'Walter Rodney: What They Don’t Want You to Know,’ an original documentary about political murder, Cold War conspiracies, anti-colonial struggles, and how these connect to policing, surveillance practices, and social movements of today.

Directed by award-winning filmmakers Daniyal Harris-Vajda and Arlen Harris, the documentary grapples with the legacy of empire and colonialism and its impact on Latin America and the Global South more broadly. Using declassified security service documents, penetrating interviews, and historical reconstruction, it reveals that Walter Rodney was under security surveillance from the age of 19, after visiting Russia and Cuba as a student. Seen as subversive both as an academic and as an anti-colonial and civil rights activist, national and international elites and state agencies worked to destroy his career. Contributors include Angela Davis, former President of Guyana Donald Ramotar, and Walter’s wife Patricia Rodney, as well as several prominent historians. Rodney, whose classic How Europe Underdeveloped Africa is a staple in university syllabi across the globe, continues to inspire social movements for human rights, equality, and national sovereignty.

Co-sponsored by the Human Rights Institute, The Citizenship, Rights and Cultural Belonging Transdisciplinary Area of Studies, and the Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention (I-GMAP)