The African Folktale: Collection Of Tales [Completed]

Kweku Ananse and The Gum Statue (Ghanaian folktale)

In the time that all animals still lived together, there once lived a spider called Ananse. He lived in a village with his relatives and all kinds of other animals: hyena, porcupine, squirrel, guineafowl, the chameleon, the warthog and many, many more…

Ananse was one of the village elders, and one day he summoned all his friends and relations to discuss how they could all do more to help each other. Since they were all farmers, they decided it would be a good idea if they would all go to help one individual each day to plough, weed, harvest, whatever needed doing in the fields or around the house. For example, on Monday, they would start at Ananse’s uncle’s farm to help, on Tuesday it would be his grandfather and on Wednesday it would be his nephew’s turn. Ananse put himself in charge of this program and he saw to it that everyone joined in and helped out. After a month or so or so, he was having a quiet sit down in front of his house, and he started thinking.

“You know, he said to himself, I think I can see a way to benefit from this arrangement. I could pretend to be really ill, so I can’t help out with the others, and by the time I’m well again, all the work on my farm will be done!”

So the next morning, Ananse stayed in his bed, and when his nephew came to call on him told him: “Oo oo yoo, my dear nephew, this body of mine is really sick today, I’m afraid I can’t join you today”. Ananse’s nephew told the others that his uncle was sick. They were all very concerned, and decided that the next day, they would all go and help out at Ananse’s farm. This went on for several weeks, and Ananse’s condition got no better.

One or two people started to whisper: “It’s all very well us helping out on Ananse’s farm, when is he going to give us a hand?” Ananse heard the complaints, and realized that he wouldn’t be able to pretend for much longer. He decided he would have to do something to make everybody believe that he was really very sick. The next day he called some of his relatives together and said to them: “This illness of mine has been going on for some time, and it doesn’t look as if I’m getting any better. In fact I feel worse every day. In fact I think I’m going to die”. Some of his relatives protested, “No, no, uncle, you won’t die!” “No, no, my brother, I will call on the medicine man and get you some herbs.”

But Ananse told them he was getting weaker all the time, and started making his funeral arrangements.

“When I die, he said, you should bury me on my brother Kwami’s farm. I have always loved his yams, and I would like to be buried next to them”.

Kwami agreed that his brother could be buried there; after all it’s very difficult not to grant a dying man his last wish. Ananse continued giving his instructions: they should dig a nice big hole, and line the walls with cloth, so that his spirit would be comfortable. They should put pots and pans and cooking utensils in the grave, so that his spirit would be able to prepare food for himself. Ananse’s relations set to work digging the grave, while Ananse himself pretended that his condition was getting worse all the time.

Soon he learnt that the grave was finished, so the next time he saw someone approaching his house, he pretended to be dead. They tried to wake him, but Ananse wouldn’t wake up, so they decided that he must indeed be dead. The next day they took his body and laid it in the grave, which had indeed been prepared they way Ananse had instructed. There were pots and pans and cooking utensils. That same night, Ananse climbed out of the grave and started collecting yams from the field, which he hid in his tomb. He cooked some of them. He made fufu with some of them. When daylight approached, Ananse hid in his tomb and slept. The next night he collected more yams, and feasted again. This carried on for one month. Eventually Kwami noticed that somebody had been stealing his yams. He thought long and hard, who could have done this to him? Normally he would have suspected Ananse, because he knew what his cunning brother was like, but he was dead, and he just couldn’t think who else could be doing this to him.