African Tales

By Rony P

African folklore is in its nature plain, and primitive in its simplicity; not adorned with the wealth of palaces and precious stones to be met with in the folklore of more civilized nations, but descriptive in great measure of the events of everyday life, and of such imagery as is connected witwith the phenomena of nature.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rony P
• Release date: Jan 31, 2012
• ISBN: 9781465748546

Rony P

Rony P has been many things! A soldier, newspaper printer, law officer, manager, phone solicitor, criminal, husband, father, painter, and teacher, just to name a few. His home is Athens, Texas when he is in America. Right now he is travelling around China. He has a passion for the stories and fables told around the world, spending much of his spare time in collecting myths and fables.

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Introduction

It has been said that with the vast strides some parts of Africa is making in the progress of civilization, the native races will either be swept away or so altered as to lose many of their ancient habits, customs, traditions, or at least greatly to modify them.

Knowing that by a collection of this kind these stories could best be preserved, and feeling that others had not read them, I began this collection many years ago, while working in South Africa. There is so much done that needs to be done now to preserve what is still Bushmen folklore, that I feel this small volume is just barely a start.

African folklore is in its very nature plain, and primitive in its simplicity; not adorned with the wealth of palaces and precious stones to be met with in the folklore of more civilized nations, but descriptive in great measure of the events of everyday life, among those in a low state of civilization; and with the exception of evidences of moral qualities, and of such imagery as is connected with the phenomena of nature, very little that is grand or magnificent must be looked for in it.

****

Anansi

Anansi was one of God's chosen, and he lived in human form before he became a spider. One day he asked God for a simple ear of corn, promising that he would repay God with one hundred servants. God was always amused by the boastful and resourceful Anansi, and gave him the ear of corn.

Anansi set out with the ear and came to a village to rest. He told the chief of the village that he had a sacred ear of corn from God and needed both a place to sleep for the night and a safe place to keep the treasure. The chief treated Anansi as an honored guest and gave him a thatched-roof house to stay in, showing him a hiding place in the roof. During the night, while the entire village was fast asleep, Anansi took the corn and fed it to the chickens.

The next morning Anansi woke the village with his cries. What happened to the sacred corn? Who stole it? Certainly God will bring great punishment on this village! He made such a fuss that the villagers begged him to take a whole bushel of corn as a demonstration of their apologies. He then set down the road with the bushel of corn until it grew too heavy for him to carry. He then met a man on the road who had a chicken, and Anansi exchanged the corn for the chicken.

When Anansi arrived at the next village, he asked for a place to stay and a safe place to keep the sacred chicken. In this new village, Anansi was again treated as an honored guest, a great feast was held in his honor, and he was shown a house to stay in and given a safe place for the chicken. During the night Anansi butchered the chicken and smeared its blood and feathers on the door of the chief's house. In the morning he woke everyone with his cries, The sacred chicken has been killed! Surely God will destroy this village for allowing this to happen! The frightened villagers begged Anansi to take ten of their finest sheep as a token of their sincere apology.

Anansi drove the sheep down the road until he came to a group of men carrying a corpse. He asked the men whose body they were carrying. The men answered that a traveler had died in their village and they were bearing the body home for a proper burial. Anansi then exchanged the sheep for the corpse and set out down the road. At the next village, Anansi told the people that the corpse was a son of God who was sleeping. He told them to be very quiet in order not to wake this important guest. The people in this village, too, held a great feast and treated Anansi as royalty.

When morning came, Anansi told the villagers that he was having a hard time waking the son of God from sleep, and he asked their help. They started by beating drums, and the visitor remained asleep. Then they banged pots and pans, but he was still asleep." Then the villagers pounded on the visitor's chest, and he still didn't stir.

All of a sudden, Anansi cried out, You have killed him! You have killed a son of God! Oh, no! Certainly God will destroy this whole village, if not the entire world! The terrified villagers then told Anansi that he could pick one hundred of their finest young men as slaves if only he would appeal to God to save them.

So Anansi returned to God, having turned one ear of corn into one hundred slaves.

**

Anansi was terribly conceited after the whole affair of the ear of corn. God found Anansi entertaining, but his bragging was growing tiresome.

So God gave Anansi a sack and said, I have something in mind; figure it out and bring it back to me in the sack. Anansi asked questions, but God would give no further clues as to what that something might be. God sent the mortal on his way, saying that if he were only half as clever as he boasted he was, then he should have no problem figuring out what something God wanted.

Anansi was puzzled. How was he to know what God wanted in the sack? He left heaven and went to Africa, where he had a meeting with the birds, explaining his predicament. The birds were sympathetic, but had no clues to offer. However, each agreed to give Anansi one feather, enabling Anansi to fly. Anansi made these feathers into a beautiful cloak, and then flew up to heaven, where he perched in a tree next to God’s house.

Some of the people of heaven saw this strange bird and began talking about it. They asked each other what kind of bird this might be. Even God himself did not recall making any sort of creature that looked like that.

One of those present suggested that, if Anansi were clever, he might know what sort of bird this was. Anansi, in the tree, heard all of this.

God’s attendants were speaking among themselves when one said, Good luck finding Anansi. God sent him on an impossible mission. How was Anansi to know that God wanted the sun and the moon brought to him in a sack?

