00:00:01 Hashim Gabril, Professor at Clark Atlanta University, begins the 19th Annual Walter Rodney Symposium with the welcome. He provides an overview of the history of the symposiums and the purpose and speakers of this year's event: to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Dr. Walter Rodney's book How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (HEUA) and his 80th birthday.
00:05:56 Unidentified man leads participants in libation pouring exercise in honor of the ancestors.
00:11:16 Dr. Jesse Benjamin plays a tribute song by Dr. Anthony Gabby Carter about Walter Rodney as a revolutionary.
00:12:45 Asha Rodney extends gratitude to the attendees, recognizes her father Dr. Walter Rodney, her mother Dr. Patricia Rodney, and siblings, the AUC Woodruff Library, The Walter Foundation, and the ancestors. She also introduces archival video of a speech by Dr. Walter Rodney.
00:16:19 Dr. Walter Rodney speaks about the problem of identification, being an African people, rejecting other forms of identification from white society, and the lack of documented information about African people in Africa in archival video in San Francisco on African Liberation Day.
00:18:33 Asha Rodney talks about Dr. Walter Rodney's ideas that African people having a tradition of learning, discussion, and methodology to grasp and categorize problems, simply examine issues, to lay a basis for scientific evaluation, and intervene in the historical process in order to produce change. She also highlights Dr. Rodney's urge to give full significance to praxis, and the intersection of theory and practice.
00:19:31 Camilla Rodney Philips extends welcome to guests and talks about the life she envisioned that her father Dr. Walter Rodney would live today. She highlights his literary works including his children's books.
00:23:43 Loretta Parham talks about the keeping the legacy of Dr. Walter Rodney alive through symposiums, his books such as HEUA, and his Papers hosted at the AUC Woodruff Library.
00:26:13 Beverly Guy Sheftall talks about the pleasure of attending and participating in the annual symposium, especially when it is hosted at an Atlanta University Center (AUC) institution such as Clark Atlanta University.
00:27:33 Karen Jefferson talks about the history of The Walter Rodney Foundation, founded in 2006. She urges attendees to check out their revamped website: www.walterrodneyfoundation.org.
00:28:50 Gerald Horne talks about meeting Dr. Walter Rodney in 1980 and his impact. He encourages the organizers of the symposium to continue their work of preserving and extending Dr. Walter's profound legacy.
00:30:19 Malaika Mikaelsson talks about her memories of her uncle Dr. Walter Rodney and his early life and biography.
00:36:48 Firoze Manji talks about HEUA as a groundbreaking book and its impact on providing a new way for newer generations to look at the continent of Africa and its history. He also mentions that HEUA helps bring understanding of how we got where we are and what is needed for the people of Africa to reclaim their destiny.
00:38:42 Hashim Gabril explains the upcoming presentations for the introduction of the keynote speaker and the keynote speaker's address.
00:39:25 Charisse Burden-Stelly introduces Dr. Patricia Rodney and shares her background work and impact.
00:43:42 Dr. Patricia Rodney introduces the keynote speaker: Dr. Joyce Ladner.
00:47:32 Dr. Joyce Ladner talks about her relationship with Dr. Walter Rodney including his health crisis when he was sick with Malaria and events at his home in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. She highlights the influence of Dr. Patricia Rodney and their children on Dr. Walter Rodney's life.
01:17:38 Charisse Burden-Stelly facilitates the Q&A session. She poses the question to Dr. Ladner: How does Rodney's analysis in HEUA apply historically and today to Mississippi (the home state of Dr. Ladner) and your work, in terms of how America underdeveloped The South
01:18:09 Dr. Joyce Ladner responds to the question and talks about how America underdeveloped The South and other places where Black people lived. She mentions slavery in The South is a good analogy of how Europe raped The Continent. She talks about decolonizing research and the lack of resources Black people had then and now.
01:21:59 Charisse Burden-Stelly poses question to Dr. Ladner: What do you think Walter Rodney would think of today's state of affairs in relation to treatment of the COVID-19 pandemic and international conflicts?
