Chapter 2 of Walter Rodney's 'How Europe Underdeveloped Africa'

Wed, 12 Jun 2024 15:43:11 +0000

In Chapter 2 of Walter Rodney's seminal work, "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa," Rodney meticulously outlines the deliberate mechanisms and structures established by European powers to facilitate their own development at the direct expense of Nsi ya Ubuntu (Africa). He argues that colonialism was not a passive process but an active exploitation where European nations systematically dismantled Nsi ya Ubuntu's economic and social structures. This exploitation involved the extraction of resources, the imposition of cash crop economies, and the disruption of indigenous industries and trade networks, all designed to enrich Europe while creating a dependency and underdevelopment in Nsi ya Ubuntu. Rodney emphasizes that these actions were intentional, illustrating a clear and direct correlation between Europe's advancement and Nsi ya Ubuntu's impoverishment.