West African Folktales Part A: Favorites
How We Got the Name Spider Tales
I found this story interesting in that it appears that excessive pride does not seem to warrant the punishment it does in Mythology of other cultures. In this story, Spider, also called Anansi, decides that he wants all of the stories told to be about him rather than the god Nyankupon and Nyankupon agrees as long as Anansi can perform three tasks - produce a jar of live bees, a boa constrictor, and a tiger. Through cunning and trickery, Anansi is able to perform all of these tasks and so now the stories are called Anansi Tales.
How Wisdom became Property of the Human Race
This is another example of folklore in which the supreme being, in this case, Father Anansi, becomes angry with humanity and seeks to punish it. In this case, however, the attempt of the god is almost a comical failure. Anansi, as previously stated, has become angry with the human race and decides to take all the world's knowledge from them. He throws all the wisdom in a pot and attempts to climb a high tree to put the wisdom just out of reach to all but himself. However, as he is climbing the tree, with the way he has the pot situated upon himself - on his front - he is unable to climb. Anansi's son Kweku Tsin witnesses his father's struggle and suggests that Anansi place the pot on his back instead. Frustrated by his son's apparent possession of knowledge despite Anansi's attempt to hide it, Anansi throws the pot down onto the ground, releasing all the world's knowledge back to the human race.
Anansi and Nothing
This story made me chuckle to myself. Not because of the content - the story itself is a bit sad - but because it involves a play on words. Anansi and his rich friend Nothing decide to go get wives from a neighboring town. Anansi convinces Nothing to let him wear Nothing's fancy clothes in exchange for Anansi's threadbare ones so that when they get to town, Anansi takes several wives and Nothing is only able to procure one, and out of pity. However, upon returning to their homes, Anansi's wives are distressed to see the hovel in which they are to live, so Nothing's wife, feeling pity for her friends, invites all of Anansi's wives to live in her palace. When Anansi's wives refuse to return home, Anansi grows angry and plots to kill Nothing. When he does, Nothing's wife mourns for him and travels about sharing her suffering with the village children so that they may join her in mourning. This is why it is said that when a child is found crying, seemingly for no reason, that the child is "crying for nothing."
Thunder and Anansi
Anansi, for all his selfish and trickster ways, seems to learn a bit of a lesson in this story. He and his family are very much in want of food. He goes out in search of food and through a series of events finds himself at the hut of Thunder who lives in the sea. After hearing Anansi's sad tale, Thunder provides Anansi a pot with which will provide him and his family with plenty of food. Anansi selfishly decides to keep the pot and the food from his family. They eventually find out about it, however, with the help of Anansi's eldest son who follows Anansi around in the form of a fly. The family uses the pot to provide the whole town with a meal but the large order causes the pot to melt away. Anansi discovers this and, resolving to punish his family, returns to Thunder. Thunder listens to his tale and provides him with a stick that beats Anansi until he regrets not being wiser with his fortune in the first place.
Tit for Tat
This story contrasts all the good virtues and characteristics of Kweku Tsin with the faults and vices of his father, Anansi. During a famine, Kweku discovers a wood in which he can hunt animals and sell them in town. Anansi soon becomes jealous of his son's growing wealth and sets out to steal from him. Anansi discovers where his son has been hunting and drives Kweku out of the wood to take all the game for himself. Kweku, however devises a clever scheme to trick his father into giving the meat back by making Anansi think that he has angered the gods. Once the famine is over, Anansi is forced to acknowledge his son's virtues and wisdom and promises to give over his selfish, trickster ways. He will soon break this promise.
Why White Ants Always Harm Man's Property
*I am unsure if, when the story mentions Spider, it is referring to Anansi
Spider, in the midst of another famine, happens upon a dead antelope and decides to take it for himself, concealing it cleverly. Wolf and Leopard suspect that Spider is up to something and eventually succeed in tricking Spider into losing his prize. Spider is angry and strings up Wolf and Leopard. A group of white ants (termites) happen by and help the two down so the Wolf and Leopard invite the white ants to a feast. Well, Spider disguises he and his family as white ants and attend the feast. When the real ants show up, Wolf and Leopard assume that they are Spider's family in disguise so they pour boiling water on the ants killing them all except the father. In his anger at this betrayal, White Ant vows to never help man again and instead be known as a perfect pest.
Squirrel and Spider
Spider is hit with some major karma in this story. HE steals crops from a hardworking squirrel saying that because there is no road leading to the farm, the farm cannot possibly be his. But then the same thing happens to spider: his bundles of crop are stolen by a crow who claims that no one would leave bundles by the road so the bundles clearly belong to the crow. Maybe now we will see if Spider will begin to change his conniving ways...
