The Mythology Book

286

TIE THE CALABASH

BEHIND YOU AND THEN

YOU WILL BE ABLE TO

CLIMB THE TREE

ANANSE THE SPIDER

I

n the beginning, Nyame, the

sky god of the Asante people,

was the repository of all stories

and knowledge. Ananse, a trickster

hero in spider form, went to Nyame

and brazenly asked how much all

this wisdom would cost. Surprised

by the spider’s audacity, Nyame

set him a seemingly impossible

task. To win the knowledge of the

sky god, Ananse had to bring back

four items: a python, a leopard, a

swarm of hornets, and a fairy.

Ananse set off and, standing

outside the hole where the python

lived, he wondered aloud whether

the snake was longer than a palm

branch above him. When the

python heard this, he slithered out

of his hole and offered to stretch out

on the branch and be measured. As

he lay there, however, his body

began to twitch. The spider offered

to tie him to the branch so that he

could determine his precise length.

When the python consented to this

plan, Ananse trussed him up and

carried him off to Nyame.

A spider’s deceit

Ananse continued to use tricks for

the remaining tasks. To catch the

leopard, Ananse dug a deep hole

and covered the opening with

leaves. The leopard fell in and,

seeing Ananse at the rim, begged

him for help. Ananse offered to

weave a dense web around the

leopard to lift him out. The leopard

agreed, but then found himself

stuck in Ananse’s web, and the

spider had a second prisoner.

To catch the hornets, Ananse

trickled water into their nest and

began to drum on the ground with

little sticks to create the sound of

falling rain. He then called out and

offered the hornets a dry refuge in

his calabash (gourd). The grateful

hornets flew in, and immediately

Ananse inserted a plug and took

the captive insects to Nyame.

IN BRIEF

THEME

How wisdom was spread

SOURCE

Oral tradition, recorded

in African Folktales and

Sculpture, edited by Paul

Radin, 1953; African Folktales

in the New World, William

Bascom, 1992; Anansi: The

Trickster Spider, Lynne

Garner, 2014.

SETTING

West Africa at the beginning

of time.

KEY FIGURES

Nyame The high god and

creator; also known as

Nyankupon.

Ananse A trickster hero; took

the form of a spider.

Ntikuma The son of Ananse.

The spider wanted

to own all the stories

known in the world.

African Folktales in

the New World

US_286-287_Ananse.indd 286 05/12/17 4:16 pm

287

Ananse the Spider is depicted at the

center of the finial of a decorative wood

and gold leaf staff, dating from around

1900, that was carried by a linguist

(storyteller) of the Asante people.

See also: San creation myth 284 ■ En-kai and the cattle 285 ■ The Dogon cosmos 288–93 ■ Eshu the trickster 294–97

ANCIENT EGYPT AND AFRICA

Lastly, Ananse trapped the fairy

by putting out a doll covered with

sticky gum—a tar baby—beside a

bowl of yams. The fairy thanked

the doll and, when it did not reply,

touched it and became stuck.

Ananse then carried her off to

Nyame, who was amazed that the

spider had managed to complete

the tasks he had set. True to his

word, he made Ananse the god of

all stories and fables.

Clever but unwise

When Ananse had received all the

wisdom in the world, he stored it in

his calabash, a hollowed-out gourd,

then set out to look for a safe place

to hide it. Going into the forest, he

found a tall tree with spiky bark

and decided to climb it and deposit

the calabash high up near its

crown. However, the calabash was

large and, when he tied it in front

of him and tried to climb the tree,

he could not reach out far enough

to grip the trunk, and kept falling

down. Unbeknownst to Ananse,

his young son Ntikuma had

followed him into the forest, and

was laughing at his father. “Why

don’t you tie the calabash behind

you?” suggested Ntikuma, “and

then you will be able to climb the

tree.” Ananse was angry that his

son had watched his failed

attempts, but he followed

Ntikuma’s advice. As he was

rearranging the calabash, however,

it fell to the ground and shattered.

At that very moment, a fierce storm

hit the forest, and torrential rain

washed the contents of the

calabash into the river and out to

the sea. The wisdom of Nyame

spread all over the world, allowing

all people to inherit a share.

As Ananse went home with

Ntikuma, he consoled himself with

the thought that the wisdom had

proved of little value; it had taken a

small child to set him right. ■

Very great kings were not able

to buy the sky god’s stories,

but Kwaku Ananse has been

able to pay the price.

African Folktales and

Sculpture

Ananse and Br’er

Rabbit

When Africans were taken

as slaves to the New World,

their stories went with them.

Ananse’s trickster exploits

traveled to the United States

and the Caribbean with the

Asante people from the Gold

Coast (now Ghana), West

Africa. Another well-known

African-American trickster

figure, however, is Br’er

Rabbit, a figure from the

folklore of south and central

Africa, who became well

known through the Uncle

Remus stories. Narrated by a

fictitious former slave in the

American south, the stories

were adapted and compiled

by Joel Chandler Harris and

were first published in 1881.

The tales of Ananse and

Br’er Rabbit share similar

themes. Br’er Rabbit gets

stuck to a tar baby that Br’er

Fox has left out to trap him.

Ananse, too, is trapped by a

tar baby as he steals his wife’s

peas, and he himself uses a

tar baby to catch a fairy and

complete Nyame’s challenges.

US_286-287_Ananse.indd 287 05/12/17 4:16 pm