Reading Notes: West African Folktales Part A

West African Folktales - collected in Accra, Ghana

How We Got the Name "Spider-Tales"

• Anansi spider tricks animals and all later stories are about him 
• Pattern of three obstacles
• No explanation of how the Spider manages to carry a jar, lead a tiger, etc. 

How Wisdom Became the Property of the Human Race

• Father Anansi tries to hide wisdom from humans, can't do it, gives up & returns it
• "Inaccessible-looking"
• Very short story
• Who is the author/translator/transcriber?
• Story titles are generally full phrases. 

Anansi and Nothing

• Nothing as a character's name - bit of wordplay
• Once again strong gender roles (men seeking wives, wives performing domestic tasks)

Thunder and Anansi

• Ambiguous setting (place and time), but with specific details like foods and animals 
• Anansi obtains magic pot and hides it from his family. Son finds out, pot gets broken, Anansi gets a magic stick that beats him
• Lesson on generosity and greediness!

Why the Lizard Moves his Head Up and Down

• Anansi loses wives to Lizard, gets Lizard killed
• This story makes me wonder about the cultural context - is it all fictional, or is this a society in which common people might be able to approach the King and make requests?

Spider by Phil via Flickr

Tit for Tat

• Kweku Tsin is also a trickster, but it seems like he's more morally grounded
• Not much to say about the style of this story. 

White Ants

• Spider is main character - Anansi?
• No regard for food safety!
• "singing the ants' chorus" - The ants go marching?
• "Welcomed them heartily"

The Squirrel and the Spider

• Told in past tense indicating long ago ("used to" -aba in Spanish)

Why we see Ants Carrying Bundles as Big as Themselves

• Contrast between Kweku Tsin and Anansi
• Reading stories about West Africa made me curious about the landscape, which led me to look up Somalia (which is in East Africa, but I was curious), which led me to this article about an immigrant's return to Somalia after living most of his life in the US. I was surprised by the extent of the disparity between a Google Images search (famine, deserts, violence) and this article (beautiful beaches, houses, commentary on daily life)

Why Spiders are Always Found in Corners of Ceilings 

• Transformation! Man to spider
• Anansi finally shows shame, not just disappointment at being caught 

The Grinding-Stone that Ground Flour by Itself

• Subjects (famine, food) may be very relevant to original tellings of the stories?
• Piece of dialogue in verse