How Europe Underdeveloped AFRICA How Europe Underdeveloped AFRICA by Walter Rodney with a postscript by A. M. Babu HOWARD UNIVERSITY PRESS WAS H I N G TON, D. C. I 982 Copyright © 1972 by Walter Rodney. Published in Great Britain 1972 by Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications, London and Tanzanian Publishing House, Dar es Salaam. First published in the United States 1974 by Howard University Press. Revised edition 1981. Introduction copyright © 1981 by Vincent Harding, William Strickland, and Robert Hill. 9899 20 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Rodney, Walter. How Europe underdeveloped Africa. Includes bibliographical references and index. I. Africa-Economic conditions. 2. Africa-Colonial influenc·e. 3. Europe-Foreign economic relations­ Africa. 4. Africa-Foreign economic relations-Europe. 1. Title. [HC800.R62 1981] 330.96 81-6240 ISBN 0-88258-096-5 (pbk.) AACR2 ISBN 0-88258-105-8 (cloth) To Pat, Muthoni, Mashaka and the extended family PREFACE This book derives from a concern with the contemporary African situa­ tion. It delves into the past only because otherwise it would be impossible to understand how the present came into being and what the trends are for the near future. In the search for an understanding of what is now called "underdevelopment" in Africa, the limits of inquiry have had to be fixed as far apart as the fifteenth century, on the one hand, and the end of the colonial period, on the other hand. Ideally, an analysis of underdevelopment should come even closer to the present than the end of the colonial period in the 1960s. The phe­ nomenon of neo-colonialism cries out for extensive investigation in order to formulate the strategy and tactics of African emancipation and develop­ ment. This study does not go that far, but at least certain solutions are implicit in a correct historical evaluation, just as given medical remedies are indicated or contraindicated by a correct diagnosis of a patient's con­ dition and an accurate case history. Hopefully, the facts and interpretation that follow will make a small contribution towards reinforcing the con­ clusion that African development is possible only on the basis of a radical break with the international capitalist system, which has been the principal agency of underdevelopment of Africa over the last five centuries. As the reader will observe, the question of development strategy is tackled briefly in the final section by A. M. Babu, former Minister of Economic Affairs and Development Planning, who has been actively in­ volved in fashioning policy along those lines in the Tanzanian context. It is no accident that the text as a whole has been written within Tanzania, where expressions of concern for development have been accompanied by considerably more positive action than in several parts of the continent. Many colleagues and comrades shared in the preparation of this work. Special thanks must go to comrades Karim Hirji and Henry Mapolu of the University of Dar es Salaam, who read the manuscript in a spirit of con­ structive criticism. But, contrary to the fashion in most prefaces, I will not add that "all mistakes and shortcomings are entirely my responsibility." That is sheer bourgeois subjectivism. Responsibility in matters of these sorts is always collective, especially with regard to the remedying of short- vii viii H O W EU R O P E U N D E R DE V ELOP ED A F R I C A comings. The purpose has been to try and reach Africans who wish to explore further the nature of their exploitation, rather than to satisfy the "standards" set by our oppressors and their spokesmen in the academic world. WAL TER RODNEY Dar es Salaam CONTENTS PREFACE INTRODUCTION I Page 1: Some Questions on Development What Is Development? Wh at Is Un derdevelo pment? n Page 31: How Africa Developed before the Coming of the Europeans-Up to the Fifteenth Century . A General Overview . So me Con crete Examples • Con clusion III Page 73: Africa's Contribution to European Capitalist Development-The Pre-Colonial Period How Euro pe B ecame the Do minant Section of a Wo rld-Wide Trade Syst em Africa's Contribution to the &ono my an d B eliefs of Early Capitalist Europe IV Page 93: Europe and the Roots of African Underdevelopment­ To 1885 The European Slave Trade as a Basic Factor in African Un der develo pment Technical Stagnatio n and Disto rtio n o f the African Eco nomy in the Pr e-Co lonial Epoch i x x H O W E U R O P E U N D E R D E V ELO P E D A F R I CA Cont:inuing Politico-Military Developments in Africa- 1500 to 1885 The Coming of Imperialism and Colonialism v Page 147: Africa's Contribution to the Capitalist Development of Europe-The Colonial Period Expatriation of African Surplus under Colonialism The Strengthening of the Technological and Military Aspects of Capitalism VI Page 203: Colonialism as a System for Underdeveloping Africa The Supposed Benefits of Colonialism to Africa Negative Character of the Social, Political, and Economic Consequences Education for Underdevelopment Development by Contradiction Page 283: Postscript INTRODUCTION At the outset, before anything else is written, we need openly to acknowl­ edge how difficult it has been for us to come to terms with the undeniable fact that Walter