Anansi

Anansi is a figure from West African folklore associated with moral lessons, wisdom, and trickery. He is depicted either as a spider or a human-spider hybrid (spider with human head, or man with spider head). He is said to be the owner of all the stories in the world, often playing the antagonist and/or protagonist roles in his own tales.
Anansi has been depicted in popular culture by way of an animated short in 1969 by Gerald McDermott, Neil Gaiman in his novel American Gods (played in human form by Orlando Jones in the television adaptation), the science fiction novel The Descent of Anansi by Larry Niven (author of the Ringworld series), the Celia Cruz song "Guede Zaina" (which serves as a prayer to Anansi), a 1991 direct-to-video adaptation from We All Have Tales narrated by Denzel Washington, as a giant spider-like spirit voiced by LeVar Burton in Gargoyles, and as characters both in DC Comics and Marvel Comics.
==References==
* The 1984 Sesamstraat album Moet je horen... (Listen to This) includes Frank telling the story "Anansi Rides Tigri" followed by a song about Anansi.
* Sesame Street featured the animated character Anansi the Spider, voiced by Ossie Davis, in a series of segments produced by Fred Garbers beginning in 1995.
* A Global Grover feature in the September 2003 issue of Sesame Street Magazine told the story of "Anansi & Turtle" illustrated by Tom Lynch.
* Issue #1 of The StoryTeller: Tricksters comic book miniseries tells the story of Anansi tasked by his father, the Sky God, with three impossible feats to prove his worthiness as the keeper of all stories.
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Category:Folklore