ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that cultural recovery, cultural grounding and ongoing struggle around issues of common concern are the rock on which the pan-African initiative stands or is shattered, and the raft on which it sinks or sails with a strong wind. In fact, one of the ways Europe has maintained its monopoly on power has been to monopolize knowledge. It is for this reason it has refused to transfer technology and why it structured underdevelopment in Africa, Latin America, Native America and Asia. In fact, culture can be both an instrument of liberation and development as well as domination, depending on the level of political consciousness and activity it cultivates or constrains. The Odu Ifa, the sacred text of the spiritual and ethical tradition of Ifa, is clearly one of the great sacred texts of the world and a classic of African and world literature.
