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“How Europe Underdeveloped Africa” is a 1972 book written by Walter Rodney that takes the view that Africa was deliberately exploited and underdeveloped by European colonial regimes. One of his main arguments throughout the book is that Africa developed Europe at the same rate as Europe underdeveloped Africa. “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa” is an ambitious masterwork of political economy, detailing the impact of slavery and colonialism on the history of international capitalism. In this classic book, Rodney makes the unflinching case that African “mal-development” is not a natural feature of geography, but a direct product of imperial extraction from the continent, a practice that continues up into the present. Meticulously researched, “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa” remains a relevant study for understanding the so-called “great divergence” between Africa and Europe, just as it remains a prescient resource for grasping the multiplication of global inequality today. This classic work of political, economic, and historical analysis, is powerfully introduced by Angela DavisIn his magnum opus, ”How Europe Underdeveloped Africa”, Rodney incisively argues that grasping “the great divergence” between the West and the rest can only be explained as the exploitation of the latter by the former. This meticulously researched analysis of the abiding repercussions of European colonialism on the continent of Africa has not only informed decades of scholarship and activism, it remains an indispensable study for grasping global inequality today.The Guyanan intellectual Walter Rodney wrote this book directly after the 1960s wave of African independence declarations, to show why Africa was so underdeveloped compared to the 'First World', and who was to blame for this. A consistently intelligent and politically involved Marxist thinker, Rodney was one of the second generation of black socialists to write about African issues, after the tradition of CLR James and Eric Williams, the former of whom tutored Rodney. "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa" is probably Rodney's magnum opus of popular science, aimed at a general public, and very accessible and informative.Rodney describes in chronological sequence the development of Africa as a continent and the way in which the Europeans interfered with it. Going from the earliest African empires and states and their social relations, via the first wave of slave-trading, to full-blown colonialism, Rodney shows us how Europeans consistently attacked, pillaged, exploited, suppressed, enslaved, divided and discriminated against Africans, and the enormous impact the various stages of slavery and colonialism had in destroying the indigenous opportunities for coming out of feudalism into capitalist and industrialized societies. It is truly remarkable, given how short a time Africa has had to develop on its own as a modern society, how quickly African states have been able to modernize, and how strong the resilience of the various African peoples is to the enormous destruction they have had to endure. Rodney shows us all this with excellent writing and sensible use of 'bourgeois' sources, allowing the interested layman to gain all the necessary broad background information on the history of European involvement in Africa.Of necessity, the book is sometimes rather annoyingly concise and vague about the specifics of colonial policies, destruction of early indigenous development etc., things about which one would want to know more. Rodney provides a reading list for more information at the end of every chapter, but since this book is from the 1960s, it is dubious whether such lists are still useful considering the improvements made in radical scholarship on Africa since. The timing of the book also makes it such that there is practically nothing on African states since independence, as most independence declarations had happened only shortly before its publication. Moreover, Rodney is very saccharine about the influence of the 'socialist' states such as the USSR and China on Africa, which he exclusively paints in positive terms. Certainly the Leninists have had a vastly better influence on African development than any Western nation ever has, but the USSR and China had their own interests to defend in Africa as well, and were not there purely for humanitarian purposes, as Rodney sometimes makes it seem. Nonetheless, this is a good general book on the legacy of European destruction in Africa, and it thoroughly refutes all the common arguments in defense of colonialism in that continent.In his short life, the Guyanese intellectual Walter Rodney emerged as one of the leading thinkers and activists of the anticolonial revolution, leading movements in North America, South America, the African continent, and the Caribbean. In each locale, Rodney found himself a lightning rod for working class Black Power. His deportation catalyzed 20th century Jamaica’s most significant rebellion, the 1968 Rodney riots, and his scholarship trained a generation how to think politics at an international scale. In 1980, shortly after founding of the Working People’s Alliance in Guyana, the 38-year-old Rodney would be assassinated. This Book Derives From A Concern With The Contemporary African Situation. It Delves Into The Past Only Because Otherwise It Would Be Impossible To Understand How The Present Came Into Being And What The Trends Are For The Near Future. In The Search For An Understanding Of What Is Now Called Underdevelopment In Africa, The Limits Of Enquiry Have Had To Be Fixed As Far Apart As The Fifteenth Century, On The One Hand And The End Of The Colonial Period, On The Other Hand.- Preface -- Chapter One. Some Questions On Development. 1.1 What Is Development -- 1.2 What Is Underdevelopment? --- Chapter Two. How Africa Developed Before The Coming Of The Europeans Up To The 15th Century -- 2.1 General Over-view -- 2.2 Concrete Examples --- Chapter Three. Africa's Contribution To European Capitalist Development -- The Pre-colonial Period -- 3.1 How Europe Became The Dominant Section Of A World-wide Trade System -- 3.2 Africa's Contribution To The Economy And Beliefs Of Early Capitalist Europe --- Chapter Four. Europe And The Roots Of African Underdevelopment -- To 1885 -- 4.1 The European Slave Trade As A Basic Factor In African Underdevelopment -- 4.2 Technological Stagnation And Distortion Of The African Economy In The Pre-colonial Epoch -- 4.3 Continuing Politico-military Developments In Africa -- 1500 To 1885 -- Chapter Five. Africa's Contribution To The Capitalist Development Of Europe -- The Colonial Period -- 5.1 Expatriation Of African Surplus Under Colonialism -- 5.2 The Strengthening Of Technological And Military Aspects Of Capitalism -- Chapter Six. Colonialism As A System For Underdeveloping Africa -- 6.1 The Supposed Benefits Of Colonialism To Africa -- 6.2 Negative Character Of The Social, Political And Economic Consequences -- 6.3 Education For Underdevelopment -- 6.4 Development By Contradiction. By Walter Rodney With A Postscript By A.m. Babu. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. The decisiveness of the short period of colonialism and its negative consequences for Africa spring mainly from the fact that Africa lost power. Power is the ultimate determinant in human society, being basic to the relations within any group and between groups. It implies the ability to defend one's interests and if necessary to impose ones will by any means available. In relations between peoples, the question of power determines maneuverability in bargaining, the extent to which a people survive as a physical and cultural entity. When one society finds itself forced to relinquish power entirely to another society, that in itself is a form of underdevelopment. Before a bomb ended his life in the summer of 1980, Walter Rodney had created a powerful legacy. This pivotal work, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa , had already brought a new perspective to the question of underdevelopment in Africa. his Marxist analysis went far beyond the heretofore accepted approach in the study of Third World underdevelopment. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa is an excellent introductory study for the student who wishes to better understand the dynamics of Africas contemporary relations with the West. Few books have been as influential in understanding African impoverishment as this groundbreaking analysis. Rodney shows how the imperial countries of Europe, and subsequently the US, bear major responsibility for impoverishing Africa. They have been joined in this exploitation by agents or unwitting accomplices both in the North and in Africa. With oppression and liberation his main concern, he 'delves into the past', as he says in his preface, 'only because otherwise it would be impossible to understand how the present came into being ... In the search for an understanding of what is now called "underdevelopment" in Africa, the limits of inquiry have had to be fixed as far apart as the fifteenth century, on the one hand, and the end of the colonial period, on the other hand.' He argues that 'African development is possible only on the basis of a radical break with the international capitalist system, which has been the principal agency of underdevelopment of Africa over the... Examines the causes for the underdevelopment of Africa, tracing events from before the coming of the Europeans in the fifteenth century through the colonial period, and argues that the problem is a direct result of the imperialist system and the European capitalists who manipulated that system