallow in the past. In spite of this believe, ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’ is not clouded by rhetoric. It occasionally engages rhetorical arguments which support of colonialism but dismisses them without meeting them in the mud. Rodney provides a work driven by nothing less than stark realities, and historical analysis and description.

This book is an absolutely foundational text for a layman’s (e.g me) understanding of colonisation. Indeed it comes across strongly that it is his very intention to speak directly to the masses rather than academics. He describes what he believes is important for everyone to know, and in a way that anyone can know it. Even though this book is more than fifty years old, I’m describes a history that remains suppressed, blurred and diluted to this day. Rodney cuts through the blur to paint a picture that is as important to hear now as it was at the time of writing. Though this was not my first foray into African anti-colonial literature I still found many new ideas and perspectives throughout the work. I would recommend it as an entry point, and at any point after as well.

As it is by design a foundational text, Rodney takes a broad lens to his examination of Africa. He walks his audience first through the pre colonial history, and then through the colonisation. His vivid understanding of what ‘development’ actually means and where it comes from makes it incredibly easy to see through the deceptive maelstrom of colonial ‘benevolence’ we are used to hearing.

One concept that was novel and useful for me was his point on taxes: the wealth of a country is not funded by taxes, and a focus on taxes is myopic. It is in material and in labour that value is made. Colonists (and the wealthy in any society to this day) laud and bemoan their higher contributions to taxes as an evidence of their participation in and old-bearing support of society. But it is not the taxes that give a national wealth. The wealth ‘generated’ from taxes is earned by the labour of the colonised and the poor. That labour is devalued to extract extraordinary profits, and the pittance of those profits returned are given as a ‘handout’. We should focus less on ensuring everyone pays their taxes, and more on the source of wealth to begin with.

Another valuable debate Rodney engages in is how ‘Tribalism’ is used to obscure and defend the fighting which occurs on behalf of colonial interests like that of shell. Tribal wars did occur in pre-colonial Africa but they largely had a rational basis. The ‘irrational’ tribalism used to describe warring people the world over is often a veil to fighting that serves a rational purpose for interests that would prefer to go unobserved. The disputes between different ethnicities due to an inherent ‘tribalism’ has been stoked and utilised by capitalists for great profit.

The tragedy of how Africans became objects of history rather than subjects is only made more devastating to hear him look to the future. Rodney’s knowledge imbues him with an accurate pessimism for the decade following publication, but it’s miserable to know still 60 years on we have not moved on from the crimes of colonisation and the failure of decolonisation

When the winds of change started to blow, the choice to grant freedom was not made by colonial powers, but by the people of Africa. When power was handed over (rather than seized), it was handed over to those African elites who had long been part of the colonial apparatus. An incoming revolution was hijacked by colonial powers turned to the elites to snatch a neo-colonial victory from the jaws of an anticolonial defeat. Where power was seized, many leaders of radically liberators movements were imprisoned, assassinated or exiled. Though it is upsetting to hear this discussion of all the African leaders who have been eliminated, there is some optimism to be had in that he mentions Mandela as an example of an imprisoned leader who we know eventually mandela succeeds in liberating his country.

Even more than half a century ago Rodney is clear-eyed on neocolonialism in ways few are today. His analysis of foreign investment is not one I was familiar with but am immediately taken by. Foreign investment is damaging because any attempt to seek profits is inherently seeking to squirrel them away. This investment which is so celebrated I. Our modern globalised world seriously damages developing economies. It does not develop, it prevents development.

It is colonisers that encourage growth in export economies. This alone is reason enough for it to be refuted and ignored. By leaning into export economies Africa remains tethered to the whims of buy-and-sale markets of colonisers. We see this causing huge problems today with trumps tariffs.

Self-sustaining internal growth continues to be deprived in favour of entering and submitting to global markets. The external interests of the world market instead of an internal material base and meeting internal interests and needs.

A few more points that stood out to me:
- The devastating famines we so often associate with Africa were introduced by mono cultural practices that were unnaturally prescribed by profit seeking colonial powers. The diverse pre-colonial diets of Africans has long since been lost.

- Across history you can hear the echo of the faux-progressive that defend oppression on ‘cultural grounds’. A segregated hospital built by the British allowed animals to walk throughout the hospital with the knowledge they bring with them microbial nightmares incompatible with hospitals function because it is part of the African culture.

- Missionaries were an exercise in colonisation even if they did not see themselves as such. The church in Africa would preach about humility and submission and turning the other cheek while in Europe in may preach equality.
- Where they built schools they taught European languages and no sciences. And even language would often only be in embattled frontier zones to create nationalism against other colonial powers. Or if they encouraged local languages it was to create means of division

The monster that has been pursuing the global south for their entire history will not change into a lamb. No amount of foreign investment, or aid can hide that the global north continues to be the beast under the bed as it ever was.
Something Walter Rodney could see 60 years ago. A vision he was murdered for.

[Veda Sunkara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel like it’s impossible to give a book with this much depth, detail, and rigor anything less than 5 stars, however I definitely struggle to read dense theory and this was definitely that. Evan gave me the good advice that you should focus on getting what you can out of books of this nature and that really helped me a lot.

This book is about the history and present manifestations of how Europe, enabled by imperialism, colonialism, and racism, underdeveloped Africa by (not exhaustively) controlling means of labor, flows of manufacturing, education, and exploiting means of production in human capital and of the land (via slavery, persistent subjugation, and the force production of so called cash crops/materials). The sheer depth of examples that are provided in this book are mind boggling - Rodney challenges us to rethink the necessity of a “world economy” and reevaluate what governance and individual responsibility for determination would look like if we abandon those ties, especially given how explicitly and brutally they were designed to serve the western world. He challenges the permanence of the capitalist system as it is by detailing the ludicrous assumptions that gave rise to it and the blatant suffering it has caused. Especially given the time at which this was published and the uniqueness of this work it is truly amazing.