01:22:29 Dr. Joyce Ladner responds to the question and suggests that Dr. Walter Rodney would have a relevant perspective because what he wrote in HEUA still relates to the state of current events. She highlights Dr. Walter Rodney's brilliance and how he used his mind to elevate humankind and he worked to improve the conditions of poor people.
01:26:22 Kurt B.Young begins to moderate the panel titled:
01:36:33 Dr. Horace G. Campbell talks about the commission of inquiry into the assassination of Dr. Walter Rodney, the political work of Dr. Rodney, and the intersects and importance of Walter Rodney's and Julius Nyerere's work including their alignment with Nyerere's four aspects of liberation: freedom from colonialism and racial minority rule, freedom from external economic domination, freedom from poverty injustice imposed on Africans by other Africans (neocolonial leaders), and mental freedom. He talks about both Nyerere's and Rodney's opposition of war, dehumanization of human beings, and racial capitalism and highlights how they challenged us to be emancipated by working for the humanization of the planets.
01:57:04 Kurt B. Young introduces the next panelist: Baba Issa Shivji.
01:57:41 Professor Issa Shivji talks about the 50-year anniversary of the book HEUA, the similarities and differences of Walter Rodney and Julius Nyerere as socialists and Pan-Africans, and their theoretical and political contributions through their socialism and Pan-Africanism ideas and work.
02:22:45 Kurt B. Young introduces final panelist: Baba Walter Bgoya.
02:24:00 Walter Bgoya speaks about Walter Rodney's and Julius Nyerere's characteristics, their ideas, principles and philosophies, and their influences on Africa, The Caribbean, and the Third World (now referred to as The Global South). He talks about the publishing process of HEUA at his publishing company. He talks about colonialism and the struggle of the working people.
02:55:04 Kurt B. Young ends the panel and introduces Dr. Jesse Benjamin for the next segment.
02:55:34 Dr. Jesse Benjamin starts the Q&A segment and invites the attendees to join a more in-depth discussion on Pan-Africanism poses various questions from the attendees to the panelists: What is the future of Pan-Africanism? Is the Ubuntu model an epistemology we can build this around, are there other epistemology and thought structures related to decolonizing the mind? What are the specifics of political Pan-Africanism? What are your thoughts on African continental free-trade area and other formulations that are capitalists, can they be transformed, or do we need separate mechanisms? What are your thoughts on the elephant trap of technology and new forms of extraction on top of old forms of extraction - the continuation of capitalism and what we're tasks with doing to stop it?
02:58:23 Dr. Horace G. Campbell responds to the question about the future of Pan-Africanism and African continental free trade and mentions the struggles of Haiti.
03:02:13 Dr. Jesse Benjamin asks the next panelist to share their response.
03:02:20 Professor Issa Shivji talks about Pan-Africanism as a political project and embracing Ubuntu - the humanness - at the heart of African epistemology.
03:05:04 Dr. Jesse Benjamin invites the next panelist to respond to the questions.
03:05:10 Walter Bgoya talks about the past Pan-African conferences and the lack of Pan-Africanism being used in Africa today.
03:08:59 Dr. Jesse Benjamin ends the Q&A session and announces the break.
03:10:29 Aletha Bonello starts the second half of the symposium and introduces speaker Vijay Prashad.
03:11:35 Zophia Edwards moderates the next panel titled
03:18:22 Dr. Vijay Prashad talks about HEUA and gives a lecture titled
03:46:03 Zophia Edwards introduces the respondents who take a deeper dive into the HEUA text.
03:46:26 Natasha Shivji expands on Dr. Prashad point of how we relate to each other on the question of social relations of production and the consequences of how we are exploited, and the solidarity gained from that experience. She talks about Pan-Africanism, emancipation, representation of The State, and transformation in the process of struggle and solidarity.
03:55:11 Zophia Edwards introduces the next respondent Tamnisha John.
