Ananse’s Funeral

Ananse’s Funeral

In the time that all animals still lived together, there once lived a spider called Ananse. He lived in a village with his relatives and all kinds of other animals: hyena, porcupine, squirrel, guineafowl, the chameleon, the warthog and many, many more…

Ananse was one of the village elders, and one day he summoned all his friends and relations to discuss how they could all do more to help each other. Since they were all farmers, they decided it would be a good idea if they would all go to help one individual each day to plough, weed, harvest, whatever needed doing in the fields or around the house. For example, on Monday, they would start at Ananse’s uncle’s farm to help, on Tuesday it would be his grandfather and on Wednesday it would be his nephew’s turn. Ananse put himself in charge of this program and he saw to it that everyone joined in and helped out. After a month or so or so, he was having a quiet sit down in front of his house, and he started thinking.

“You know, he said to himself, I think I can see a way to benefit from this arrangement. I could pretend to be really ill, so I can’t help out with the others, and by the time I’m well again, all the work on my farm will be done!”

So the next morning, Ananse stayed in his bed, and when his nephew came to call on him told him: “Oo oo yoo, my dear nephew, this body of mine is really sick today, I’m afraid I can’t join you today”. Ananse’s nephew told the others that his uncle was sick. They

were all very concerned, and decided that the next day, they would all go and help out at Ananse’s farm. This went on for several weeks, and Ananse’s condition got no better.

One or two people started to whisper: “It’s all very well us helping out on Ananse’s farm, when is he going to give us a hand?” Ananse heard the complaints, and realized that he wouldn’t be able to pretend for much longer. He decided he would have to do something to make everybody believe that he was really very sick. The next day he called some of his relatives together and said to them: “This illness of mine has been going on for some time, and it doesn’t look as if I’m getting any better. In fact I feel worse every day. In fact I think I’m going to die”. Some of his relatives protested, “No, no, uncle, you won’t die!” “No, no, my brother, I will call on the medicine man and get you some herbs.”

But Ananse told them he was getting weaker all the time, and started making his funeral arrangements.

“When I die, he said, you should bury me on my brother Kwami’s farm. I have always loved his yams, and I would like to be buried next to them”.

Kwami agreed that his brother could be buried there; after all it’s very difficult not to grant a dying man his last wish. Ananse continued giving his instructions: they should dig a nice big hole, and line the walls with cloth, so that his spirit would be comfortable. They should put pots and pans and cooking utensils in the grave, so that his spirit would be able to prepare food for himself. Ananse’s relations set to work digging the grave, while Ananse himself pretended that his condition was getting worse all the time.

Soon he learnt that the grave was finished, so the next time he saw someone approaching his house, he pretended to be dead. They tried to wake him, but Ananse wouldn’t wake up, so they decided that he must indeed be dead. The next day they took his body and laid it in the grave, which had indeed been prepared they way Ananse had instructed. There were pots and pans and cooking utensils. That same night, Ananse climbed out of the grave and started collecting yams from the field, which he hid in his tomb. He cooked some of them. He made fufu with some of them. When daylight approached, Ananse hid in his tomb and slept. The next night he collected more yams, and feasted again. This carried on for one month. Eventually Kwami noticed that somebody had been stealing his yams. He thought long and hard, who could have done this to him? Normally he would have suspected Ananse, because he knew what his cunning brother was like, but he was dead, and he just couldn’t think who else could be doing this to him.

Kwami decided to set a trap. He went to see the carpenter, and got some sturdy wooden poles, which he took back to his farm, where he poured tar all over them, and placed them strategically around his field, like scarecrows. Except these scarecrows weren’t meant scare, but to trap.

Kwami was sure that the thief, whoever he was, would either touch one of the poles, and get tar all over himself, or leave a mark of some kind by which he could be identified.

That night when Ananse came out of his tomb to help himself to a few more of his brother’s yams he immediately spotted a figure standing in the middle of the field.

“Oh Oh, he thought, somebody’s watching me!”

