An Ashanti story of how Anansi, the trickster god ,bought the sky god’s stories.

 

 

They came a time there were no stories in the world, Kwaku Anansi, the spider went to Nyan-kopon, the sky God to get the sky god’s stories. The sky god was baffled and asked him.
“why do you think you can buy them? ”

He replied
“I know I shall be able to.”

Then, the sky God said
“great and powerful towns like kokofu, bekwai, Asumengya have come, and they were unable to purchase them, and yet you’re but a masterless man, you say you will be able? ”

The spider smiled and asked.
“what’s the price of the stories? ”

The sky God said the could not be bought for anything less than onini that python, osebo the leopard, mmoatia the fairy, and mmoboro the hornet. The spider assured him That he would bring them.

“go and bring them,” the sky god said.

Anansi set on to capture these things, and he first went to get the python, when he got to where the python lived, he started an argument and made it loud that the python could hear. He doubted the python’s length, whether it was longer than the palm branch, pythons wife always said he wasn’t, so Anansi argued. In a bit to show his real length, the python came out and decided to lie along the palm branch so they could check. Because of his nature, he couldn’t straighten himself, so Anansi offered the solution of tying him to the branch, which he agreed, when he was completely tied, Anansi took him.

To catch the leopard, Anansi dug a deep hole and lured the leopard into it, when he was in the whole, Anansi offered to help him out with his web, when he was out, he was trapped in Anansi’s web, and that was how he caught the leopard and took him to the sky god.

He made to catching the hornets, to catch them, he filled a calabash with water and poured some water over a banana leaf that he held over his head and some over the nest, he called out that it was raining, and offered the hornets the calabash as a safe place. When they got inside, he quickly covered the calabash.

It was the fairy next, so he made a doll and covered it with a sticky gum, he placed the doll under Odum, the tree of life, where the fairies play, and he put some yam bowels in front of it, the fairy came and ate the yam, then thanked the doll which did not reply, she got angry and hit the doll with one hand it stuck, then the other, which sticks too and Anansi captured her.

Anansi carried his prices and went back to the sky god, Nyan-kopon, he was amazed at how Anansi could afford the price, and he assured him.
“Kwaku Anansi, from today, going on to forever, I present my sky god stories to you, Kose! Kose!! Kose!!!, my blessing! My blessing!! My blessing!!!, no more shall we call them sky god stories, but the spider stories”.