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    Anansi Gives People Stories: Ghanaian Folktale

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    Jhandy Elpa
    The story describes Anansi the spider helping people get stories from the Sky God by retrieving three rare animals. Anansi uses his cleverness and tricks to capture a leopard, hornets, and a snake to trade for all the stories. He then shares the stories with everyone.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Anansi Gives People Stories: Ghanaian Folktale

    Uploaded by

    Jhandy Elpa
    113 views14 pages
    The story describes Anansi the spider helping people get stories from the Sky God by retrieving three rare animals. Anansi uses his cleverness and tricks to capture a leopard, hornets, and a snake to trade for all the stories. He then shares the stories with everyone.

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    Anansi_gives_people_stories

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    The story describes Anansi the spider helping people get stories from the Sky God by retrieving three rare animals. Anansi uses his cleverness and tricks to capture a leopard, hornets, and a snake to trade for all the stories. He then shares the stories with everyone.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    113 views14 pages

    Anansi Gives People Stories: Ghanaian Folktale

    Uploaded by

    Jhandy Elpa
    The story describes Anansi the spider helping people get stories from the Sky God by retrieving three rare animals. Anansi uses his cleverness and tricks to capture a leopard, hornets, and a snake to trade for all the stories. He then shares the stories with everyone.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    You are on page 1of 14

    Anansi gives

    people stories
    Ghanaian folktale
    Wiehan de Jager

    English
    Long, long ago, the Sky God, Nyame,
    kept all stories locked in a wooden
    box, high in the sky. People down on
    earth had no stories to tell and they
    were very sad. They asked Anansi the
    clever Spider to help them.

    1
    Anansi spun a long thread, and
    climbed up his sticky thread all the
    way to heaven. "Can I have the stories,
    please?" he asked the Sky God. But
    Nyame laughed at Anansi and said,
    "Oh, these are very expensive stories.
    You wouldn't be able to pay for them,
    little spider."

    2
    "How much do the stories cost?" asked
    Anansi. "You'll have to bring me three
    rare and fierce animals," Nyame
    answered, "A leopard with sharp teeth
    like spears, a hornet that stings
    people, and a snake that swallows
    people whole." He laughed and
    laughed. He thought his stories were
    quite safe.

    3
    So Anansi climbed slowly back down
    his sticky thread to the earth. He
    thought and he thought, and he came
    up with a plan. He dug a deep hole,
    covered it with branches and dirt so it
    was hidden, and he went home for
    supper. In the morning, sure enough,
    a leopard had fallen into his pit. He
    was furiously scratching at the side of
    the pit, but he couldn't get out.

    4
    "Oh let me help you, my dear friend!"
    said Anansi. "Just lie down on these
    sticks and I'll pull you out." Anansi
    wound his sticky web round the
    leopard and the sticks, and pulled him
    up to heaven to show the Sky God. But
    Nyame just laughed and said, "Where
    are the other two?"

    5
    So Anansi went back down to earth to
    get the second creature. He thought
    and he thought and he came up with a
    plan. He took a gourd full of water and
    went to the tree where the hornets
    lived. He poured out some of the water
    all over their nest. Then he cut a leaf
    from a banana tree and held it over
    his head, and he poured the rest of the
    water all over himself.

    6
    He called out to the hornets, "Hey
    hornets! Come see! It is raining! Quick -
    get inside my gourd and it will keep all
    of you dry." Hornets don't like to get
    wet, so they all flew into Anansi's
    gourd.

    7
    Then Anansi quickly spun a web across
    the opening so the hornets couldn't
    get out no matter how much they
    buzzed. He carried them up to heaven
    and showed them to the Sky God. But
    Nyame just said, "Where's the last
    one?" (He wasn't laughing so much
    anymore.).

    8
    So Anansi went down to earth again.
    He thought and thought and he
    thought, but he couldn't come up with
    a plan. So he asked his wife, who had
    a very good idea. Together they found
    a good long thick branch and some
    strong vines. When they got near the
    stream where the snake lived, they
    began to argue. "The branch is
    longer!" "No, it isn't!" "Yes it is!"

    9
    Soon the snake came out and asked
    what the argument was. "I was
    arguing with my wife," said Anansi.
    "She says this stick is longer than you
    are. But I don't agree." "Of course I'm
    longer than that stick!" said the snake.
    "I'm very long! I'm a huge snake! Just
    put your stick next to me and
    measure!"

    10
    So Anansi did that, and he tied the
    snake to the stick with his vine to keep
    him straight. When he was all tied up,
    Anansi took the snake up to heaven.

    11
    Nyame had to admit that Anansi had
    paid his price. So he went to his
    wooden box, opened the lid, and gave
    all the stories to Anansi. Anansi carried
    the stories triumphantly down to
    earth. He shared them with his wife,
    and with all the other animals and
    people. Stories are for telling, not for
    keeping in wooden boxes.

    12
    You are free to download, copy, translate or adapt this story and use the illustrations as long as you attribute in the following way:

    Anansi gives people stories


    Author - Ghanaian folktale
    Illustr
    Illustration
    ation - Wiehan de Jager
    Language - English
    Le
    Level
    vel - Longer paragraphs
    © African Storybook Initiative 2014
    Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0
    Sour
    Source
    ce www.africanstorybook.org

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