[kripsoo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A historiographical approach to the detriment of African plight and continued exploitation Very relevant today and good for anyone searching for suppressed historical truths A Book for all who seek to know the truth about African nations oppression and subjugation by the Secret government behind the Western powers Europe and other developed nations of the Western world are handgloves through which the globalist operate to keep nations impoverished and in debt Africa was the experiment and now the same power is now turning around to under develop the rest of the civilized world so as to usher in the One World government

[JRT · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a masterpiece, marked by Walter Rodney's surgical manner of defining and detailing complex socioeconomic and political concepts and historical periods. Rodney summarizes Karl Marx's historical materialist analysis of the various stages of development, in an effort to demonstrate how Africa's underdevelopment is inextricably tied to Europe's development. In the process of his analysis, Rodney makes clear why capitalism must be dismantled (i.e. because it's social relations are outmoded).

Rodney's basic thesis is that the development of distinct societies is uneven, and that within the capitalist stage of development, underdeveloped nations owe their status to the privileged position of the developed capitalist nations. Indeed, the developed capitalist nations owe their privileged position to the deliberate exploitation and extraction of and from underdeveloped nations. This exemplifies the relationship between Europe and Africa, the subjects of the book.

Rodney details how the process of developing the underdeveloped nations requires equalizing the material conditions between the capitalist nations and the underdeveloped third-world. Rodney also goes to great lengths to detail the various developmental stages of African regions, states, and communities pre-European contact. This is a fascinating part of the book, as it dispenses with the notion that Africa had no development prior to European contact. Rodney's main point in this section is that pre-colonial Africa was much more than a collection of "tribes" (a term he does not like using). Rather, there was highly sophisticated state-building and development.

Specifically with regard to African development pre-European contact, Rodney uses Marx's historical materialism and traces the history of African development, noting that most African societies were essentially "communalist" up until the 15th Century. He notes that while there were many examples of forced and unfree labor, Africa's communalist societies did not have slave labor as a defining feature, and Africa had not transitioned into feudalism (landlord-serf) the way Europe had by that time. Rodney also posits that at the time when Europe and Africa began to make prolonged contact with each other, Europe was on the verge of overthrowing feudalism and transitioning into capitalism and imperialism (global capitalism), while Africa was still engaged in communalism.

Rodney's depiction of how Western Europe initially used African enslavement to simultaneously propel European development and initiate African underdevelopment is chilling. The differences of development at the time between Europe (early capitalism) and Africa (late communalism) gave Europe technological and productive advantages that allowed them to engage in economic warfare in Africa. This warfare consisted of European nations successfully isolating the more developed African Kingdoms that refused to capitulate to the slave trade, while enticing weaker African states to join the cause by getting them hooked and dependent on European goods in exchange for African captives (slaves). Rodney definitively states that Western European capitalism drove the European trade of African slaves, and that this slave trade propelled capitalism and Europe's overall development. This played out, initially, through Europe's obsession with gold and silver mining (as well as sugar production) in the Americas, as the destruction of the American Indigenous population required a new unfree labor force (Africans) to maximize European profits in the "New World."

While Rodney acknowledged the role that African Kingdoms played in the slave trade of African captives, he makes a point to assail individuals who place the blame of African slavery on these African rules. Rodney details how the small size of African states and the pervasive ethnic and political divisions that existed pre-European contact, and were intensified post-contact, prevented African states and Kingdoms from being able to mount a comprehensive resistance to the slave trade.

Rodney exerts great effort in demonstrating how the slave trade is the underlying reason for Africa's initial underdevelopment, as slavery plundered the labor force and prevented prime-age workers from applying the productive capacity towards Africa's rich resources and plentiful lands. Rodney considers the ability to harness what nature offers as the basis of development, and Africa was prevented from doing this for 400 years due to enslavement. While this enslavement developed Europe by allowing them to engage in "primitive capital accumulation," it ultimately began to contribute to the stagnation of Europe's economic development. Accordingly, the European nations cynically pursued an "anti-slavery" movement that actually served to empower its imperialist and colonial agenda. This movement eventually culminated in the infamous "Scramble for Africa."

Rodney describes "imperialism" as the spread of capitalism abroad, and notes that Europe's development and Africa's underdevelopment both flowed from European imperialism. Rodney also details, with regard to the Scramble for Africa, how "colonialism" is a form of imperialism that resulted in Europe taking direct political and social control over African nation-states (by overthrowing rulers and directly seizing land and raw materials). This marked the next stage of Africa's underdevelopment and Europe's development. Rodney explains how Europe's partitioning of African regions and states (via the Scramble) was driven by the transition from chattel enslavement of Africans to direct colonization of Africans, and facilitated by the racist ideas that justified both systems (i.e., ideas regarding Africans inability to self-govern). African enslavement laid the groundwork for direct European colonialism by delaying and prevented the solidification of African nation-states. This was done by strengthening ethnic and political divisions among Africans, and by using African people as agents for European interests.

Rodney spends a lot of time detailing how private monopolies within the major colonial powers carved up Africa and expatriated African wealth derived from forced African labor and stolen African resources and land. Further, the colonial governments themselves used unfree African labor in their "public works" projects on African land, which were nothing more than infrastructure projects designed to facilitate the colonial economy. In other words, the colonial period in Africa resulted in nothing short of re-enslavement.

This summary fails to even scratch the surface of Rodney's meticulous retelling of this history. This is truly a classic piece of work.