3.
At the center of many of the world’s
oppressed cultures stands the figure of
the “trickster hero.” In legend and song,
he appears in the form of a seemingly
innocuous animal that triumphs over
others much larger than himself through
cunning and guile. In the West Indies,
slaves brought with them from Africa
tales of a devious spider named Anansi.^2
Among American slaves, the trickster
was often the short-tailed Brer Rabbit.^3
“De rabbit is de slickest o’ all de
animals de Lawd ever made,” one ex-
slave recounted in an interview with
folklorists a hundred years ago: