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Walter Rodney Memorial Lecture

Tuesday 13 November, 18:00. Room MS04, Maths Building, Main Campus.

Professor Clem Seecharan, London Metropolitan University, will speak on ‘Cricket and Empire: The Shaping of West Indian Identity’

The Centre for Caribbean Studies in 1984 also established the Walter Rodney Memorial Lecture in recognition of the work and life of one the most outstanding scholar-activist of the Black Diaspora in the post World War II era. Rodney's scholarship and activism encompassed "grounding with his brothers" in Guyana (his country of birth), the wider Caribbean, Africa, the United States of America and the United Kingdom. He was one of the founders of the Working People's Alliance in Guyana in the late 1970s, which sought to provide an alternative political option to the Burnham government during that period. Walter Rodney was murdered in Georgetown on 13th June 1980.

Rodney's impact and influence on the historiography of Africa are only part of his legacy evident particularly in his many articles in both academic and popular journals. He is best known for his PhD thesis; A History of the Upper Guinea Coast 1545 - 1800 which was published in 1970. His other academic publications include: How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972), Grounding with my Brothers (1969) and A History of the Guyanese Working People 1881 - 1905 (1981).

The Centre and the University routinely invites a distinguished academic or practitioner to deliver the Walter Rodney Memorial Lecture. Last year, Sir Trevor McDonald spoke at the event.

Clem Seecharan is Professor of Caribbean History and Head of Caribbean Studies, London Metropolitan University. His research interests include Indo-Caribbean History; Indian Thought and the Caribbean; Intellectual History of the Caribbean: From Blyden to Rodney; Cricket and the British West Indies, 1860s-1960s; Marxism, Fabian Socialism and the Sugar Industry in Guyana, 1930s-60s; Ethnicity and Politics: Anglophone, Dutch, Francophone and Hispanic Caribbean; Slavery and the Shaping of the Anglophone Caribbean.

For more information on Clem Seecharan, visit http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/depts/hal/staff/clem-seecharan.cfm

For more information on the Walter Rodney Memorial Lecture, visit http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/ccs/events/lectures/