Ananse
Sign in to saveAlso known as Brother Anansi, Ananansa, Anancy, Anancyi, Anansi Drew, Anansi-Tori, Anansie, Anansiil
Key facts
- Deity.type
- Akan
- Deity.artifacts
- Spider Totem of Knowledge, Stories, Trickery, and Wisdom
- Deity.image
- Anansi-34.png
- Deity.caption
- Illustration of Anansi by Pamela Colman Smith, 1899
- Deity.venerated_in
- Akan folklore
- Deity.symbol
- Spider
- Deity.ethnic_group
- Akan • African Americans • Afro-Caribs
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Image
- Anansi (Mayaguez Children's Library).jpg
Show 1 more fact
- Commons category
- Anansi
via Wikidata · CC0
~73 min read
Article
38 sectionsContents
- Origin
- Social relevance
- Oral Tradition
- Resistance
- Teaching Narratives
- Popular Anansi stories
- Akan-Ashanti Anansi stories
- How the Sky-God's stories came to be Anansi's stories
- Anansi and the dispersal of wisdom
- How Anansi's hind became big, and how his head became small
- Why men commit evil at night, children play in moonlight, disputes are settled in daytime, and Anansi is Nyame's messenger
- How diseases were brought to the tribe
- How Kwaku Anansi took Aso as his wife, and how jealousy came to the tribe
- How Anansi got a bald head
- Why Anansi runs when he is on the surface of water
- How Anansi tricked two gods
- Why Anansi's webs traps flies
- Jamaican Anansi stories
- How Anansi tied Tiger
- Surinamese Anansi stories
- How Dew tricked Anansi
- Gun is dead
- Anansi becomes a preacher, and why Cockroach and Anansi are enemies
- How Death came to the city
- Relationship between Anansi and Br'er Rabbit
- Anansi as a spiritual and mythological figure
- References in popular culture
- Books
- Comics
- Music
- Television and film
- Video games
- The Anansy Festival
- Other names
- See also
- References
- Sources and further reading
- External links
Anansi or Ananse ( ; literally translates to spider) is a character in Akan religion and folklore associated with stories, wisdom, knowledge, wit, mischievousness, cunning, and trickery, most commonly depicted as a spider. Anansi is a character who reflects the culture that he originates from. The Akan people are a close-knit people from present-day southern Ghana who rely on social order, which translates through the stories that come out of their culture. In many ways, Anansi is a paradoxical character whose actions defy this social order, but in incorporating rebellion and doubt into faith, his folkloric presence strengthens it.
Taking the role of a trickster, he is also one of the most important characters of West African, African American and Caribbean folklore. These spider tales were spread to the Americas via the Atlantic slave trade.