Overhearing this, Anansi went out to fetch the sun and the moon. He went to the python, the wisest of all things, and asked how one might capture the sun and the moon. The python advised him to go to the west, where the sun rests at night. The moon could be found in the east around the same time. So Anansi gathered the sun and the moon, placed them in the sack, and took them to God. God was so pleased with Anansi’s ingenuity that he made Anansi his captain on earth.

**

Anansi grew more and more conceited and arrogant.

In fact, God became so annoyed by Anansi’s boast that he had tricked God in the challenge of the sun and the moon that he was seriously considering removing his patronage from Anansi.

Anansi lived in the same village, as the Chameleon.

Anansi was rich and owned the finest fields in the area, while the Chameleon was poor and worked hard in his meager fields to make ends meet. However, one year rain fell on Chameleon’s fields, which were now abundant with beautiful crops. To teach Anansi a lesson, God let no rain fell on Anansi’s land and the crops dried up, and dust blew everywhere.

Anansi then resolved to take Chameleon’s fields for himself. Anansi first tried to buy the fields, but Chameleon refused to sell. Anansi offered more and more in exchange, but Chameleon still held on to the land. Early one morning, Anansi walked boldly down the road to Chameleon’s fields and began harvesting the crops.

When Chameleon saw this, he became very angry and chased Anansi away. When a chameleon walks, it leaves no tracks; it is virtually impossible to tell where a chameleon has been. Knowing this, Anansi took Chameleon to the tribal court to sue for possession of the fields.

The chief asked Chameleon to prove that the fields were his; Chameleon had no proof to offer. Anansi, on the other hand, took the chief to Chameleon’s fields, showing the many footprints on the road. These were Anansi’s footprints, and the chief awarded the fields to Anansi right then and there.

Although the court decision gave the land to Anansi, God has a higher justice than that which the courts mete out. Chameleon dug a deep, deep hole and put a roof on it. From the outside, the hole looked tiny. But, in fact, Chameleon had dug a vast cavern under-ground. Then the Chameleon took some vines and some flies and made a cloak. When the sun hits flies, they shine a variety of colors, but they are still flies.

Chameleon went down the road wearing this cloak of flies and vines when he encountered Anansi.

Anansi’s first words to Chameleon were, Hello, my friend. I hope that there are no hard feelings between us. Anansi saw what appeared to be a beautiful cloak and offered to buy it.

Chameleon pretended to be magnanimous and told Anansi that the cloak would be his if only Anansi filled Chameleon’s little hole with food.

Anansi readily agreed, bragging that he would fill it twice over. Anansi then took the cloak to the chief who had acted as judge in the lawsuit, and gave the cloak to the chief as a gift. The chief admired the cloak and thanked him profusely.

Anansi worked day and night to fill Chameleon’s hole with food and still the hole was not full. He worked weeks and still the hole was not full. After a while Anansi realized that Chameleon had tricked him.

In the meantime, the chief was walking down the road wearing the cloak of flies. One day the vines broke and the flies buzzed off in every direction, leaving the chief naked and livid with anger at Anansi.

The chief grew angrier with each step he took, for he begin to see the conceit and arrogance of Anansi. When the chief found Anansi, he ordered him not only to return Chameleon’s property but to give Chameleon the best of his own fields as well.

As soon as Chameleon took possession of Anansi’s best field, it rained on that field for the first time in months, and now Chameleon was the richest in village.

**

There was once a African king who had the finest ram in the world.

When this ram happened to be grazing on Anansi’s crops one day, Anansi threw a rock at it, hitting it between the eyes and killing it.

Anansi knew that the king would punish him for what he had done to the prize ram, and he immediately schemed how to get out of the situation. Needless to say, Anansi resorted to trickery.

Anansi went to sit under a tree to think of an escape when, all of a sudden, a nut fell and struck him on the head. Anansi immediately had an idea. First, he took the dead ram and tied it to the nut tree. Then he went to a spider and told it of a wonderful tree laden with nuts.

The spider was delighted and immediately went to the tree. Anansi then went to the king and told him that the spider had evidently killed the prize ram; the ram was hanging from a tree where the spider was spinning webs. The king flew into a rage and demanded the death penalty for the spider.

The king thanked Anansi and offered him a great reward. Anansi returned to the spider and warned it of the king’s wrath, crying out to the whole world that the spider had killed the ram. The spider was very confused.

Anansi told the spider to go to the king and plead for mercy, and perhaps the spider’s life would be spared. Meanwhile, the king had gone home for lunch and told his wife what happened. The wife laughed and said, Have you lost your mind? How on earth could a little spider make a thread strong enough to hold a ram? How in the world could that little spider hoist the ram up there? Don’t you know, Anansi obviously killed your ram!

The king was angry that he had been deceived and told his court to fetch Anansi immediately. When the king’s men came for him, Anansi assumed that it was to bring him to the palace for his reward for turning in the spider. So Anansi went along willingly. He walked into the palace as if he owned the place and then said to the king, Well, what is my reward for the killer of your ram?

This enraged the king so much that he kicked Anansi, splitting him into two pieces; he was no longer a man, but a spider with long legs.

**

Anansi the spider goes to God and wants to buy from him all the stories that are told. God tells him that many people have wanted to own the stories but the price is high. He wants three things: the hornets, the great python and the leopard. Anansi agrees and goes home. There he takes a gourd and puts a small hole in it. He then throws some water on himself and the hornets. Then he sits inside and tells the hornets they should get into the