Jamaican Anansi stories retold

Anansi is a troublesome and busy body spider who is famous in Jamaican Folklore stories. He is always up to some mischief. We shall take a look at some of his antics here.

Sometimes Anansi is a spider, sometimes he is a combination of man and spider. There are African versions which may differ a bit from the Caribbean versions.

In Jamaica there is a saying for the sleepy feeling one gets after eating a full stomach or bellyfull of food. We call it by one name, but for the bias which the word carries I will name it 'Sleepyritis'.

Anansi and Fiyah

One day Anansi finished his lunch and as expected, sleepyritis set in. He searched for a cozy place to take a nap. Down on the ground was not suitable, so he went up into a tree. Anansi had a nice long sleep, woke up and got ready to climb down. Before he could do so though, a man came by, sat under the tree and built a small fire.

Now, poor Anansi had never seen fire before. He looked at the lovely sparkly thing and was completely mesmerized.

The thing was beautiful, red and yellow in color and danced happily. It did smell a bit funny, and a black cloud was forming above it. But Anansi didn't let that bother him much. He waited until the man left, he had shovelled some sand onto the thing, but it still danced and swayed. Anansi climbed down lower, until he was close enough for fire to burn him and peered into the heart of the pretty thing.

"What a beautiful thing this is, I would like to take it to my house so I can admire it whenever I want to". Anansi said out loud. To his surprise the sparkly lovely thing replied to his words of admiration.

"Well my friend, I don't have legs, but I tell you what, if you want to have me as your friend at your house, gather all the dry grass you can find and lay them here beside me. Then gather as much as you can and lay it on the path that leads directly from me to your house". Fire told this to Anansi in a serious voice.

Anansi got to work and did what fire asked of him. He laid the dry grass straight up to his front door, he made sure to put a lot of it there. He then ran back to fire.

"Put some more grass here friend, right next to me".

Fire danced, sent sparks high into the air, black smoke swirled and the grass started to burn. It burned and danced and it pranced and sparked all the way to Anansi's little house. By this time fire was now a raging inferno, Anansi skittered close on fires tail. He started to get hot, fire reached Anansi's door and burned it completely down. Anansi stomped, blew with his mouth and even tried spitting on it. He ran to the well, but it was so far away that he was too late

Poor Anansi's house burnt down to the ground. From that day forward Anansi hated fire more than anything in the world and fire discovered that it could burn everybody's house down.

Anansi made it his quest to warn people of the dangers of fire, to explain that fire was smart, hot and dangerous. But they laughed at him and would not listen. And that is why Fiyah continues to this day, to burn down as many homes and forests as it can.

How Anansi brought Jealousy into the world.

Long ago, Jealousy lived alone with his bride, he built a solitary village, devoid of other humans and lived in the center of it with his wife. He did this so no one would come near his wife. There they lived quite happily for a long time.

Until one day when Anansi heard of this story and wanted to go see the wife of Jealousy for himself. He had heard how lovely she was. Anansi went and hid in the bushes, he saw the beautiful woman and decided to trick her husband into leaving the house for a while.

Anansi ran to the village, yelling that men were coming to steal the wife of Jealousy. The terrified husband ran out to the edge of the village and prepared to defend his property. Meanwhile, Anansi doubled back and stole the wife of Jealousy. It seems that she was happy to go, her husband was very controlling and demanding.

So with nothing left to guard jealously, Jealousy swept into the world and infected everyone with jealousy.

Jealousy developed a green eye, and if you ever look directly into the green one, you will immediately be overcome by jealousy. So remember to never look at anyone whose eyes shine green.

Anansi and the magic pot

There always comes a time when the trickster gets tricked.

One morning Anansi was walking in the forest on his way to the river, He suddenly came upon a large round pot on the ground in the middle of the forest. The pot was kind of yucky on the inside and had strange letterings and markings on the outside. Anansi drew nearer to the pot.

"I wish I knew what these markings mean". He said out loud. He ran his fingers over the markings on the pot.

"Fill and share the pot". A strange voice said, Anansi looked around and saw not a single soul. The voice seemed to come from out of nowhere.

"Who said that". Anansi asked.

"Fill and share the pot". The strange voice said again. Leaning over even closer, Anansi could swear that it was the pot which had spoken. But it seemed to need a good washing, why would he fill and share a dirty pot.

"Fill and share the pot". This time as the voice spoke, the pot became filled with the most delicious smelling chicken stew. Being a totally greedy man, and forgetting the original yuck inside the pot, Anansi sat down and ate the entire pot of stew without pausing to think of where the food had come from. He never though that it may not be his food.

"Oh this was so delicious, when can I have another pot full of stew". He never thought to find out who had made the food or had a mind to say thank you.

"Well, just say the words you heard and the pot will magically fill up all the time. Just remember to never wash me out, or my magic will disappear". Well, Anansi was quite fine with that.

In his greed and selfishness, Anansi hid the pot in some bushes, went home and he never even shared it with his wife and children.

Next day he rushed to the pot. Said the words and the pot immediately filled up with delicious pork and red beans. He ate his fill and still did not think of sharing his good fortune. This went on for days. He would eat, hide the pot and return home as if nothing had happened. His poor family meanwhile barely had anything to eat.

"How come papa eats the same as us yet he gets fatter and fatter while we are practically starving"? One of his children asked one day. Everyone was now getting suspicious of Anansi.

"Be quiet child, don't talk to your papa like that". Said his wife. Yet secretly she suspected that he was up to his old tricks. So she decided to follow him one morning, she saw him lift the pot up from hiding and sit down to a pot of delicious vegetable stew.

Wife was very mad and cross about her husband's deceit. She hurried home, prepared the usual meal, and said nothing about the pot. Next morning, she rose early before Anansi woke up, ran quickly to the pot and took it from its hiding place.

Seeing how filthy the pot was , she gave it a proper wash down by the river, thinking that someone might buy it and then would be able to buy something good to eat.

Anansi woke up, his wife was gone, but she always rose before him anyway. He rushed to the forest, but the pot was gone. He looked everywhere, the pot had vanished. Finally he gave up and returned home. Imagine his surprise to see his wife cooking a great feast, something they had not seen in a long time.

"Where did you get all this wonderful food wife"? He asked incredulously.

"Well, I dreamed about a pot in the forest last night, so this morning I went and found it, exactly where the dream said it would be. I took it to the river, washed it, then sold it in town for a lot of money. I hope you are proud of me. We will have food for many days to come". There was a strange twinkle in her eyes.

Anansi was dumbstruck. The pot had been washed, he had lost everything. He could not say anything about his selfishness and loss of the magic pot, lest he be found out. He went to sit in the forest for a very long time until his temper cooled off.

For once the trickster had been tricked himself, and all because of greed.

As for the person who bought the pot, the magic restarted as soon as it changed hands. This time the new owner gathered all of his village every evening at dinner time, and everyone enjoyed the most delicious meals. They all knew the secret to the pot, to never wash away its magic. And so it was kept locked in a safe place until dinner time came around every evening.

If only Anansi had learned to share, what a richly happy man he would be today.

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