03:55:37 Tamnisha John responds to Dr. Prashad's comment about the only real decolonization is anti-imperialism and anti-capitalism because one cannot decolonize their mind without decolonizing the conditions of social production that reinforces the colonial mentality. She talks about the most effective ways to combat the distortions of truth and denial of history that proliferate throughout the global capitalist system. She mentions Frantz Fanon's reminder that the job of the colonialist and imperialists was only done when those subjugated and oppressed by both admitted loudly and intelligibly the supremacy of the white man's values.
04:05:22 Zophia Edwards introduces next respondent Kamau Franklin.
04:05:31 Kamau Franklin talks about HEUA, ways forward, revolutionary nationalism, identity politics, self-determination, the internal class struggle, and the bourgeoisies' intellectuals and others in the oppressed group who strive to be a part of the imperialist, elite, capitalist class. He talks about Dr. Walter Rodney as a revolutionary and scholar and his use of scholar tools to do grounding work with the masses of people on the ground.
04:15:38 Zophia Edwards introduces the final respondent Cindy Peters.
04:16:11 Cindy Peters discusses her introduction to Dr. Walter Rodney's work and its influence on her awareness of the empire and the narrative of the empire in relation to one's condition, capacity, and position in the world. She talks about the past and current state of French and Dutch imperialism and impact on The Caribbean nations and reminds the audience that if we are not all free then none of us is free.
04:26:28 Zophia Edwards ends the panel session and transitions to Q&A segment. She poses the question: What would Walter Rodney say to revolutionaries about elitest practices of exclusion and marginalization of comrades, what is needed to build liberation movements in this respect?
04:27:02 Kamau Franklin responds to the question about the practice of exclusion and notes that this happens because of a practice of people wanting resources. He suggests that Dr. Walter Rodney would be appalled by this today because neoliberals and neoliberal thinking are in control of the direction of a lot of movements.
04:28:26 Cindy Peters responds to the question about the needs to build liberation movements and suggests that the power is in grassroots efforts and the bottom-up approach to the changes such as economic liberation, political liberation, social identity, and recognition.
04:30:26 Tamnisha John responds to the question by suggesting that Dr. Walter Rodney, as a scholar-activist and academic who contributed to the counter hegemonic discourse, would be against the elitest exclusion of other comrades that have something to add to the conversation. She highlights the importance of learning in community with people and adds that if we are focusing on people to exclude then we are not learning with people or seeing what our needs are to advance any liberatory practices.
04:32:44 Natasha Shivji responds to the question and adds that we should not do away with rigorous debates with people with different views that are not exclusionary because it is the work required to build ideas.
04:34:04 Zophia Edwards ends the Q&A segment.
04:35:05 Aletha Bonello begins the global remembrance segment and invites others to send their personal experiences with and impact by Dr. Walter Rodney and purchase his books at www.walterrodneyfoundation.org/greetings-and-tributes.
04:37:47 Erica Caines talks about HEUA's impact on her that she considers HEUA a classic text that is a dialectical and historical materialist blueprint to assist all Africans fighting for one united socialist Africa.
04:42:02 Robin D.G. Kelley talks about HEUA's influence on his studies in history and the dedication to a life of scholarship and struggle that is anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist. He highlights that HEUA is relevant today because it is the finest and most comprehensive case for reparations ever published. He notes that HEUA accounts for the enormous wealth extracted from enslavement, war, and colonial rule and it reorients the current focus on chattel slavery to incorporate the impact of the war for captives and ongoing colonialism and neocolonialism on The Continent.
04:45:11 Aletha Bonello introduces final speaker: Charles Farrell.
04:46:12 Charles Farrell gives closing remarks for the 2022 Walter Rodney Symposium and calls the audience to take action to honor, protect, promote, s00:00ustain, advance and expand the works and legacy of Dr. Walter Rodney and The Walter Rodney Foundation. He paraphrases Dr. Walter Rodney: For only the great men and women among the unfree and oppressed are those who struggle to destroy the oppressor.
04:51:42 Audio ends.