But he noticed the figure just stood there, not moving at all. His curiosity got the better of him, and he slowly crept up to the figure. As the pole didn’t stand very tall, Ananse figured it must be a young boy. He decided to play a trick on the child, he crept up to it, and said to it: “I’ve just seen your mother out looking for you. She said you have to come home to have your dinner”.

But there was no reaction from the scarecrow.

Ananse repeated: “Your mother has been looking for you! Your dinner is waiting for you!”

But there was still no reaction. Ananse got quite annoyed at the child’s insolence. “Look, I’m talking to you, you vagabond! Why don’t you answer me?”

Still no reply, and Ananse got even more annoyed. “Do you want me to give you a slap? Very well, I’ll slap you, and then we’ll see what happens”. With that Ananse gave the scarecrow a big slap, and his hand got stuck in the tar. He pulled, but he couldn’t get loose.

“Let go of me, you rascal, he shouted. Let go of this hand!”

He screamed at the wooden pole to let go of his hand, “Let go of me or I’ll slap you again!”, and he slapped with his free hand. And immediately that one got stuck in the tar as well. Ananse got more and more agitated and angry.

“I’ll give you a good kicking, if you don’t let go of me!” He kicked the scarecrow with his left foot, and that got stuck. He kicked again with his right foot, and that got stuck as well. Ananse was now well and truly stuck to the scarecrow, he tried pulling as hard as he could, but there was no way he was going to pull himself free. In the end he was so exhausted he had to give up, and cried himself to sleep.

As soon as the sun was up, Ananse’s brother Kwami came strolling into his field, eager to see if his plan had worked. He looked around carefully and saw that no more of his yams had been stolen, so that part of the plan had worked. Smiling to himself, he went round to inspect the tarred poles, when lo and behold he saw the figure of a spider attached to it. As he hurried closer he recognized his brother, Ananse.

Kwami exclaimed: “Ananse! Ananse! What are you doing here, you are supposed to be dead!”

Coolly, Ananse replied: “Ananse is indeed dead, it is his ghost you are looking at!”

You may have gathered by now that Kwami was rather naïve, and he was also very superstitious, so when he heard these words, he really believed this was a ghost addressing him. He became very scared and ran away! He ran straight back to the village, calling out to everybody he passed: “Ananse’s ghost! I’ve just seen Ananse’s ghost!” People gathered round him, wanting to know more. Kwami told them he’d seen Ananse’s ghost, stuck to a pole he’d put up on his farm. Of course the villagers all wanted to see this, so they all started running to Kwami’s farm. There they saw for themselves the figure of Ananse still glued to the pole.

“What are you doing here, they asked, You’re supposed to be dead. We buried you not so long ago!”

“You’re looking at my ghost!” wailed Ananse, who by now was getting very uncomfortable. The villagers too were scared, and they were about to run away, when Ananse cried out: “Stop, stop! Why are you running away? I’m your relation, aren’t I? There’s no need to be so scared! And anyway, I need your help! I need help!”

One of the braver men came a little closer, and asked: “What kind of help do you need, Ananse brother?”

Ananse replied: “I’m stuck to this tarred pole, can’t you see? I need help to pull me free!”

Two or three of them worked up enough courage to approach, and started pulling at him. Ananse was giving them instructions: “Pull here, a little more on this side, a little harder here!”

But one of the villagers who’d been pulling at Ananse’s leg, stood back and scratched his head. “Wait a minute, he said. This is not a ghost! This is the real Ananse. He’s not dead at all!”

They all stopped pulling and heaving. “Yea, said another, how can a ghost be instructing us to pull here and pull there?” They started hitting him with sticks, throwing mud at him and raining insults on him. After a while Kwami took pity on his brother, and asked them

to stop. They pulled him loose, and told him to leave the village, and never to show his face again. After Ananse was banned all his family members were so ashamed that they too decided to leave the village, and that’s to this day, whenever you see a spider it is always trying to hide somewhere, in a crack in the floor or a dark corner, because it is still ashamed of what its ancestor Ananse got up to.

