In recent weeks, the United States has seen tragedy after tragedy and protest after protest, first in outcry against George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police, then in attempts to address larger issues within the nation regarding systemic racism, police brutality, and the lack of justice for crimes against black lives. This post is not an attempt to discuss politics, the benefits of one side of activism over another, or give suggestions about how the government, states, and people of the United States should address these issues. I am not educated enough in all of those matters to make those kinds of intelligent posts, and there are way smarter people with better plans than I can come up with.
I do, however, know a little bit about African fairy tales and folk tales, and so I felt it important to show a bit of my support for Black lives, literature, and history by sharing one in a special fairy tale highlight this week. I confess, African fairy tales are not my strong suit, having only read a handful in the past. Most of these tales feature animal characters, much like Aesop’s Fables, and I’ll admit, those stories don’t interest me as much as the ones that involve human beings.
But there is something to be learned from animal tales, as they typically have a moral to share or a lesson to teach, and as such deserve the right to be heard and not forgotten. Today, we’ll be looking at a rather famous character in African folk tales, the trickster figure of Anansi.
The image on the left is actually James C. Lewis’ artistic depiction of Kwaku Du I, the 8th Asantehene of the Kingdom of Asante, where the Ashanti tribes originated.
Anansi is a figure that appears in many African tales, mostly from the Ashanti tribe within what is today known is Ghana. Ashanti stories made their way to the Caribbean, and to America, during the slave trade when Africans from all tribes and peoples were sold into slavery. Anansi is always a trickster, sometimes winning and sometimes having tricks played on him, and is often depicted as a spider.
In this story, Anansi approaches the Sky King, or sky god, asking to buy his stories so that he can share them with others. Some versions have Anansi wanting the stories so that everyone would know they come from him. The Sky King, however, does not believe Anansi can afford his stories, and states that whole cities, villages, and tribes have approached him with prices for his stories, but no one has been able to buy them yet. Undeterred, Anansi asks for the Sky King’s price. The Sky King insists that unless he can bring Onini the python, Osebo the leopard, Mmoatia the fairy, and Mmoboro the hornet, he will never obtain the Sky King’s stories. These animals or beings sometimes change depending on the version of the story, but for the purposes of this spotlight, we’ll go with these four because they’re pretty interesting.
Anansi wastes no time. He immediately sets off to capture these other animals, and resorts to his clever tricks to do so. For Onini, he asks to measure the length of the python’s body, but eventually tricks the python into tying himself into a knot instead, or ties up the python while he is unaware. He tricks Osebo the leopard into falling into a pit, and capturing the leopard either in his sticky webs, or after he knocks the leopard unconscious so the leopard can’t eat him. He pours water over a banana leaf to fake rain falling on a hornets’ nest, and convinces the hornets to take shelter in his jar or gourd, where he traps them.
For Mmoatia, he makes a doll and covers it with sticky gum, then places it with an offering of baked yams. When the fairy eats the yams and thanks the doll, the doll’s silence provokes the fairy into thinking it has bad manners. The fairy strikes the doll, first with one hand, then with the other. With both hands (and sometimes the fairy’s whole body) stuck to the doll, Anansi is able to take the fairy to the Sky King. With all of the Sky King’s requests captured and delivered, the Sky King consents to giving Anansi his stories, and it is implied that all stories ever told since then are shared because of Anansi’s work.
There are many variations of the story, as it has been adapted for children’s books as well as placed in critical collections of folk lore. Sometimes it’s just details that change, such as which animals Anansi is asked to capture, or the exact details of how he captures them. Some versions, however, feature a character named Aso, Anansi’s wife.
When Aso is featured in this tale, she is the one who comes up with all the plots to capture the animals for the Sky King. She is depicted as intelligent and witty, perhaps even more so than her husband, but her husband is the one that enacts her plans. Often Anansi also gloats over his captures as he carries them back to the Sky King, which is pretty on trend with trickster figures, but a little lame considering he pretends all his amazing plans are his own and not his wife’s.
But no one is perfect, not even tricky spider dudes.
However it does create some interesting retelling opportunities. What if we retold the story where it was Aso doing the capturing, for example? Or what if Aso and Anansi work together to bring stories to everyone? I’ll admit, I don’t know much about retelling African folk tales, but if anyone does know of cool retellings, be sure to let me know!
Anansi often takes part in other humorous adventures, such as when he dines with a turtle, or tricks a tiger that has been stealing his fish, and a whole host of other stories. Some of these stories were changed or created when the people telling these stories were forced overseas as slaves on plantations. In many cases, Anansi stories served as tales of entertainment to pass the time, with subtle motifs of resistence and perseverence.
For the Sky King story in particular, Anansi becomes a figure resisting a form of oppression. The Sky King is withholding stories from the rest of the world for no other reason than that he is greedy. While not a major oppressing figure, he is certainly meant to be a “bad guy” of sorts (although many African folk tales aren’t so clear cut on who is 100% good or bad), and Anansi’s attempts to trick his way into obtaining these stories could easily be read as a subversion of power.
Anansi is a complicated figure, whose stories depict him almost simultaneously as a hero and a villain. He lies, traps, and tricks characters in various ways, yet many of the characters he tricks are in need of a moral lesson, such as earning not to steal, to act respectfully, or to stop telling slanderous lies about each other. Anansi deserves a lot more critical attention than he gets, but he is unfortunately often reduced to an occasional mention in a long list of trickster figures, if he’s mentioned at all.
This erasure or disappearance of African literature, and Black literature in general, is certainly a problem, especially within the United States. With Black Lives Matter protests going on, and many corporations, businesses, agencies, and even publishing houses standing up for Black workers, artists, and authors, I thought it would be a good idea to do my own tiny part, and share a bit folk lore that too often gets overlooked.
I am eager to learn more about African folk tales and fairy tales, as well as reading retellings, fairy tales, and fantasy literature by Black authors. I’ve already found a couple that I have ordered and am excited to read, but if you know of any others you’d like to send my way or put on my radar, let me know!