vagyna    
Social relevance Anansi stories were part of an exclusively oral tradition, and Anansi himself was seen as synonymous with skill and wisdom in speech.See for instance Ashanti linguist staff finial in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which relates to the saying "No one goes to the house of the spider Ananse to teach him wisdom." Stories of Anansi became such a prominent and familiar part of Ashanti oral culture that they eventually encompassed many kinds of fables, evidenced by the work of R.S. Rattray, who recorded many of these tales in both the English and Twi languages, as well as the work of scholar Peggy Appiah: "So well known is he that he has given his name to the whole rich tradition of tales on which so many Ghanaian children are brought up – anansesem – or spider tales." In similar fashion, oral tradition is what introduced Anansi tales to the rest of the world, especially the Caribbean, via the people that were enslaved during the Atlantic slave trade. As a result, the importance of Anansi socially did not diminish when slaves were brought to the New World. Instead, Anansi was often celebrated as a symbol of slave resistance and survival, because Anansi is able to turn the tables on his powerful oppressors by using his cunning and trickery, a model of behaviour used by slaves to gain the upper hand within the confines of the plantation power structure. Anansi is also believed to have played a multifunctional role in the slaves' lives; as well as inspiring strategies of resistance, the tales enabled enslaved Africans to establish a sense of continuity with their African past and offered them the means to transform and assert their identity within the boundaries of captivity. As historian Lawrence W. Levine argues in Black Culture and Consciousness, enslaved Africans in the New World devoted "the structure and message of their tales to the compulsions and needs of their present situation" (1977, 90).Zobel Marshall, Emily (2012) Anansi's Journey: A Story of Jamaican Cultural Resistance. University of the West Indies Press: Kingston, Jamaica. The Jamaican versions of these stories are some of the most well preserved, because Jamaica had the largest concentration of enslaved Ashanti in the Americas, and akin to their Ashanti origins, each carry their own proverbs at the end.Traditional Anansi Stories. At the end of the story "Anansi and Brah Dead", there is a proverb that suggests that even in times of slavery, Anansi was referred to by his Akan original name: "Kwaku Anansi" or simply as "Kwaku" interchangeably with Anansi. The proverb is: "If yuh cyaan ketch Kwaku, yuh ketch him shut","Jamaican Proverbs", National Library of Jamaica. which refers to when Brah Dead (brother death or drybones), a personification of Death, was chasing Anansi to kill him; its meaning: The target of revenge and destruction, even killing, will be anyone very close to the intended, such as loved ones and family members. However, like Anansi's penchant for ingenuity, Anansi's quintessential presence in the Diaspora saw the trickster figure reinvented through a multi-ethnic exchange that transcended its Akan-Ashanti origins, typified in the diversity of names attributed to these Anansi stories, from the "Anansi-tori"A. P., and T. E. Penard. "Surinam Folk-Tales." The Journal of American Folklore, vol. 30, no. 116, 1917, pp. 239–250. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/534344. to the "Kuenta di Nanzi".Mondada, Joke Maaten, "Narrative Structure and Characters in the Nanzi Stories of Curaçao: a Discourse Analysis." (2000).LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 7214. Even the character "Ti Bouki," the buffoon constantly harassed by "Ti Malice" or "Uncle Mischief", a Haitian trickster associated with Anansi, references this exchange: "Bouki" itself is a word descending from the Wolof language that also references a particular folk animal (the hyena) indigenous to them. The same applies to Anansi's role in the lives of Africans beyond the era of slavery; New World Anansi tales entertain just as much as they instruct, highlight his avarice and other flaws alongside his cleverness, and feature the mundane just as much as they do the subversive. Anansi becomes both an ideal to be aspired toward, and a cautionary tale against the selfish desires that can cause our undoing. Anansi has effectively evolved beyond a mere trickster figure; the wealth of narratives and social influences have thus led to him being considered a classical hero.Van Duin, Lieke. “Anansi as Classical Hero." Journal of Caribbean Literatures, vol. 5, no. 1, 2007, pp. 33–42. JSTOR, 40986316
R
vagyna
Social relevance
A
Anansi stories were part of an exclusively oral tradition, and Anansi himself was seen as synonymous with skill and wisdom in speech.See for instance Ashanti linguist staff finial in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which relates to the saying "No one goes to the house of the spider Ananse to teach him wisdom." Stories of Anansi became such a prominent and familiar part of Ashanti oral culture that they eventually encompassed many kinds of fables, evidenced by the work of R.S. Rattray, who recorded many of these tales in both the English and Twi languages, as well as the work of scholar Peggy Appiah: "So well known is he that he has given his name to the whole rich tradition of tales on which so many Ghanaian children are brought up – anansesem – or spider tales." In similar fashion, oral tradition is what introduced Anansi tales to the rest of the world, especially the Caribbean, via the people that were enslaved during the Atlantic slave trade. As a result, the importance of Anansi socially did not diminish when slaves were brought to the New World.
