Mythgology Still Relevant - Panelists

Accra, (Greater Accra) 22 Oct.,

Panellists at a symposium on "Rediscovering Mythology: The African Experience" today affirmed that myths are as relevant today as they were ages past. They therefore stressed the need to revisit them to solve some challenges of the present day. The panellists were Mr Atukwei Okai, secretary-general of the Pan- African Writers Association, and Mr Charles Angmor, senior lecturer at the Department of English Education, University College of Education, Winneba. The four-day conference on the theme: "A Meeting of Cultures: Perspectives on Mythology" is being attended by more than 30 participants from Ghana, Nigeria, Germany and Iceland. Experts in mythology from the participating countries have for the past two days been giving insights into myths of creation and the supernatural from Europe and Africa. Mr Okai said "myths are as important for today's society as there is the need for God". Mr Okai said he applied myths about African heroes in his poems to arouse the subliminal sensitivities of people to the richness of Africa's cultural heritage. Mr Angmor said myths give insights into the traditional metaphysical beliefs of a people, with birth, death and the idea of God as sources. He said African writers disguised the presentation of present- day reality by making good use of myths to give a fictional appearance to their themes in criticising post-independent African leaders. He cited examples from books by the Ghana's Ayikwei Armah, Nigeria's Ben Okri and Egypt's Naguib Mahfouz and said today's realities of Africans are "fused together through the aesthetic use of myths". For the two days broad similarities have emerged from mythical stories told by the experts, especially the allusion to the earth as the river and bearer of life.