How the tortoise got its scars

How the tortoise got its scarsTraditional

The grass shrivelled up and turned a pale grey. Rivers and pools dried up. All day long animals scurried around looking for food and finding nothing. Mr Tortoise was getting desperate. Every day he woke up to the sound of his wife and children crying. One day, while he was wandering the countryside looking for food he knew he wouldn’t find, he noticed a flock of birds flying overhead and disappearing on the other side of the mountain range. The next day, he saw more birds flying in that direction and disappearing over the mountain range. And again the next day. It occurred to him they might be onto something, and he tried to attract their attention. He shouted, he screamed, he danced, he jumped up and down, he shouted while jumping up and down, he ran in circles and waved a stick. None of the birds paid any attention to him; none even slowed down.

Many animals would have given up, but not Mr Tortoise. He decided he would compose a song to the vulture; he thought the vulture might just be vain enough to stop and listen. That night he finished composing the song and the next morning positioned himself in a nice open spot by the side of a field. When he saw the first birds in the sky he started to sing his song:

The vulture is so good

The vulture is so wise

Everyone admires him

As he flies through the skie-ie-ie-ie-ies

The vulture heard snatches of the song, and he was intrigued, so he came down to land and strode over majestically to where Mr Tortoise was sitting. When Mr Tortoise saw vulture approaching, he sang again:

 

The vulture is so good

The vulture is so wise

Everyone admires him

As he flies through the skie-ie-ie-ie-ies

Aaaah, the vulture exclaimed, what a beautiful voice! What enticing music! Mr Tortoise thanked him profusely for his praise, then asked very politely if he could ask a favour of Mr Vulture. Certainly, the vulture beamed, go ahead my lyrical friend!

Tortoise explained that because of the drought, there was no food left where they were living, if Mr Vulture could only give him a lift to the other side of the mountain, so that he could look after his family. Vulture readily agreed to help his new friend. He raised himself and flapped his wings. Just hang on to my waist, Mr Tortoise, and we’ll be there in no time at all.

Mr Tortoise grabbed hold of Vulture’s scraggy feathers, Vulture flapped his giant wings, took a few great strides, and up they went. And vulture had been quite right, it seemed to take hardly any time at all and they were floating over the mountains, and Tortoise could see a glimmer of green appearing below. A few more flaps of those giant wings, and they were landing in the middle of a truly amazing landscape. The place was covered in trees and bushes carrying every fruit imaginable, mangos, bananas, pears, oranges, apples, pineapple, papaya, plums, you name it, it grew here in abundance.

Tortoise walked around in a daze, he picked an apple here, tasted some mango there, found some blackberries on a small bush. The most remarkable thing was that apart from the birds who must have discovered this pleasure paradise flying over it, there seemed to be no other animals here at all! This set our Mr Tortoise thinking.

Now you may have realised already that Mr Tortoise was not just any old tortoise, but that he had a very good brain, and a great imagination. So, slowly but surely, he hatched a plan. The next morning he found a spot on the hillside which gave a good view of the orchard, he stood upright and started speaking in as loud a voice as he could muster:

Yo! Yo! All you birds, listen to me for a few moments! Yo! Yo! I have bad news for you all! I’m afraid you’re all trespassing here on this land. This land belonged to my great great grandfather. When he died he gave it to my grandfather. And my grandfather left it to my daddy, and my daddy, well now, my daddy he gave it to me before he died.

There was consternation among the birds, they weren’t sure how to take this news.

Then Mr Tortoise carried on: I’m going to count to three, and at the count of three, I want all of you to have left this place.

ONE!

Hey, Mr Tortoise, you’re joking aren’t you?

Is he joking?

No, man, he’s not joking!

TWO!

Some of the birds started flying. We thought you were joking! We never intended to trespass, after all, we’re all just law abiding citizens, you know. More and more birds flew off.

THREE!

Now they were all leaving. Mr Tortoise looked for his friend, Vulture. When he saw him, he ran up to him and called out: Heyo, Vulture, hold on, you’re my friend aren’t you, you can stay here with me.

After feasting on the fruit for several hours, Mr Tortoise had another idea. He really wanted to find out exactly what he had here. So he approached Vulture and said: Vulture, you’re going to carry me high into the sky! Then I will know how big my own land is, and I will see how useful it will be.

