Commemorating Walter Rodne's 25 Anniversary.

The Walter Rodney 25th Anniversary Commemoration Committee consists of "Friends of Rodney" from the US, UK, Canada, the Caribbean and Guyana. We have come together especially for the planning of a series of activities in Guyana to mark the 25th anniversary of the assassination of Walter Rodney. Events will run from June 10 -13, 2005. Your suggestions and feed back are most welcome and can be sent to us by e-mail at wr25cc@rodney25.org .

Patron of the Commemorative Committee

Mazrui and the Rodney Chair in Guyana

The Walter Rodney Chair, established at the University of Guyana in honor of late Guyanese historian-politician Dr Walter Rodney, was created by the Cheddi Jagan government in 1993.

The IGCS program of Diaspora Studies received a boost when its Director, Dr. Ali Mazrui, accepted the invitation to become the Walter Rodney Chair of History and Governance at the University of Guyana at Georgetown (1997-1998). Guyana is a fertile field for the study of both the African Diaspora and the Indian Diaspora. Dr. Mazrui interacted extensively with both Indo-Guyanese and Afro-Guyanese during the year.

Because the Walter Rodney professorship is a high profile appointment in Guyana, Dr. Mazrui was received by the Head of State, President Janet Jagan, and by the leaders of all political parties. Dr. Mazrui lectured in several cities in Guyana.

Dr. Ali Mazrui's Web Page

A brief profile of our committee members:

Andaiye was a founding member of the WPA. In 1979 she was an Executive member, the party coordinator and editor of the WPA news sheet Dayclean, and she worked with Walter Rodney in the year before his assassination to help complete his last books and pamphlets. She now organises full-time as a member of Red Thread, a multi -racial women’s group in Guyana, and of the Global Women’s Strike, a network of grassroots women in more than 60 countries whose theme is “Invest in caring, not killing”.

Sara Abraham, born and raised in India, presently teaches at the University of Toronto. Never having had the privilege of meeting Walter she has used his thoughts and writings to guide her research on multiracialism and politics in the Caribbean.

Errol Arthur is a Certified Public Manager in the government in Washington, DC, and is the Co-President of the Organization for Guyanese Unity.

Horace Campbell is Professor of African American Studies and Political Science at Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York. He is an activist in the international peace and justice movement. Campbell is the author of the widely acclaimed books, Rasta and Resistance and Reclaiming Zimbabwe: The Exhaustion of the Patriarchal Model of Liberation.

Cecilia Green teaches in the Department of Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh. She is a veteran of the 1970s political struggle and 1980s NGO movement in the Eastern Caribbean. She writes on globalization and Afro-Caribbean women's and social history.

David Hinds is Assistant Professor of Caribbean and African Diaspora Studies at Arizona State University. He has also been a long standing member of the WPA.

David Johnson, a national of Trinidad and Tobago, teaches African History at City College, City University of New York.

Malaika Scott studied at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, and more recently at the Universiteit van Amsterdam in the Netherlands where she did International Relations. She currently lives in London where she works at the Commonwealth Policy Studies Unit. Malaika is Walter's niece.

Wazir Mohamed, born and raised in Guyana, formerly a political/community activist; presently at graduate school at Binghamton University New York and the Munk Center For International Studies, University of Toronto. Pursuing research towards a Ph.D. in Sociology with specific interest in the manner in which globalization affects small agricultural producers (rice farmers) in Guyana.

Omawale's social and political activism in Guyana included a period as a WPA organizer. After working as a university researcher in Guyana and Jamaica, he served as UNICEF Representative in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. From his current base in central Florida, Omawale is now engaged part-time in facilitating training and advising UN and other international organizations in Human Rights-related areas.

Jai Parasram, former activist with the WPA in the struggles of the early to mid-eighties. Currently residing in Toronto and employed as a Computer Technician.

D. Alissa Trotz is currently Assistant Professor, cross-appointed in the Department of Sociology and Equity Studies and the Institute for Women's Studies and Gender Studies, University of Toronto.

Lincoln Van Sluytman is the Program Director at the Institute for Social Ecology in Vermont. He has served as the Education Coordinator at the Brecht Forum in New York City and has also served on the Committee of Conference and Executive Committee of the Working People's Alliance.

Nigel Westmaas, Guyanese; former Executive Member of the WPA; currently a PhD student in Sociology at SUNY Binghamton. Interests :- Guyanese History, Global Black Movements, Slavery and Cricket.

Michael O. West teaches at Binghamton University, and has published on southern Africa and the African Diaspora.