Spider Tales

In West Africa, there is a set of stories called ‘Spider Tales’ or ‘Anansi Tales’. This is the story of how that name came to be.

In the olden days, most of the stories were the stories of Nyankupon, the chief of the Gods. However, Anansi, the spider, wanted stories to be about it.

So one day, Anasi went to Nyankupon and told the chief of the Gods about his wish.

Nyankupon studied Anansi and then nodded slowly. “What you ask shall be done, if you get a jar of live bees, a boa constrictor and a tiger.”

Anansi smiled and walked away from there.

Then Anansi took an earthern pot and went near a huge bee hive in the forest.

He was studying the hive and seemingly talking to himself.

‘No! It cannot be done.’

‘The vessel is not big enough.’

‘It can be done.’

‘The bees cannot do it.’

Predictably, the bees saw the strange behaviour of the spider and came closer.

“Are you talking to yourself?” One of the bees asked Anansi.

It seemed like Anansi had not noticed the bees. He shrugged impatiently. “Nyankupon and I had a debate. Nyankupon said that bees could not get inside this jar.” Anansi shrugged nonchalantly. “I disagreed.” Anansi nodded at the bees. “I am just wondering whether Nyankupon is right or not.”

The bees chagrined at Anansi. “Nyankupon is wrong. We can fit inside.”

Saying this, all the bees flew inside the jar.

Once the jar was full, Anansi sealed the jar from the outside and took the jar with him.

The next day, Anansi took a long stick and went to the area of the boa constrictors. There he again started talking to himself.

‘Not this big.’

‘Has to be smaller.’

‘Probably this big.’

Naturally a boa constrictor saw it and was confused.

“What are you doing?”

Anansi shrugged. “Nyankupon thinks that you are not as long as this stick. I think you are longer.”

The boa constrictor swelled with pride. “I am longer than that.”

Anansi suddenly looked a little unconvinced. “Can I measure you with this stick?”

“Of course.”

The boa constrictor wrapped itself around the stick. Quickly, Anansi tied the snake around the stick.

The next day, Anansi blindfolded itself and went to the tiger’s cave.

There Anansi rumbled and hit the tiger by mistake.

“What are you doing?” The Tiger roared angrily.

Anasi did not open its eyes. “Can’t you see? I have blindfolded myself, because now with my eyes closed, I can see more, in my mind. These are the most beautiful sights I have ever seen.”

The Tiger looked at Anasi with curious interest, forgetting his annoyance. “Can you blindfold me too? I also want to see these sights.”

Reluctantly, Anansi agreed to do so.

After blindfolding the tiger, Anansi led the tiger, along with his jar and stick and went to see Nyankupon.

Nyakupon was amazed at the spider’s ingenuity. Since then the old tales were called Anansi tales.