Vulture replied: Yessirr! Hang on to my waist. So Mr Tortoise clung on to Vulture’s waist, Vulture flapped his wings, gently at first, and up and up and up he went.

It was very breezy so high up in the sky, and Mr Tortoise was enjoying himself. Whoa, whoa, he shouted, this is wonderful, I’m enjoying this breeze, it’s just beautiful!. Then, in his excitement he started scratching Vulture’s armpits; that was not such a wise thing to do.

Please, screeched Vulture, I am ticklish, do-do-do-don’t do that PLEEEEASE, Stop it, please, I’m sooooo ticklish!.

Unfortunately Tortoise wouldn’t stop. In desperation Vulture shook his wings so violently that Mr Tortoise lost his grip. He went down and down and down and down and down, and there was nothing at all to stop him. It was Mr Tortoise’s rather bad fortune to land in a place that was covered in hard jagged rocks, there was an enormous crashing sound when he made contact with he rocks. Cracks appeared all over the body of Mr Tortoise.

He tried to shout for help, but his voice only made a very small sound. Luckily for Mr Tortoise Vulture saw him lying there, his body all cracked up, and felt sorry for him. So Vulture decided to get the ambulance, and they managed to get him to a hospital. Because he was in such a bad way and looked as if he could die any minute there and then, Mr Tortoise was taken straight into the operating theatre and three doctors started work on him. They worked for hours on end, stitching, stitching, stitching all the cracks in his shell.

Eventually all the sores healed and he was discharged, but of course he was left with the scars, and that is why every time you see a tortoise you can still see the scars on the back of his shell.

The reason why the crab has a shell

The reason why the crab has a shelltraditional

Once upon a time there lived a woman whose name was Aftermath. She had one daughter, whose name was Akuvi. Her husband had died when the girl was still very young. As Akuvi grew up she began to rebel against her mother’s authority. If Aftermath asked her to fetch water she would refuse, if Aftermath asked her to pound some yam, the girl would snarl and sulk. Mother used to curse her daughter, but all to no avail. “You think I’m hard on you, she would say, just wait if you keep behaving like this you’ll meet your fate one day!” This went on for quite some time, until one day the mother again asked Akuvi to fetch some water from the well. Akuvi refused bluntly. “Why do I always have to fetch your water, mother? Why can’t you get it for yourself. You have arms and legs just like I do!” Aftermath got so angry at her daughter’s insolence that she took a cane and beat her. This in turn made Akuvi very angry. “that’s it! She said, That’s it! I’ve had enough, I’m going!” With that she took some of her clothes, packed them in a bundle and left home. She really had no idea where she was going, she had nobody to turn to, she didn’t know anybody outside the small village they lived in.

As there was nowhere else to go she headed towards the forest. After she’d been walking for some time, she came across a small farm. On the edge stood an old hut, and outside the hut sat an old lady. Akuvi had never seen such an old lady, she must be at least a hundred years old! Akuvi walked up to the old lady, who looked her in the eye, and asked “Who are you and where are you from?” Akuvi just about opened her mouth to answer, when the old lady shouted “Stop! Don’t speak! I know all about you!” She wagged her crooked fingers at the girl. “Your mother tried her best to bring you up well, but you wouldn’t have it, would you? You thought you knew better. You wouldn’t listen to your mother, well, now you’re here, you’ll see something else! Welcome, my dear! ”

The old lady took her in, gave her some food and a corner of her hut where she could lie down to sleep. The next morning the old lady took Akuvi to her field, where she grew some vegetables; yam, cassava, beans. The old lady spread her arms and said to Akuvi: “what you see here is my farm, I grow everything here, and you will have to help me. Everytime I send you to pick something, these plants

will talk to you. Some will say: Don’t touch me please, I’m too young, or: I’ve only just been planted, I’m not ripe yet! I want you to ignore them don’t take any notice; just pick the one that protests loudest.”

