Osiris Rising

Osiris Rising
Author Ayi Kwei Armah
Cover artist R. M. Osotsi
Country Senegal
Language English
Genre Novel
Publisher Per Ankh
Publication date
1995
Media type Print (Paperback)
Pages 348
ISBN 2-911928-00-8
OCLC 256475128

Osiris Rising: A Novel of Africa Past, Present and Future is a novel written by Ayi Kwei Armah and published in 1995. The story revolves around an African American woman, Ast, who goes to Africa looking for heritage after she gets her PhD. The text addresses a number of contemporary African issues, including the residual colonial institutions that limit African culture, the hypocritical nature of African Americans and expatriates who try to help Africa and the contemplation of "What is African history and culture?" The book is published by Per Ankh, a Senagalese publishing company.

Characters

Many of Osiris Rising's characters appear one-dimensional and ludicrous, almost "puppet-like".[1] Ast, the main character, seems the most credible and developed among the characters, yet even her psychology in the interactions with Seth can become absurd.[2] At best the characters, act as principles representing further exploration of the book's themes.[1] The following are the main characters in the books:

Setting

Armah sets the story in a contemporary unnamed West African country. A majority of the story takes place on the campus of Manda's Teachers' College, where Asar and Ast both teach and where many of their agendas come to fruition.

Thematic elements

As the title implies, Armah transposes the ancient Egyptian Osiris myth into modern Africa.[3] This first becomes evident when Armah names each chapter using Egyptian words.[3] The main characters closely align with the major movers of the myth: the reforming Asar identifying with Osiris, Asar's companion Ast portrayed as Isis, and Soya representing Set.[3]

The relationship between Ast and Asar reflects a Pan-African model of uniting both the African American with no ethnic tribe and the native African who clearly identifies with a single village.[4] This represents a similar relationship to that between an Afro-Caribbean man and an African women in Armah's novel Fragments.[4] This relationship, one of love and commitment that works fervently for the emancipation of African thought, helps reinforce Armah's message of pan-African cooperation.[4]

Armah presents a very critical view of the character Sheldon Tubman.[4] He portrays this character, a strong civil-rights activist in the state, as nothing more than a "Diaspora Hustler" - someone who makes a big deal of returning to the African tradition but instead uses this fake "tradition" to benefit himself.[4] Anne Adams, in her comparison of the two authors' repertoires in "Literary Pan-Africanism", identifies this as a position also strongly expressed by Guadeloupean Maryse Condé.[4]

Critical reception

Osiris Rising has been reviewed by a handful of world literature scholars in institutions that provide a western education:

Andrew Perrin of UCLA comments "Artistically the book leaves something to be desired as well," however, "Ayi Kwei Armah is an astute observer and analyst of Africa's contemporary conditions." [5] However, he says that Ast and Asar's intellectual movement to change the political situation is almost "inspiring, even hopeful." [5]
Derek Wright comments that "This powerful and searching novel is not without its weakenss... it makes unexciting fiction."[3] To better explain this he says "Osiris Rising is very low on both dramatic incident and psychological intensity." [3] Wright, though he acknowledges the book is principally "to explore the real, albeit restricted, options for change open to Africa's inventive and radical thinkers", feels that much of the book is largely undeveloped: lacking development in character dynamics, the context of the state, and the characters themselves.[3]

See also

For individuals using a similar definition of the culture and history of Africa:

References

  1. 1 2 Jackson 266
  2. Jackson 265-266
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Wright, Derek (Mar 1985). "Review:Returning Voyagers: The Ghanaian Novel in the Nineties". The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge University Press) 23 (1): 179–192. doi:10.1017/s0022278x00055269. JSTOR 161744.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Adams, Anne (2003). "Literary Pan-Africanism". Thamyris/Intersecting: Place, Sex and Race 11: 137–150.
  5. 1 2 Perrin, Andrew J. (Winter 1999). "Review:What is African?". Callaloo (The Johns Hopkins University Press) 22 (1): 247–249. doi:10.1353/cal.1999.0004.

Book sources

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