A review by moonyreadsbystarlight
The Groundings with My Brothers by Walter Rodney

informative reflective

4.75

The Groundings With My Brothers by Walter Rodney is a classic work about Black power, education, and the necessity of community in both. Rodney goes in detail about what Black power means, defying popular watered down notions and reveiling a revolutionary unifying understanding of what Black Power is. He discusses this in the context of Jamaca, having lived there and taught with and learned from the Rastafarian people. With this context, we learn about the racism of the Jamacan government (even post-Independence) and how African history is tied to the region. 

Not only is this useful historical context and breakdown of white supremacy in the Caribbean and global context, but this is an important work pedagogically. Education and power comes from sharing within a community, understanding your power as a collective. It's about defying the academic norm of isolation from (being above) the common person and about connecting scholarship and activism in the communities most impacted by the issues.

In this edition, the original work is framed by an introduction and essays about the work that come together to show the importance of this work both historically and how it continues to be relevant. I really enjoyed these essays and thought they added a lot as well. Parts of this a little difficult to fully grasp without some context, but these essays help with that.

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