That same afternoon the old lady sent the girl to the farm to pick some cassava and yam so that they could pound some fufu for their supper. As she entered the field the plants started talking to her. One of them said: Look girl, I’m too old to be here, and fed up being stuck here in this field, come and pick me!” Another said: “Please don’t pick me, I’ve just been planted! Go to the next one!” With all these voices coming at her from all directions Akuvi got scared; nothing like this had ever happened to her in her entire life. She wanted to run away but she was frightened of what the old lady would do to her. So she gathered up all her courage and started picking the plants that were saying they were not ripe enough or mature enough to be picked, just as the old lady had told her to do. She took the vegetables home and the old lady instructed her to peel them and boil them. She finished this task, and then looked for mortar and pestle to pound the fufu, but she couldn’t find these anywhere. So she went to the old lady and asked her what she should use. The old lady told her: “I haven’t got a mortar or pestle and I still eat fufu. I still manage to pound it!” All Akuvi could say was: “Well, how do you do it? Can you show me?” The old lady raised an arm, and said to Akuvi, “Go to the back of the house. There you’ll find a log, bring it here. When Akuvi came back with the log a few minutes later, the old lady was lying on the ground, and instructed Akuvi to put the wood under her head.

Resting her head on the log, she told Akuvi to use her nostrils as the mortar; pointing to them she said: “This is where you’ll pound the fufu!”

Akuvi was shocked, never had she heard of anything like this before. But the old lady reassured her: “Don’t worry dear, I always do it like this and it comes out perfect every time. Now it became clear to Akuvi that the old lady had magical powers. Her nostrils expanded into a big bowl, and Akuvi was able to pound the fufu. When she finished the old lady told Akuvi to go her room where she kept a pot full of soup, and to bring it out to her. Akuvi hung the pot over the fire to heat the soup, and brought out a little table for the old lady to eat at. The old lady sat down and started to eat. Akuvi washed her hands and sat down with the old lady as she was by now very hungry.

But the old lady stopped her taking any food. “Don’t even think about it. Before I let you have any of this food, you have to tell me what my name is.” Akuvi didn’t know the old lady’s name, she had absolutely no idea. How could she? Nobody in the village had ever even mentioned her. She started guessing some names, Mawutor, Mawuko, but all the names she could think of were the wrong ones, and she was not allowed to touch any of the food. After the old lady finished her meal she gave the pot to Akuvi to fetch some water from the river. Obediently Akuvi took the pot and made her way to the river. As she approached the water, she saw a crab. The crab called out to her: “Hey there, little girl! I know what’s happening to you, that old witch has got you guessing her name, hasn’t she? I can help you because I know her very well!”

Akuvi was very excited: “Mr Crab, if you know her name please tell me and help me out of my misery!” The crab answered: “Her name is Zeglo. Call her Mama Zeglo!” Akuvi jumped in the air, she was so happy, at last she would get something to eat. She thanked

the crab profusely, and set off home again. But she was so happy, she was dancing and jumping all the way home, carrying the pot filled with water on her head. She stumbled over some stones that were strewn on the path, the pot fell off her head and broke into a hundred pieces. She started to cry, she knew the old lady would be furious with her. Slowly she finished the walk home, and as she came up to the house the old lady was sitting outside, waiting for her. When the old lady saw her, she asked immediately: “What happened to my pot? Where is my water?”

Akuvi answered “Mama Zeglo, I fell down on the path and your pot broke.”

The old lady was astonished that Akuvi had guessed her name correctly, so she asked her: “How did you find out my name? Who told you?”

Akuvi replied that she met a crab by the river who told her. The old lady jumped up, she was indeed furious. “I’m going down to the riverside, I’ll find that stupid old crab and teach him a lesson!” She got up, took her stick and a calabash and walked briskly towards the river. She fully intended to punish the crab for his indiscretion. And she did indeed find the crab still rooting around in the sand on the riverbank, and addressed him in an angry tone: “Why on earth did you disclose my name to that young girl? What business is it of yours?” The crab hardly deigned to look at the old lady. “Why don’t you bugger off, he said. Who do you think you are; can’t I mention your name to anybody?” The old lady got even more annoyed, and she raised her stick and hit the crab on the back. Wallop! And again: Woosh!