Rodney, our brother, friend and comrade,. is dead. On June 13, 1980, the author of this unparalleled work of historical analysis became the best-known victim of a systematic campaign of assasination and other forms of ruthless repression carried out by the governing au­ thorities of his native land, Guyana. The end was predictable, for Walter had determined that the only path to true human development and liberation for the majority of the people of his country was through the transformation of their own lives in a struggle to replace and reshape the neo-colonialist government that domi­ nated their society and prescribed their existence. However, Forbes Burn­ ham, the President of Guyana, had made it clear on many occasions that, in this struggle for the minds and hearts of the people, he knew no limits in the determination to "exterminate the forces of opposition." In the opinion of many, there is no doubt that the bomb that tore away the life of Walter Rodney was the result of Burnham's deadly pledge. Hard as his death is to accept and absorb, we must begin here, not primarily for purposes of sentiment or political invective, but because no new introduction to How Europe Underveloped Africa is possible without a serious and direct encounter with Walter Rodney, the revolutionary scholar, the scholar-revolutionary, the man of great integrity and hope. For, more so than most books of its genre, this work is clearly imbued with the spirit, the intellect and the commitment of its author-both the man who produced the audacious and wide-ranging study before he was thirty, and the man who moved with an unswerving integrity to live out its implications in his relatively brief years. With Rodney the life and the work were one, and the life drives us back to recall the essential themes of the work. In spite of its title, this is not simply a work about European oppressors and African victims, serv­ ing primarily as a weapon to flay the exploiters and beat them at their own intellectual games. (Of course, it has done yeoman service in that limited xi xii H OW E U R 0 P E U N D E ROE VEL 0 P E D A F RIC A role.) Rather, there is much more to this masterly survey, and at its deep­ est levels it offers no easy comfort to any of us. At one point, early in the book, Rodney summarizes its basic message: The question as to who, and what, is responsible for African underdevel­ opment can be answered at two levels. Firstly. the answer is that the operation of the imperialist system bears major responsibility for African economic retardation by draining African wealth and by making it impos­ sible to develop more rapidly the resources of the continent. Secondly, one has to deal with those who manipulated the system and those who are either agents or unwitting accomplices of the said system. The capitalists of Western Europe were the ones who actively extended their exploitation from inside Europe to cover the whole of Africa. In recent times, they were joined, and to some extent replaced, by the capitalists from the United Statt!s; and for many years now even the workers of those metro­ politan countries have benefited from the exploitaiton and underdevelop­ ment of Africa. (27-28) All this Walter supported with a profuse and creative set of precise ex­ amples from many sources, periods and places. Yet, he was not satisfied to pour well-documented blows upon the oppressors-though he was a master at this activity. Nor did it suffice to remind many of us who live in the United States that our blackness provides no exemption from our will­ ing participation in the benefits of our country's exploitation of Africa. Rather, his summary of the book's central themes concluded with words that moved beyond accusation or guilt. He said, None of th�:se remarks are intended to remove the ultimate responsibility for development from the shoulders of Africans. Not only are there African accomplices inside the imperialist system, but every African has a responsibility to understand the system and work for its overthrow. (28) Unlike many of us who read and write such words, Walter took them seriously. He knew that they were meant for him, for the children of Africa in the Caribbean and the United States of America; for Indians, Asians and many other sufferers at the hands of European-fueled under­ development. Indeed, he knew they were meant, too, for all those Euro­ peans and Americans who claimed solidarity with the Third World struggle for development and liberation. Rodney envisioned and worked on the assumption that the new devel­ opment of Africans and other dependent peoples of the "periphery" would require what he called "a radical break with the international capitalist system," a courageous challenge to the failing "center" of the current world order. Of course, he also knew that any such break or serious con- HOW EUROPE UNDERDEVELOPED AFRICA xiii testation would participate in and precipitate profound revolutionary changes at the center itself. Thus, from his perspective, what was ulti­ mately at stake, what was absolutely necessary was a fundamental trans­ formation in the ordering of the political, cultural and economic forces that have dominated the world for almost half a millenium. This was an awesome