Anansi ( /əˈnɑːnsi/ ə-nahn-see) the trickster is a spider, and is one of the most important characters of West African and Caribbean folklore.
He is also known as Ananse, Kwaku Ananse, and Anancy; and in the Southern United States he has evolved into Aunt Nancy. He is a spider, but often acts and appears as a man. The story of Anansi is akin to the tricksters Coyote, Raven or Iktomi found in many Native American cultures.
The Anansi tales are believed to have originated in the Ashanti people in Ghana. (The word Anansi is Akan and means, simply, spider.) They later spread to other Akan groups and then to the West Indies, Suriname, and the Netherlands Antilles. On Curaçao, Aruba, and Bonaire he is known as Nanzi, and his wife as Shi Maria.
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Ananse tales are some of the best-known in West Africa[1] The stories made up an exclusively oral tradition, and indeed Ananse himself was synonymous with skill and wisdom in speech.[2] It was as remembered and told tales that they crossed to the Caribbean and other parts of the New World with captives via the Atlantic slave trade.[3]
Stories of Ananse became such a prominent and familiar part of Ashanti oral culture that the word Anansesem — "spider tales" — came to embrace all kinds of fables. Peggy Appiah, who collected Ananse tales in Ghana and published many books of his stories, wrote: "So well known is he that he has given his name to the whole rich tradition of tales on which so many Ghanaian children are brought up — anansesem — or spider tales."[4] Elsewhere they have other names, for instance Ananse-Tori in Suriname, Nansi in Guyana, and Kuent'i Nanzi in Curaçao.
There is an Ananse story that explains the phenomenon of how his name became attached to the whole corpus of tales:
Once there were no stories in the world. The Sky-God, Nyame, had them all. Ananse went to Nyame and asked how much they would cost to buy.
Nyame set a high price: Ananse must bring back Onini the Python, Osebo the Leopard, the Mmoboro Hornets, and Mmoatia the dwarf.
Ananse set about capturing these. First he went to where Python lived and debated out loud whether Python was really longer than the palm branch or not as his wife Aso says. Python overheard and, when Ananse explained the debate, agreed to lie along the palm branch. Because he cannot easily make himself completely straight a true impression of his actual length is difficult to obtain, so Python agreed to be tied to the branch. When he was completely tied, Anansi took him to Nyame.
To catch the leopard, Ananse dug a deep hole in the ground. When the leopard fell in the hole Ananse offered to help him out with his webs. Once the leopard was out of the hole though he was bound in Ananse's webs and was carried away.
To catch the hornets, Ananse filled a calabash with water and poured some over a banana leaf he held over his head and some over the nest, calling out that it was raining. He suggested the hornets get into the empty calabash, and when they obliged, he quickly sealed the opening.
To catch the dwarf he made a doll and covered it with sticky gum. He placed the doll under the odum tree where the dwarfs play and put some yam in a bowl in front of it. When the dwarf came and ate the yam she thanked the doll which of course did not reply. Annoyed at its bad manners she struck it, first with one hand then the other. The hands stuck and Ananse captured her.
Ananse handed his captives over to Nyame. Nyame rewarded him with the stories, which now become known as Ananse stories or Anansesem.
There are many variants of this tale, both recorded from oral sources and published. Indeed the number of children's illustrated book versions of this one tale demonstrates how successfully Ananse has made the transition into literature. The summary above is of an illustrated book version Ananse does the impossible, an Ashanti tale retold by Verna Aardema and illustrated by Lisa Desimini.[5]
Another picture book version is the Caldecott Medal winning A Story a Story retold and illustrated by Gail E. Haley,[6] which takes its title from a traditional Ashanti way of beginning such tales: "We do not really mean, we do not really mean that what we are about to say is true. A story, a story; let it come, let it go" and finishes traditionally with: "This is my story which I have related. If it be sweet, or if it be not sweet, take some elsewhere, and let some come back to me."[7]
There are many other children's adaptations of this story including:
Another story tells of how Ananse once tried to hoard all of the world's wisdom in a pot (in some versions a calabash). Ananse was already very clever, but he decided to gather together all the wisdom he could find and keep it in a safe place.
With all the wisdom sealed in a pot, he was still concerned that it was not safe enough, so he secretly took the pot to a tall thorny tree in the forest (in some versions the Silk Cotton tree). His young son, Ntikuma, saw him go and followed him at some distance to see what he was doing.
The pot was too big for Ananse to hold while he climbed the tree, so he tied it in front of him. Like this the pot was in the way and Ananse kept slipping down, getting more and more frustrated and angry with each attempt.
Ntikuma laughed when he saw what Ananse was doing. "Why don't you tie the pot behind you, then you will be able to grip the tree?" he suggested.
Ananse was so annoyed by his failed attempts and the realisation that his child was right that he let the pot slip. It smashed and all the wisdom fell out. Just at this moment a storm arrived and the rain washed the wisdom into the stream. It was taken out to sea, and spread all around the world, so that there is now a little of it in everyone.
Though Ananse chased his son home through the rain, he was reconciled to the loss, for, he says: "What is the use of all that wisdom if a young child still needs to put you right?"[15]
Many Ananse stories deal with attempts to trick people into allowing him to steal food or money, or something else that could turn a profit, or convincing multiple female victims of his sexual prowess, but frequently the tricks ultimately backfire on Ananse.