The crab jumped sideways and shouted at the old lady: “Hey what! What are you playing at? Hitting me? You don’t know me! Just you wait!” The crab dived under the water, and started scooping up white sand, splashing it all over the old lady’s head so that all her hair turned white. She got ever more angry, so angry that she just threw the calabash at the crab, which landed on his back and got stuck there. She tried to pull it off, but try as she might, it was stuck hard. The crab groaned, and the old lady cursed, but they could not remove it. That’s why when you see a crab now, it’s got a hard shell on his back, and when you see an old lady, her hair is white all over!

Why Spider has a bald head

Why Spider has a bald headTraditional

Mr Spider, who is popularly known as Ananse, is renowned to be a man of tricks. Have you ever asked yourself why he is bald? This is the story of how this came about.

One afternoon, after Mr spider had enjoyed his lunch, he sat down in his yard to relax. His lunch had been particularly nice, so soon enough he snoozed off into a slumber, and sat there snoring: nrrrroorrroogh! nrrrroorrrroogh! nrrroorrrooogh!

Suddenly there was the sound of someone knocking on the door, and this woke him up. Mr Spider opened the door, and there he saw Nana Petra. Spider said: “Eeh, Nana Petra, you are welcome! It’s a long time since you called to see me.” He took his visitor inside the house, and offered him everything he needed as a visitor. Mr Spider asked Nana Petra: “My brother, may I know your intention of coming here at this crucial hour?”

Nana Petra paused for some time, then spoke solemnly: “HmHmHm, it is sad news I bring you, brother spider.” Hearing this Mr Spider was confused and asked: “What is this sad news that you bring Nana Petra?”

Nana Petra continued: “Your majesty, Mr Spider, I am very sorry to announce to you the death of my father, Eja Mimou.” Now as Nana Petra was Ananse’s brother-in-law, this made Eja Mimou his father-in-law. When Ananse heard the news, he could hardly believe it. So he asked his brother again: “Nana Petra, are you joking or are you serious?” Nana Petra assured him that he was not joking, and eventually Ananse understood that his dear father-in-law was no more.

Before Nana Petra left again, he told Ananse that the funeral and the rites would be held three days later in the residence of his late father-in-law. After Nana Petra left, Ananse went to see his close friend, Mr Dog, and told him he would very much like him to

accompany him to the funeral and last rites of his departed father-in-law. Mr Dog agreed. When it was time to go to the funeral Mr Spider told his friend Mr Dog he should carry along his guitar, so they could play some mournful tunes at the funeral ground. They slowly made their way to the house where the funeral was taking place. Mr Spider had dressed himself in some very expensive cloth and put on a large dark hat to show his respect for the deceased.

When the friends arrived everybody was very excited, in spite of the fact that there had been a bereavement, because Mr Spider was such a well known and great personality. They were very happy to see him there, and he was offered one of the best seats in the house. Shortly after, Mr Spider asked the people to excuse him and went into the kitchen, where he found a large pot of beans on the fire. Mr Spider removed his hat, and dished a large quantity of the beans into the hat, which he then put back on his head, even though the hot beans made him squint. When he came back to his seat, he and his friend Mr Dog were offered food. Mr Dog ate all the food given him, but Mr Spider refused to eat. He explained: “I can never eat, since I am so bereaved because my great father-in-law is no longer alive.” Mr Spider insisted that he would not touch any of the food. The people tried and tried and tried several times over to convince him, but all their efforts came to nothing and he steadfastly refused.

After some few hours Mr Spider said to the people that he would have to leave, as there was another ceremony going on in the house of his own father where he also had to attend. The people once again tried to persuade him to eat something before departing, but again he steadfastly refused.

While Mr Spider had been talking to the people, he had been nodding his head. He didn’t want to nod his head, but he couldn’t help it, the movement was forced on him by the heat of the beans inside his hat. Some of the people noticed that he was nodding his head rather a lot, and one of them asked: “Dear Mr Spider, Sir, why are you nodding your head so much?” He answered in a loud voice: “When it’s hot like this, don’t you all shake your head?”

