| Anansi | |
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Real Name |
Anansi; Ananse; Kwaku Ananse; Anancy |
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First Appearance |
West African Myth |
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Created by |
West African Myth |
Origin[]
Anansi (/əˈnɑːnsi/ ə-nahn-see) is a West African god. He often takes the shape of a spider and is considered to be the spirit of all knowledge of stories. He is also one of the most important characters of West African and Caribbean folklore.
He is also known as Ananse, Kwaku Ananse, and Anancy; and in the southern United States he has evolved into Aunt Nancy. He is a spider, but often acts and appears as a man.
The Anansi tales originated from the Ashanti people of present-day Ghana. The word Ananse is Akan and means "spider". They later spread to other Akan groups and then to the West Indies, Suriname, and the Netherlands Antilles. On Curaçao, Aruba, and Bonaire he is known as Nanzi, and his wife as Shi Maria.
Anansi is depicted in many different ways. Sometimes he looks like an ordinary spider, sometimes he is a spider wearing clothes or with a human face and sometimes he looks much more like a human with spider elements, such as eight legs.
Public Domain Literary Appearances[]
- Historico‐political Geography, by Rev. Mr. Paschoud (1724)
- Modern History; or, The Present State of All Nations, by Thomas Salmon (1735)
- Dictionnaire de la fable, by François Noël (1801)
- The Wonders of the West Indies, by Mrs. Henry Lynch (1856)
- Popular Tales from the Norse, by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe (1859) – appendix of Ananzi stories in this edition translated by George Webbe Dasent
- A Collection of Temne Traditions, Fables and Proverbs, with an English translation, by Rev. C. F. Schlenker (1861)
- “Evolution in Folklore,” by A. B. Ellis (Nov. 1895)
- Mpuke Our Little African Cousin, by Mary Hazelton Wade (1902)
- Cunnie Rabbit, Mr. Spider and the Other Beef, by Florence M. Cronise and Henry W. Ward (1903)
- A Study in Ebony, by Dotia Trigg Cooney (1911)
- Anthropological Report on Sierra Leone, by Northcote W. Thomas (1916)
- Jamaica Anansi Stories, by Martha Warren Beckwith (1924)
- The Mythology of All Races — African Mythology, by Alice Werner (1925)
- Folk Beliefs of the Southern Negro, by Newbell Niles Puckett (1926)