rootsandculture

. (Taken from the forthcoming book, Walter Rodney: A Promise of Revolution, published by Monthly review Press ) I looked at ‘Western’ movies growing up and I, like every one in the cinema, would cheer as the cavalry would be coming over the hill to rescue these poor beleaguered White people that had been attacked by Indians. Then I came to live in this society and began to learn the history of both slavery and what happened to Indians in this country and what deliberate genocidal approach that Europeans had towards any other race they met. Both in terms of what happened in the Americas, like what happened to Indian people, with Cortez and the rest of them. That really impacted me politically and that is when I started to ‘dread’ my hair. It did not come through religious conviction of Marcus Garvey or belief in Haile Selassie; it came because I wanted to be different and outside of that cultural influence. It was the first thing I thought about. That I would dread my hair and step