50
Imperialism Reading Group - How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, by Walter Rodney - Week 3
(hexbear.net)
This is a weekly thread in which we read through books on and related to imperialism and geopolitics. Last week's thread is here.
The book we are currently reading through is How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Please comment or message me directly if you wish to be pinged for this group, or if you no longer wish to be pinged.
This week, we will be reading the second section, "Some Concrete Examples", of Chapter 2: How Africans Developed Before The Coming Of The Europeans - Up To The Fifteenth Century.
Next week, we will be reading all of Chapter 3: Africa's Contribution to European Capitalist Development - The Pre-Colonial Period.
Very good chapter, debunks a lot of myths and demystifies African culture and history at a very high level. It's also super interesting reading about these different societies and cultures, what made them tick, and how they have changed over time.
Agree, it's also compelling how much Rodney bases his arguments in material culture. This was written in the late 70s and the techniques and theories of archeology have exploded in breath and depth since then. I would have loved to see Rodney work with modern anthropological evidence, especially since he had read against the grain of dated and racist European sources.