Walter Rodney alikuwa mtu mweusi na aliwahi kufundisha chuo kikuu cha Dar miaka ya sabini. Kwa asili alikuwa anatoka Guyana;
Born into a
working-class family, Walter Rodney was a very bright student, attending
Queen's College in the then
British Guiana (now
Guyana), where he became a champion debater and athlete, and then attending university on a scholarship at the
University College of the West Indies (UCWI) in
Jamaica, graduating in 1963 with a first-class degree in History, thereby winning the Faculty of Arts prize.Rodney traveled widely and became very well known internationally as an
activist,
scholar and formidable orator. He taught at the
University of Dar es Salaam in
Tanzania during the period 1966-67 and later in Jamaica at his alma mater UWI
Mona. He was sharply critical of the
middle class for its role in the
post-independence Caribbean. He was also a strong critic of
capitalism and argued for a socialist development template
In 1969, Rodney returned to the University of Dar es Salaam, where he served as a Professor of History until 1974.[SUP]
[2][/SUP]
Rodney became a prominent
Pan-Africanist, and was important in the
Black Power movement in the
Caribbean and North America. While living in
Dar es Salaam he was influential in developing a new centre of African learning and discussion.