Anansi

Anansi, the spider, is one of the most popular animal tricksters from West African mythology. But he’s not greater than our wise African tortoise. Tricksters are mischievous figures who often oppose the will of the gods, resulting in some kind of badluck for humans. Like many trickster figures, the wily Anansi can change his appearance to look like a human, a rabbit, a fox, or other animals.

West Africans originally considered Anansi to be the creator of the world. He often acted as a go-between for humans in their dealings with the sky god Nyame, and he supposedly persuaded Nyame to give both rain and the night to people. In most stories, however, Anansi is a crafty and cunning trickster who makes life more enjoyable for himself (or more difficult for others) by fooling humans, other animals, and even the gods themselves, often using his cleverness and knowledge of his victims’ ways of thinking to trick them and achieve his purpose.

In one well-known tale, Anansi asks God for an ear of corn and promises to repay with 100 servants. He takes the corn to a village and tells the people that it is sacred. During the night, Anansi feeds the corn to chickens. The next morning, he accuses the villagers of stealing the corn, and they give him a bushel of it to make up for the lost ear.

Anansi next meets a man on the road and exchanges the corn for a chicken. He visits another village and tells the people that the chicken is sacred. That night he kills the chicken, and the next morning the frightened villagers give him ten sheep to replace it. Anansi later exchanges the sheep for a corpse, which he takes to a third village and tells the people that it is the sleeping son of God. When the villagers cannot wake the corpse the next morning, Anansi says they have killed God’s son. The terrified villagers offer him 100 of their finest young men, and Anansi takes them to God to fulfill his part of the bargain.

There are many other tales about Anansi. Some of them were brought to the West Indies, South America, and North America by African slaves in earlier centuries. In some parts of North America, Anansi became known as Aunt Nancy or Miss Nancy in African American folklores
[Spider tales are found extensively throughout West Africa, but the Anansi tales originating from Ghana are among the best-known, as Anansi’s name comes from the word in the Akan language for “spider”. They later spread to West Indies, Suriname, Sierra Leone (where they were introduced by Jamaican Maroons) and the Netherlands Antilles; also Curaçao, Aruba, and Bonaire.

Anansi is depicted in many different ways and with different names, from “Ananse”, “Kwaku Ananse”, and “Anancy,” to his New World iterations, such as “Ba Anansi”, “Kompa Nanzi” and/or ” “Nancy”, “Aunt Nancy”, and “Sis’ Nancy”.While often-depicted as an animal, Anansi has many representations, not only acting as a man but appearing as one. In others, Anansi is an anthropomorphized spider with a human face, or conversely, a human with spider-like features, such as eight legs. Anansi also has a family in several folktales involving him, consisting of his

long-suffering wife Okonore Yaa – known in other regions as Aso, Crooky, or Shi Maria; Ntikuma, his firstborn son; Tikelenkelen, his big-headed son; Nankonhwea, his son with a spindly neck and spindly legs; finally, Afudohwedohwe, his pot-bellied son. Anansi also has a beautiful daughter named Anansewa in other tales, like those introduced in the work of Efua Sutherland: in Efua’s tale, he embarks on a mission to ensure that Anansewa can have an appropriate suitor.
Anansi is often depicted in popular tales interacting with the Supreme Being and other deities who frequently bestow him with temporary supernatural powers, such as the ability to bring rain or to have other duties performed for him. Some folkloric traditions portray Anansi as the son of the Earth Mother Asase Yaa.In others, Anansi is sometimes also considered an Abosom (lesser deity) in Akan spirituality, despite being commonly recognized as a trickster. Thus, Kwaku Anansi is similar to Legba, who is also both a trickster and a deity in West African Vodoo.It is important to note, however, that Akan spirituality writ-large does not generally Acknowledge the worship of Anansi as an Abosom to the same extent that other established African trickster deities are worshiped in their respective religions; his connection to the sacred is ultimately believed to be irrelevant in comparison to his importance in Akan society, leading to an extensive debate on the subject. Nonetheless, those who do recognize Anansi in a religious context in Akan spirituality acknowledge him as the Abosom of wisdom; he is even said to have created the first inanimate human body, according to the scholar Anthony Ephirim-Donkor.[ In the New World on the other hand, alternative religious views of Anansi have greater prominence in addition to his role as a folkloric character; followers of Haitian Vodou, for example, honor him as a Gede Lwa, responsible for maintaining the connections between the deceased ancestors and the living.