Update Regarding June 10, 2021 Statement by the Goverment of Guyana

Dr. Walter Rodney, was 38 years old when he was killed in a bomb blast on June 13, 1980. Per the then PNC government, Rodney was going to blow up the state prison and the bomb went off accidentally. The Rodney Family, and Donald Rodney, living eyewitness to the explosion, have opposed this narrative for over 40 years.

On June 10, 2021, the Attorney-General, Anil Nandlall, on behalf of the President, His Excellency Irfaan Ali, issued an apology to the family and corrected the historical record to admit that Walter Rodney was assassinated in a far-reaching state conspiracy that lasted decades.

The Rodney Family is continuing to work with the Government of Guyana to remedy this miscarriage of justice and provides this update for our global family.

• The Walter Rodney Gravesite and Memorial have officially become national monuments under the National Trust Act. The transition of formal responsibility to the Guyana National Trust was effective on June 4, 2022.

• Rodney’s death certificate has been amended as to his profession. The certificate has been amended by the Registrar General of the General Register Office Guyana to read “Professor” and not unemployed. The family will be provided a digital copy, with a formal presentation to be made at an agreed time.

• The Walter Rodney Chair at the University of Guyana has been reestablished, and funded, and efforts are underway to select a fitting Chair.

• The flawed Inquest conducted 8 years after Dr. Rodney’s death that concluded that Dr. Rodney died by “misadventure” is being set aside and removed as false. This matter has been referred to the Ministry of Legal Affairs and the Guyana Judiciary for resolution.

• To reverse the loss of Rodney’s scholarship to Guyana and to secure his rightful legacy as a national icon, Rodney’s children’s books Kofi Baadu: Out of Africa and Lakshmi: Out of India are being reproduced and placed on the national syllabus, and will be in the hands of primary and secondary school children this year. Rodney’s other works, including A History of the Guyanese Working People, Guyanese Sugar Plantations in the late Nineteenth Century, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, the Groundings with My Brothers, and a Guyana-specific compilation of Rodney’s works, are being made available to the University of Guyana, as well as to national libraries.

• The records from the 2016 Presidential Commission of Inquiry have been secured by the Ministry of Legal Affairs. The Walter Rodney National Archives will work collaboratively with the Walter Rodney Foundation and the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library in Atlanta, Georgia, which houses the Walter Rodney Papers and Special Collection to digitize the records.

• There are a number of errors and falsifications that still need to be corrected or expunged from the judicial record. These include the Inquest and removing, voiding or expunging all records that intimate any level of guilt or wrongdoing by Dr. Walter Rodney or Donald Rodney. The matter has been referred to the Ministry of Legal Affairs and the Guyana Judiciary.

We express our gratitude to our global family for your continued support and solidarity.

June 13, 2022 8:00 p.m.

A Moment of Reflection in Recognition of the 42nd Anniversary of the Assassination of Dr. Walter Rodney

Today, June 13, 2022 is the 42nd anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Walter Rodney.

Walter Rodney was a husband, father, activist, and intellectual born in Georgetown, Guyana, and is the author of How Europe Underdeveloped Africa.

In recognition of this death anniversary, and to honor him, please join the global community by holding a moment of silence and reflection at 8:00 p.m. EST. It is the exact time that he was assassinated, and that our lives, and the world, changed forever.

For over 40 years the Rodney Family and supporters opposed the false narrative that Dr. Rodney died by ‘misadventure.’ On June 10, 2021, the Government of Guyana issued an apology to the family and corrected the historical record to admit that Walter Rodney was assassinated by the state. The Rodney Family is continuing to work with the Government of Guyana to remedy this miscarriage of justice.

Join us along with others around the world who continue to call for reparative justice in his assassination, to ensure his legacy, and for the self-determination of the Guyanese working people.

According to Angela Davis, “If Rodney’s assassins were under the impression that they could arrest the flow of his ideas by destroying his body, they could not have been more wrong.”

Please connect with us on social media, visit our website, and send us your personal reflections of Rodney on this solemn anniversary.