A
Instead, Anansi was often celebrated as a symbol of slave resistance and survival, because Anansi is able to turn the tables on his powerful oppressors by using his cunning and trickery, a model of behaviour used by slaves to gain the upper hand within the confines of the plantation power structure. Anansi is also believed to have played a multifunctional role in the slaves' lives; as well as inspiring strategies of resistance, the tales enabled enslaved Africans to establish a sense of continuity with their African past and offered them the means to transform and assert their identity within the boundaries of captivity. As historian Lawrence W. Levine argues in Black Culture and Consciousness, enslaved Africans in the New World devoted "the structure and message of their tales to the compulsions and needs of their present situation" (1977, 90).Zobel Marshall, Emily (2012) Anansi's Journey: A Story of Jamaican Cultural Resistance. University of the West Indies Press: Kingston, Jamaica.
A
The Jamaican versions of these stories are some of the most well preserved, because Jamaica had the largest concentration of enslaved Ashanti in the Americas, and akin to their Ashanti origins, each carry their own proverbs at the end.Traditional Anansi Stories. At the end of the story "Anansi and Brah Dead", there is a proverb that suggests that even in times of slavery, Anansi was referred to by his Akan original name: "Kwaku Anansi" or simply as "Kwaku" interchangeably with Anansi. The proverb is: "If yuh cyaan ketch Kwaku, yuh ketch him shut","Jamaican Proverbs", National Library of Jamaica. which refers to when Brah Dead (brother death or drybones), a personification of Death, was chasing Anansi to kill him; its meaning: The target of revenge and destruction, even killing, will be anyone very close to the intended, such as loved ones and family members.
A
However, like Anansi's penchant for ingenuity, Anansi's quintessential presence in the Diaspora saw the trickster figure reinvented through a multi-ethnic exchange that transcended its Akan-Ashanti origins, typified in the diversity of names attributed to these Anansi stories, from the "Anansi-tori"A. P., and T. E. Penard. "Surinam Folk-Tales." The Journal of American Folklore, vol. 30, no. 116, 1917, pp. 239–250. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/534344. to the "Kuenta di Nanzi".Mondada, Joke Maaten, "Narrative Structure and Characters in the Nanzi Stories of Curaçao: a Discourse Analysis." (2000).LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 7214. Even the character "Ti Bouki," the buffoon constantly harassed by "Ti Malice" or "Uncle Mischief", a Haitian trickster associated with Anansi, references this exchange: "Bouki" itself is a word descending from the Wolof language that also references a particular folk animal (the hyena) indigenous to them. The same applies to Anansi's role in the lives of Africans beyond the era of slavery; New World Anansi tales entertain just as much as they instruct, highlight his avarice and other flaws alongside his cleverness, and feature the mundane just as much as they do the subversive. Anansi becomes both an ideal to be aspired toward, and a cautionary tale against the selfish desires that can cause our undoing. Anansi has effectively evolved beyond a mere trickster figure; the wealth of narratives and social influences have thus led to him being considered a classical hero.Van Duin, Lieke. “Anansi as Classical Hero." Journal of Caribbean Literatures, vol. 5, no. 1, 2007, pp. 33–42. JSTOR, 40986316