vision, especially since Walter dared to say and believe that such a stupendous transformation must be initiated by Africans and other dwellers in the nether regions of exploitation and sub­ ordination. Nevertheless, he did not flinch from the implications of his own analysis. Instead, he continued-especially by his example-to en­ courage all of us to move toward a radically transformed vision of our­ selves and of our capacities for changing our lives and our objective conditions. Quietly, insistently, he urged us to claim our full responsibility for engaging in the struggle for a new world order. No one could ignore Walter's work, nor question his call, for he set the example by assuming his own part of the awesome responsibility. That is why he was in Guyana in June 1980. That is why he had been there since 1 974, developing the leadership of what was called the Working People's Alliance (WPA) , struggling to support his family, somehow finding time to carry on research and writing on the history of the working people of his country and other parts of the Caribbean. That is why he was murdered. In the midst of our sorrow and indignation none of us who knew Walter could honestly say that we were surprised by the news of his death. For his life carried a certain consistency and integrity that could not be ig­ nored or denied. Indeed, in his relatively brief time certain patterns were established early. Born on March 1 3, 1942, Rodney grew up in George­ town, the capital of what was then British Guiana. From the outset, he was part of a family that took transformational politics with great seriousness. His parents, especially his father, were deeply involved in the develop­ ment of the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) . A multi-racial party, it was at the time the only mass political organization in the Caribbean that was opening the common people to the world of Marxist/Socialist thought, as well as raising the possibilities of alternative futures that might go beyond the mere establishment of independence within the British Common­ wealth. So, even before he entered his teens, Walter was already engaged in leafletting, attending party meetings and absorbing the thousands of hours of political discussions that went on in his home. Then, when he entered Queens College, the highly regarded secondary school in Georgetown, the young political activist also became one of the "scholarship boys" so xiv HOW E U R 0 P E U N D E R D E V E L 0 P E D A F RIC A familiar to West Indian life at the time. Bright, energetic and articulate, he excelled in academics and sports (he broke his school record for the high jump), and when he won the coveted Guyana scholarship to the University College of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica, the traditional path to academic prestige and distinction was open to him. In 1 963, Rodney graduated with first class honors in history from UCWl, and was awarded a scholarship to the University of London where he entered the School of Oriental and African Studies to work on his doctorate in African History. Walter's political instincts and early nurtur­ ing would not allow him to settle into the safety of conventional academic life. Instead, the years in London ( 1 963-1 966) were among the most important of his continuing political and intellectual development. He im­ mediately became part of a study group of younger West Indians who met regularly under the guidance of the man who was then the exemplar of the revolutionary intellectual, C. L. R. James, the Trinidadian Marxist scholar, best known for his history of the Haitian revolution, Black Jacobins. The experience with James and the study group was a crucial supple­ ment to Rodney's earlier exposure to the day-to-day life of radical Carib­ bean politics, and it was also an important source of grounding in intel­ lectual reality as he moved through the sometimes surreal world of the academic community. By the time he left London for Tanzania in 1 966, Rodney was prepared to write history from what he later described as "a revolutionary, socialist and people-centered perspective." (Within the boundaries of an academic thesis, his excellent dissertation: "A History of the Upper Guinea Coast, 1 545-1 800," addressed itself to the subject from that perspective.) * During the 1 966-67 academic year, Walter taught history at the Uni­ versity College in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. In 1 968, he returned to Jamaica to take a post in History at his alma mater and to develop what he planned to be a major program in African and Caribbean studies. More importantly, he wanted to test his convictions about the need for revolutionary intellectuals to remain grounded in the ongoing life of the people. Walter met with initial success in both of these endeavors, but it was precisely this, success, especially in his work among the common peo­ ple of the Jamaican streets, hills and gullies, that led to a drastic fore­ shortening of his stay in that country. In less than a year Rodney had come in touch with and helped articulate the profound discontent and ':' The dissertation was published by Clarendon Press in 1970, and recently reprinted in paperback by Monthly Review Press.