After that Mr Spider and his friend Mr Dog departed from the funeral ground. On their way home Ananse could not sustain the suffering the hot beans were causing to his poor head. The heat was just getting too too much! He finally had no choice: with a great scream he removed his large black hat and the beans spilled out all over the street. Some people who had been walking along stopped to gaze at him, and others came out of their houses, attracted by the commotion. One said: “This man, he is a foolish man!”

Another said: “He is not normal! What normal person would carry beans inside his hat and cover his head with it?”

Then Mr Dog said to his friend: “My dear Spider, whatever happened to your beautiful hair?” Mr Spider touched his head, and noticed that all his hair had disappeared. The beans had been so hot that they burned off all his hair, and from that moment onwards Mr Spider and all his offspring went around with a bald head.

The twins

The twinsTraditional

Once upon a time there lived a woman who couldn’t have children. Because of that all her husbands kept leaving her. One day she was feeling so sad, miserable and lonely that she decided to go and see a witch doctor, for him to help her have a baby. The witch doctor said: “How can I help you? To have a baby you need a husband, and you haven’t got a husband!” She begged him to do everything in his power. In the end he relented; “OK, he said, I’ll see what I can do, but it won’t be easy. But as I’ve got a reputation to keep up, I’ll perform a miracle on you.” He gave the woman three limes and told her to take them home with her. “At the end of each day, he said, for the next three days, before you go to bed, make sure you have a bath. Wash your hands thoroughly. Take one of the limes and cut it in two, squeeze the juice, rub it on your tummy, your thighs and your hands.”

The woman followed these instructions exactly. After a few weeks, she noticed that her stomach and her thighs were getting big. She got worried, and went back to see the witchdoctor again to ask his advice. He told her not to worry, these were the signs that the magic was working. “You just have to go through with this, you will be fine,” he said. He added that once the children got big, and started to wonder about their father, she should tell them that the father is a one-eyed antelope.

As time went by, she got bigger and bigger. After nine months her left thigh just opened up and a baby boy jumped out. Then her stomach opened up and a baby girl jumped out. She was very happy that at last she was a mother, and for some time they lived happily like any normal family. She called the boy Atta, and the girl she called Attakuma. As the children grew older, they became very headstrong. They always did exactly what they liked and took little or no notice of their mother’s wishes or commands.

One day when her twins were about ten years old, the woman told them: Your dad is not a human. He is an antelope with one eye. If you go hunting and you come across a one-eyed antelope, don’t kill it, it could be your father. The children promised her they would never kill any one eyed antelope they might come across.

One day the twins went hunting. They walked really far searching the jungle for meat. They spent all day searching, then decided to go back home empty handed. One the way back they encountered a one-eyed antelope. Atta said to his sister: “Look at the size of that antelope! Let’s shoot it and take it home.” “No no, no, said Attakuma, remember what our mother told us, if we shoot it, we might be killing our father!” Atta turned to his sister and snorted: “What!? You believe that stuff? How can our father be an animal. No way, that’s impossible!” With that he raised his bow and shot the antelope right in its heart. The beast died immediately. But the animal was so big and heavy that it was impossible for them to carry. They had to make some rope, tied it round the animal and dragged it all the way back home. Their mother hadn’t returned from the market yet, so they set about cooking a delicious meal. When mother got home she was very pleased to find that her children had prepared a meal for her, and set down immediately to eat. But after a few bites, she thought this meat tasted just like antelope meat. She called out to her children: “Is this antelope meat I’m eating? Did you kill an antelope today?” “Yes” replied Atta. The mother screamed and threw her food away. “Oh, lord Oh lord; the witchdoctor warned me about this. What am I going to do, I’m sick and tired; these children of mine, they never listen, they always disobey me.”