Why We See Ants Carrying Bundles as Big as Themselves
I cannot quite tell reading these stories if these creatures are actually figured as the creatures they represent or if these are people that represent each creature. However in this story we see Anansi again with his son Kweku, who is the opposite of his father in terms of virtue. Anansi's greed gets the better of him once again and he ends up killing the King's favorite jesters in the pursuit of "more." So the King wraps up the body of the poor jester and makes Anansi carry it on his head and he must continue to do so unless someone takes the load from him. Anansi, crafty fellow that he is, convinces Mr. Ant to hold the body for just a moment and Anansi promises to return. Being Anansi, however, he does not return, and poor Mr. Ant is doomed to carry that huge bundle on top of his head forever.
Part B: Favorites
The Moon and Stars
This story does not emphasize the faults and poor characteristics of Anansi, but rather makes him part of a heroic tale. Anansi and his son Kweku are captured by a dragon and held captive in the dragon's lair with a group of other unfortunates who were also captured by the dragon. Kweku soon devises a plan for escape that involves the group making a rope ladder and throwing it up to heaven to out climb the dragon. The group also employs several tricks along the way that keep the dragon from ascending the ladder, one of which includes playing a magic violin so that the dragon will have to return to the ground to dance. When the group reaches the heavens, the gods are so pleased with Kweku that they make him the sun in the sky. Anansi is made the moon and their friends are made the stars.
The Hunter and the Tortoise
This story is actually meant to teach a lesson rather than entertain or provide an etiology. A hunter hears the beautiful song of a tortoise and asks the tortoise to come home with him so that the hunter may hear her song everyday. The tortoise agrees, as long as the hunter promises to keep the tortoise a secret. Not unpredictably, the hunter does not keep his promise and begins to brag about his singing tortoise, so much so that the ruler of the land hears of the tale. The ruler and his officials do not believe the hunter's story, but the hunter swears that he is telling the truth and that if he cannot prove himself, he may be killed. So he brings the tortoise before the court to sing, but the tortoise will not utter a word. The hunter is executed, per his agreement with the ruler, and only then does the tortoise speak saying that if the hunter had been content to keep the tortoise a secret, no ill would have befallen him.
The Leopard and the Ram
Another etiology, this story explains why rams are domesticated while leopards live in the wild. This is one of the more humorous stories in my opinion. In the story, through an odd turn of events, a ram and a leopard end up helping each other build the same house without either one of them realizing it. After they discover that they have both built the house, they decide to live together, becoming good friends. Both wonder at the other's keen hunting ability and sends his son to discover the secret of the other's hunting success. The leopard's son discovers that the ram backs up and runs its head into its prey and thus warns his father that if he ever sees the ram backing up, he should fear for his life. One day, the ram slips on the wet floor of the hut and slides backward. Remembering his son's warning, the leopard runs for his life into the woods never to return to civilization. This is why leopards live in the wild
The Elephant and the Wren
Ah, the reappearance of the trickster, Spider! Spider wins a contest, through cunning and trickery of course, in which he chops down a great tree. His prize is an elephant. Spider, showing his selfish character once again, decides that he does not want to have to share the elephant with his family. He decides to try to catch a wren and act as though that is all that he has procured for the day. He ties up his elephant and goes after the wren. He is unsuccessful in catching the wren, and then while he is trying to catch the bird, the elephant gets loose. Now he has absolutely nothing to show for the day, and both he and his family must go hungry for the day. Spider seems to not learn from his past experiences as he keeps running into similar outcomes in return for his deceit and coveting.
Why Tigers Never Attack Men Unless They are Provoked
I have to admit that this story made me feel a bit uncomfortable - I am terrified of both tigers and lions. I also thought that it was interesting to include in folktales from Africa tigers, which are not found in Africa. As the story goes, a man befriends a tiger and convinces the tiger to come live with him for a time. The tiger agrees despite apprehensions that the man's friends will try to kill the tiger. On his way to visit the man sometime later, the tiger is shot, but not killed, by some of the man's friends. Fearing that he had been betrayed by his friend, the tiger feigns death to gage the reaction of the man in order to determine whether or not the man had anything to do with the shooting. When the man discovers the apparently dead tiger, the man mourns the loss of his friend and determines to protect the tiger's body as well as the tiger's cub. Upon seeing this, the tiger tells the man that he will never attack any man unless he is first provoked.
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