Mythopoesis or Myth-making is believed to be the earliest attempt at interpreting natural occurrences that humans made. Myths are traditional stories of heroes or supernatural beings. They also attempt explaining a people’s cosmology or aspects of human experience. In contemporary times, literary artists integrate traditional mythological themes and prototypes into contemporary fiction for the purpose of addressing contemporary issues; thus, making myths relevant. Africa has a crop of myth-makers, and Okpewho (1983) classifies them into four: tradition preserved, tradition observed, tradition refined and tradition revised. The first two groups of myth-makers are not too far removed from the traditional myths. The case is however different with the other two. These writers reject the traditional elements and create new stories that fit into new cultural perspectives. This research used Okpewho’s definition and classification of myths as a conceptual framework to analyze Ayi Kwei Armah’s Osiris Rising: A Novel of the Past, Present and Future. It was discovered that Armah used the Egyptian myth of Osiris, god of regeneration, as basis for a new myth that addresses more contemporary pressing issues such as education and the roles of educators and the educated in the process of Africa regeneration.
Keywords: Education, myth-makers contemporary, mythopoesis, regeneration
