Walter A. Rodney and the Instrumentalist Construction and Utilization of Knowledge

Tunde Adeleke

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Walter A. Rodney and the Instrumentalist Construction and Utilization of Knowledge

In: Understanding Knowledge Creation

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Tunde Adeleke

Tunde Adeleke
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 55–81

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789401207447_005

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Few intellectuals in the annals of the Black experience argued as passionately and intensely for the instrumentalist construction of knowledge as the late West Indian activist-intellectual, Walter A. Rodney (1942-1980). Not only did Rodney theorize about the intellectual as a public servant, who transformed knowledge into a weapon of resistance against domination, but also, he set the example by immersing himself in the struggles against colonialism and neo-colonialism in Africa, and the working class struggles of his native Guyana. Rodney urged black intellectuals to commit knowledge to the cause of liberating the underclass. An organic intellectual in the true Gramscian sense, Rodney privileged the commission of class suicide. A truly revolutionary or ‘Guerrilla’ intellectual, must identify intimately with the challenges of the underclass. The ‘Guerrilla intellectual’ is embedded within an oppressive system and seeks to destroy it from within. He suggested two approaches. First, the intellectual must deconstruct ideas of the ruling class. Second, the black intellectual must consciously ‘ground’ with the underclass. This ‘grounding’ allows the intellectual greater insights into their challenges. In this chapter, I hope to analyse Rodney’s ideas and writings on the notion of ‘guerrilla intellectualism’ and his attempts to merge theory with praxis.

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Understanding Knowledge Creation

Intellectuals in Academia, the Public Sphere and the Arts

Series: At the Interface / Probing the Boundaries, Volume: 78

E-Book ISBN:: 9789401207447

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 01 Jan 2012

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Walter A. Rodney and the Instrumentalist Construction and Utilization of Knowledge

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Understanding Knowledge Creation

Intellectuals in Academia, the Public Sphere and the Arts

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