Jason Walker > Jason's Quotes

“There is the mistaken belief that black people achieved power with independence (e.g., Malaya, Jamaica, Kenya), but a black man ruling a dependent state within the imperialist system has now power. He is simply an agent of the whites in the metropolis, with an army and a police force designed to maintain the imperialist way of things in that particular colonial area.”
― Walter Rodney, The Groundings with My Brothers

“There is nothing with which poverty coincides so absolutely as the colour black - small or large population, hot or cold climates, rich or poor in natural resources - poverty cuts across all of these factors in order to find black people.”
― Walter Rodney, The Groundings with My Brothers

“The white world defines who is white and who is black.”
― Walter Rodney, The Groundings with My Brothers

“I'm putting it to my black brothers and sisters that the colour of our skins is the most fundamental thing about us.”
― Walter Rodney, The Groundings with My Brothers

“A visitor from Timbuctu about 450 years ago wrote as follows: 'In Timbuctu there are numerous judges, doctors and clerics all receiving good salaries from the king. He pays great respect to men of learning. There is a great demand for books in manuscript, imported from Barbary. More profit is made from the book trade than from any other line of business.' In a city which was renowned for its trade in gold, there was more profit to be made from books than from any other line of business! In other words, learning was valued more highly than gold!”
― Walter Rodney, The Groundings with My Brothers

“Christ was a member of the Essene group of Jews from Egypt. Were he alive today, he would suffer from racial discrimination.”
― Walter Rodney, The Groundings with My Brothers

“It is as though no black man can see another black man except by looking through a white person. It is time we started seeing through our own eyes.”
― Walter Rodney, The Groundings with My Brothers