One of the times Anansi himself was tricked was when he tried to fight a tar baby after trying to steal food, but became stuck to it instead. It is a tale well known from a version involving Br'er Rabbit, found in the Uncle Remus stories and adapted and used in the 1946 live-action/animated Walt Disney movie Song of the South. These were derived from African-American folktales in the Southern United States, that had part of their origin in African folktales preserved in oral storytelling by African-Americans. Elements of the African Anansi tale were combined by African-American storytellers with elements from Native American tales, such as the Cherokee story of the "Tar Wolf",[16] which had a similar theme, but often had a trickster rabbit as a protagonist. The native American trickster rabbit appears to have resonated with African-American story-tellers and was adopted as a cognate of the Anansi character with which they were familiar.[17] Other authorities state the widespread existence of similar stories of a rabbit and tar baby throughout indigenous Meso-American and South American cultures.[18] Thus, the tale of Br'er Rabbit and the Tar Baby represents a coming together of two separate folk traditions, American and African, which coincidentally shared a common theme. Most of the other Br'er Rabbit stories originated with Cherokee or Algonquin myths.[19] In the USA today, the stories of Br'er Rabbit exist alongside other stories of Aunt Nancy, and of Anansi himself, coming from both the times of slavery and also from the Caribbean and directly from Africa.
Anansi is a culture hero, who acts on behalf of Nyame, his father and the sky god. He brings rain to stop fires and performs other duties for him. His mother is Asase Ya. There are several mentions of Anansi's children, the first son often being named as Ntikuma. According to some stories his wife is known as Miss Anansi or Mistress Anansi but most commonly as Aso. To the Ashantis is is Okonore Yaa. He is depicted as a spider, a human, or combinations thereof.
In some beliefs, Anansi is responsible for creating the sun, the stars and the moon, as well as teaching mankind the techniques of agriculture.
Anansi appears in two episodes of the Disney cartoon series Gargoyles. Anansi was depicted as a giant spider-spirit in the episode "Mark Of The Panther". He also appeared in the first part of "The Gathering", where he was seen returning to Avalon; this stated that he was one of Oberon's subjects.
In the Kid's WB television program Static Shock, Anansi the Spider is a major superhero in Africa. Anansi is part of a lineage of heroes whose powers stem from an ancient amulet, which grants powers of illusion and the ability to adhere to any surface. He first appears in "Static in Africa", where Static visits Africa, and the two join forces to fight the villain Oseba the Leopard. Anansi returns in "Out of Africa", in which he comes to Dakota City where Static and Gear help him recover his amulet from Oseba, who is this time joined by Onini the Snake and Mmoboro the Wasp.
American Gods is a novel by Neil Gaiman that contains Anansi (under the name Mr. Nancy), among other mythological characters. A later Gaiman novel, Anansi Boys, follows the sons of Anansi as they discover each other and their heritage.
The English rock band Skunk Anansie (1994–2001, 2009–present) took the name of the spider man of the West African folk tales, but with a slightly different spelling, and added "Skunk" to the name, in order to make the name nastier.[20]
Anansi the Spider narrated stories from African folklore on the PBS series Sesame Street. He was voiced by Ossie Davis. These cartoon segments were introduced by Sonia Manzano, who plays Maria on that show.
In an arc of DC Comics' Justice League of America, the team faces Anansi. The character was first mentioned in Justice League of America #23, but was not named until Justice League of America #24. According to Vixen, he is the West African trickster god and "owns all stories". Anansi appears in several forms, the most common form being a large, other-worldly spider with supernatural powers. He has been manipulating the powers of Vixen and Animal Man. He initially appears to be villainous, but then reveals after he is "defeated" that his machinations were in fact intended to teach Vixen a lesson and prepare her for some coming disaster.
In the Marvel Comics mini-series Spider-Man Fairy Tales a story is told where Spider-Man takes on the role of Anansi. He is on a quest to gain more power after feeling unappreciated. After encountering elemental aspects (the Fantastic Four), and a guardian of a sacred garden (Swarm), he realizes the greatest power is friendship.
In the science fiction novel Descent of Anansi, by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes, the main characters manage to land a damaged spacecraft on Earth with the aid of a very strong cable made of crystalline iron and the "force" generated by tidal affects. The title is based on the image of the spacecraft hanging from the cable like a spider on a thread.
Author China Mieville cast Anansi as a prominent supporting character in his first novel, King Rat, published in 1998.
Children's singer Raffi wrote and recorded the song "Anansi" for his 1978 Corner Grocery Store album. The song describes Anansi as a spider and a man. It tells a story about Anansi being lazy yet clever, using flattery to trick some crows into shaking loose ripe mangoes from his mango tree for Anansi to enjoy without having to pick them himself.
In the PC game Shivers, Anansi appears in a music box that tells the tale of the spider tricking a lizard and the gods. In another PC game, Pandora's Box, Anansi is one of the tricksters that has to be captured.
In 2001, the National Film Board of Canada produced the animated short film The Magic of Anansi as part of its Talespinners collection of short films based on children's stories from Canada's cultural communities.[21]