Ananse-The Spider and the family farm

 Once upon a time, there lived Kwaku Ananse and his wife Okonore Yaa, their children Ntikuma, the first born, big belly, the second child, and small legged, the third child, and the big headed fourth child. 

Ananse was a very cunning man. He and his family cultivated a farm, but when the crops were ready to be harvested, he told his family that he was going to die and that they should add all cooking utensils such as bowls, mortar, pistils, salt ladle and put them in the tomb.

Forty days after his burial, the family decided to visit the farm. To their surprise, they found out that someone has been harvesting their crops. They informed the chief of the village and they all set out to the grave side . The chief asked Ananse’s  wife to cry and cause some commotion. She even ended up singing a song lamenting the fact that their crops are being harvested illegally.

Ananse responded by saying he had been harvesting the crops and making use of them himself. 

There was a big tree standing beside the tomb. The chief asked that the tree be taken down. As the tree fell, the people began to yell that the tree was going to crush Ananse’s  grave. The kids were very much distraught about the tragedy that was about to happen to their father’s tomb.

When Ananse  heard this, he got out of the tomb and the people started chasing him. Ananse run into the nearby bushes. That’s why there is always an  Ananse web across the path whenever one goes to the farm in the morning.

Moral lessons: 1.  Be truthful to one another.

                           2. Teach our children to be truthful

                            3. We must not be selfish .

This story was sent to me by a family member, and it is reprinted with her permission. In the village version that we narrated in school, the Ananse folktales usually began  and ends with a formula: something like “ This is my story. If you like it, show your appreciation by telling your own story.”!

Please note that the folktales in African traditional setting vary a lot. Sometimes the protagonist could be a hen a pig, a rat or spider or some animal familiar to the tribe. 

Bibliographic Information:

There are several books on African folktales.

When I taught a course on African traditional literature at Stony Brook University, the prescribed textbook was Roth Finnegan’s An Introduction to African Traditional Literature. It was a very comprehensive approach to the subject and the students in my class enjoyed the course.

We even dramatized the Ananse stories by sitting in a circle with the narrator sitting in the middle, the same method  the people in my  village  employed in telling Ananse stories. It was thrilling and authentic. 

I welcome any comments on folktales. And thank you for reading my blog.