Commemorating Walter Rodne's 25 Anniversary.

The evening brings together several generations of activists and scholars who were influenced by the work and example of Walter Rodney. This includes those who worked with Rodney in any of the several theaters of struggle in which he was engaged during his lifetime, in Africa, the Caribbean, the USA, and Guyana. It also includes a younger generation of activists and scholars whose work was inspired by the legacy of Walter Rodney.

Cultural activists from the USA, and the Caribbean will provide the spiritual refinement that was always a feature of Rodney’s work.

Special Guests: Asha and Kanini Rodney.

Participants Include:

*Sam Anderson - *Monifa Bandele - *Moses Bhagwan - *Humberto Brown - *Horace Campbell - *Rosa Clemente - *Howard Dodson - *Roberta Kilkenny - *Mahmoud Mamdani - *Rupal Oza - *Fernando Reals - * Amita Swadhin - *Others TBA.

Cultural Presentations: TBA

Friday – October 21st: 6 – 9 pm.

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

515 Malcolm X Blvd. NYC

Office of University Communications Contact: Grace Virtue

202.238.2335 or
gvirtue@usa.edu

HOWARD UNIVERSITY TO HOLD SYMPOSIUM ON WALTER RODNEY

Professor Rex Nettleford to Speak at Cultural Tribute
Washington, DC (Aug. 25, 05) - Professor Rex Nettleford, former vice chancellor of the University of the West Indies and renowned Renaissance figure, will be the keynote speaker at a cultural tribute in honor of the late Guyanese scholar, Walter Rodney, on Thursday, Sept. 29. The event begins at 5 p.m. in the Ira Aldridge Theater on the University's main campus, 2400 Sixth Street, N.W.

Noted journalist, Kojo Nnamdi, host of the "Kojo Nnamdi Show" on WAMU Radio, and "Evening Exchange" on WHUT, will be the master of ceremonies.

The tribute is part of a two-day event recognizing Rodney's intellectual and political legacy, 25 years after his assassination in Georgetown, Guyana.

Professor Nettleford will speak on the subject of identity and culture in development, the struggles of people of African descent all over the world and how they can call on their creativity and ingenuity to find a way out against the background of a new world order-globalization.

A renowned scholar of the Diaspora, Nettleford has served in various international organizations. He was a founding member of the Canada-based International Development Research Center, an International Trustee of the AFS Intercultural based in the USA, and former chairman of the Commonwealth Arts Organization. He is a director of the London-based News Concern; former member of the Executive Board of UNESCO; former member of the International Labor Organization (ILO) committee monitoring the implementations of sanctions and other actions against Apartheid, and a member of the Castles and Fort Trust Fund, Ghana.
He has received numerous academic and professional honors including the National Honor of Order of Merit (O.M.), the Gold Musgrave Medal from The Institute of Jamaica and the Living Legend Award from the Black Arts Festival in Atlanta, Ga. In 1994, he received the Zora Neale Hurston-Paul Robeson Award for Outstanding Scholarly Achievement from the National Council for Black Studies, USA.
Additionally, he was one of four Rhodes scholars honored by Oxford University in 2003 in recognition of the 100th anniversary of the Rhodes Scholarships. That same year, he received the French Decoration of Art and Letters (Arts Et Lettres) in recognition of his outstanding work in promoting the arts in Jamaica and abroad.
Asha Rodney, attorney-at-law, and Rodney's daughter, will attend the event.

Several entities at Howard, the Department of Africana Studies at Brown University and the Walter Rodney International Commemoration Committee are sponsoring the event.
Howard's major sponsors include the University Press, the Caribbean Studies Program, the College of Arts and Sciences and the Department of Theater Arts. Others include the African-American Studies Resource Center and the Department of Sociology.
On Friday, Sept. 30, there will be a symposium devoted to scholarly discourse on the work of Rodney and its continued relevance to the quest for equality and justice among the peoples of the Diaspora. Under the theme, "The Intellectual and Political Legacy of Walter Rodney, Twenty-five Years After," panelists will examine Rodney's scholarship in a historical context as well as apply the principles of his work to current realities.
Speakers include: Professor Rupert Lewis, Department of Government and Politics, University of the West Indies; Professor Anthony Bogues, Professor and chair, Department of Africana Studies, Brown University; Professor Edward (Ned) Alpers, chair, Department of African Studies, UCLA; Professor Ron Walters, director of the African American Leadership Institute and professor in the Department of Government and Politics, University of Maryland; Professor Horace Campbell, Professor of African American Studies and Political Science, Syracuse University; Professor Jean Toungara, Department of History Howard University and Andaiye, international women's advocate and leading researcher for some of Rodney's major works.
Rodney, in whose honor the event is being held, was himself an outstanding academic and socio-political activist. Among several other titles, he is author of the revolutionary work, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, first published in the United States by Howard University Press in 1974. After three decades, it remains the press' best selling title.
Howard University is one of 48 U.S. private, Doctoral/Research-Extensive universities and comprises 12 schools and colleges. Founded in 1867, students pursue studies in more than 120 areas leading to undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees. Since 1998, the University has produced two Rhodes Scholars, a Truman Scholar, seven Fulbright Scholars and nine Pickering Fellows. Howard also produces more on-campus African-American Ph.D.s than any other university in the world. For more information on Howard University, call 202-238-2330, or visit the University's web site at www.Howard.edu.