Our mother loved listening to Anansi stories during her summer holidays at Francis Bay on St. John. π·
As a child, these African-inspired folk tales were mesmerizing, especially when listening to them outside on a dark patio step with the sounds of the crickets and frogs in the distance.
Here is an amazing little book by St. John author, Bish Denham.
She captured some of those same incredible tales! Here’s a quick review.
Anansi and Company
How do you escape a hungry tiger?
Why do ram-goats smell?
What happens if you get too greedy?
In this collection of ten retold Jamaican stories, Anansi the spider tricks, sings, and dances his way into and out of trouble.
But who is Anansi?
It was the Ashanti of West Africa who brought the spider into the Caribbean.
He clung tight to the web he wove in the minds of those who had been captured, surviving not only the harrowing passage across the Atlantic Ocean, but hundreds of years of slavery.
As a trickster, Anansi has both good and bad traits, which makes him very human.
Sometimes he wins, sometimes he loses.
When he wins, he dances and sings for joy.
When he loses, he shakes it off and keeps on living, a lesson for all of us!
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