‘People’s power, no dictator’ – the battle cry of Walter Rodney

Jun 15, 2018 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

One of the ironies of history is how often those who study history fall victim to that very history. Walter Rodney, who died on June 13, 1980, understood dictatorship better than most. Yet, he fell victim to a dictatorship.
Rodney had christened Forbes Burnham as a dictator. He caricatured Burnham as King Kong to illustrate the towering and beastly nature of the Burnham dictatorship.
In one of his speeches which was titled “People’s power, no dictator”, Rodney defined a dictator as someone who elevates himself above all other citizens, and often makes claims to be closer to God than mere mortals. As a historian, Rodney noted that it was the practice in the past for emperors, kings and nobles to easily become dictators by sourcing their despotic acts to either royal power and authority or sacred origin.
Burnham and other modern dictators had no such claims. Therefore the modern day dictators employed the cult of personality to prove that they were superior beings. Rodney noted that Idi Amin considered himself a physical and intellectual giant. Amin even once challenged the great Muhammad Ali to a fight. Eric Gairy, a Caribbean dictator, dabbled in the occult and harboured illusions of being an expert in science.
Burnham created his own cult of personality. His loyalists spread the myth that he was a superb orator, before Eusi Kwayana exposed his mimicry of Churchillian pauses. Burnham’s picture adorned the covers of exercise books which were distributed free to school children. He was obsessed with pomp and pageantry and he even dressed himself, quite ridiculously, in a General’s uniform, even though his military skills could hardly command a boys’ scout.
The second characteristic of a dictator, according to Rodney, was that he was accountable and responsible to no one. The dictator sees himself as all-powerful, holding in his palm the existence of people. It is for this reason, Rodney argued, that civil rights are threatened under dictatorship, because nothing is given as a right but only as a favour of the supreme ruler.
The third feature of dictatorship, according to Rodney, was arbitrary rule. The dictator is bound only by his interpretation of things; he makes his own rules and supersedes the rule of law with arbitrary decisions.
The fourth characteristic of a dictator is that they tend generally to surround themselves with mediocrity, opportunists, lackeys, boot-lickers and stooges. Burnham had many of these around him who, if he kicked them in the butt, would thank him for the compliment. He treated women, in the latter days of his rule, with contempt. One of the reasons why a major African organization broke with him was over the sexual molestation in his government to which he turned a blind eye.
The fifth characteristic of dictatorship, according to Rodney, was its employment of the art of manipulation. According to Rodney, there was nothing which was seen as outside of the reach of Burnham. This is why, argued Rodney, dictators tend to confuse the public treasury with their own private bank books. Dictators, he noted also, are prone to spite vendetta and the politics of grudge.
Finally, he noted that dictators fall under the illusion of being efficient, when in fact their rule stifles initiative and creativity. In the name of efficiency, they try to control everything and everyone. The dictator tries to dominate all political space by suppressing criticism and opposition.
Rodney’s expose of dictatorship provides the present generation with signs by which they can judge dictatorial tendencies of political leaders. Dictators present themselves as supermen, they cultivate a cult of personality, are accountable to no one, are prone to unilateral decisions and actions, surround themselves with ‘yes’ men, are masters of manipulation and delude themselves and their subjects that things are better than they seem.
Rodney fell victim to the Burnham dictatorship, a dictatorship which he understood so well. Tomorrow’s column will examine Rodney’s assessment of the Burnham dictatorship.

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‘People’s power, no dictator’ – the battle cry of Walter Rodney

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