Anansi

John Agard. <em>Weblines.</em> Bloodaxe. 1852244801.

Look for more information about Anansi stories. Anansi stories were collected in Jamaica by Walter Jekyll in 1907. The figure of Anansi comes from Africa and was a minor figure in Ashanti folklore but becomes a bigger figure in Caribbean folklore as a trickster. Anansi has a lisp, a limp, eight legs, a cunning brain: a spiderman.

The Ashanti trickster/culture hero, also called ‘the Spider’. He is the intermediary of the sky god Nyame, his father, on whose command Anansi brings rain to quench the forest fires and determines the borders of oceans and rivers during floods. Later Anansi’s place as representative was usurped by the chameleon. His mother is Asase Ya.

Anansi is sometimes regarded as the creator of the sun and the moon and the stars, as well as the one who instituted the succession of day and night. It is also believed that he created the first man, into which Nyame breathed life. A typical trickster, he is crafty, sly, villainous, but he also taught mankind how to sow grain and how to use the shovel on the fields. He set himself up as the first king of the human beings and even managed to marry Nyame’s daughter. He was beaten only in his encounter with the wax girl, to whom he stuck fast, having struck her with his legs when she refused to talk to him. The people then rushed forwards and beat the tricky Anansi.

Anansi is one of the most popular characters in West African mythology.

From The Encyclopedia Mythica. URL:  <a href=”http://www.pantheon.org”>http://www.pantheon.org</a>