Africadelic2025 x Black Soil x Carribean Creativity: Walter Rodney: What They Don’t Want You To Know

Join us on Saturday, May 31, at LAB111 for the closing night of the Africadelic Festival 2025, when we, in collaboration with Black Soil and Caribbean Creativity, will be screening Walter Rodney: What They Don’t Want You to Know. With an introduction by researcher and archivist Saffa Khalil, who won the Walter Rodney UG Dissertation Award in 2021 (and as such appears in the film!) and the short film A Sweet Pain: The Rebel Synths of Cabo Verde (2019).

This powerful documentary unearths the suppressed story of historian and activist Dr. Walter Rodney, whose life was marked by surveillance, resistance, and an untimely assassination. Exploring Cold War conspiracies, colonial resistance, and Black Power, the film connects Rodney’s work to today’s social movements, showing how his revolutionary ideas continue to inspire. Featuring personal accounts from Rodney’s family, particularly his wife Patricia Rodney, and insights from figures like Angela Davis, Gina Miller, and former President of Guyana Donald Ramotar, the film is a timely reminder of empire’s lasting impact on the world.

About Walter Rodney: What They Don’t Want You to Know
Walter Rodney: What They Don’t Want You to Know is a feature-length documentary that explores the assassination of Dr. Walter Rodney and the Cold War conspiracies, Black Power movements, and colonial legacies connected to it — all linking to today’s surveillance, policing, and activism. For the first time, Rodney’s widow Patricia Rodney shares the personal toll of his murder on their family. Highlighting the demand for alternative historical perspectives, the film includes insights from Angela Davis, Gina Miller, and former Guyanese President Donald Ramotar. Premiering at the British Film Institute’s largest screen to a sold-out audience, the film uncovers Rodney’s surveillance from age 19 after his visits to Russia and Cuba, as his academic and activist work was deemed threatening by British intelligence. A secret propaganda unit even financed negative reviews of his landmark book, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, which remains influential in modern movements like BLM and Pan-Africanism. Through declassified documents, intimate interviews, and reenactments, the documentary captures Rodney’s enduring global legacy, filmed with local crews in the Caribbean, U.S., Africa, and the U.K. Supported by The Walter Rodney Foundation & The Ameena Gafoor Institute.