The next day she went out and bought two chairs. These chairs she took to Mister Death, and explained to him that she’ll be sending her twins along later to collect the chairs. “When they get here, she said, I want you to capture them, and take them to the other side for me.” Death agreed to this quite happily. The woman went home and told her children she had just bought two chairs for them, but they were too heavy for her to carry, so she left them with the merchant. So the twins set out to fetch the chairs from the merchant. When they got to Death’s house he told them to sit and wait while he got the chairs from the back. But he came back with a rope, and tried to tie them up. The twins however were far too quick and smart for him, and got away. Back home, they told their mother what had happened. “That nasty man tried to kill us!” Attakuma said. “No. no, said the mother, you must have done something to upset him” But she was upset that her plan hadn’t worked.

A few days later she tried again. This time she bought some bread, and left it with Death, and asked her twins to collect it for her. But Attakuma had a plan. She told her brother to go to the front of Death’s house, and ask for the bread. This Atta did. In the meantime Attakuma went round the back of the house, and found the rope. She knew Death would come and get the rope to tie up Atta, so she waited on the roof, and when Death came outside, she jumped on him and tied him up. On the way home, Atta said to his sister: “Our mother is trying to get rid of us. We must leave the village before she succeeds in her plans one of these days.” They decided they would have to run away from home, but the were sure that their mother would come after them, so they had to find a way to stop her. The next day, while their mother was working in the market, they dug a big hole in the backyard, where everybody always washed. They covered it with a few branches and some leaves, and filled a bucket with water, which they left on the other side of the trap. They prepared some food and waited for their mother to come home. After she had eaten, Attakuma said to her, “We filled a bucket with water for your bath, and left it outside for you.” Mother was pleasantly surprised at these little kindnesses, but unfortunately for her, she didn’t suspect anything. She went out into the backyard to have her bath; in the dark she didn’t see the trap her children had laid, and fell into the hole. Atta and Attakuma left straight away and walked all night. They knew that one of the neighbours would find their mother soon enough, and they wanted to get as far away as possible.

Early the next morning they came across a small hut, where they found an old blind man. He was very old, and had a long white beard, and he was cooking some food in front of his hut. The children stopped, and Atta said to him: “What a pity! An old man like you having to cook your own food! Don’t you have any children? You can’t even see anything!” The old man grunted: “I’m here on my own. Everybody else left this village a long time ago.” Attakuma said: “Don’t worry old man, we’ll help you cook your food.”

So the twins set about cooking the food, but then they ate it all by themselves, while the old man sat back and waited. After they had finished the food, the filled a bowl with water and put it in front of the old man. They told him the food was ready, and to go ahead and enjoy it. Then they set off on the path again, leaving the poor old man to discover that he’d been tricked. As they walked away they heard him shouting and cursing them, but they just laughed. They kept walking through the bush.

The next day they met an old woman on a small farm. She was crawling around on the soil, planting groundnuts. Atta said to her: “What? What a shame! You shouldn’t be working at your age! Give us the bowl and we’ll plant those groundnuts for you.” The old lady was very grateful for a little help, and she gladly gave them the bowl. She chuckled: “I’ll go and sit over there in the shade and watch you children work!” The twins started work, Atta digging holes in the ground with his bare hands, and Attakuma following behind, filling them up again with soil. Instead of putting the nuts in the soil, she put hid them in a sack that was tied around her neck. After a while they noticed that the old woman had dozed off, and they wandered off, eating the nuts for their supper. When the woman woke up, she went round to inspect the children’s work, and could find no nuts in any of the holes. She cursed the children, but blamed herself for putting her trust in these vagabonds.

The next day the twins came across another old woman, sitting outside her hut. She had a small girl on her lap, who’d been hurt, and she was cleaning the wound. The twins approached her to have a good look. Attakuma said to her: “What are you doing there? That water should be hot! That wound looks very bad, you’ll never clean it with cold water!” The looked around and saw a fire burning by the side of the house. Atta took the bucket with the water, and heated it over the fire. “We’ll show you how to do it,” he said, laughing. When the water was hot, he brought it over and put the bucket on the ground next to the old woman. “Give me the baby, Atta said to the woman, we’ll get her fixed up in no time!” He took the girl from the woman’s lap, and held her over the bucket filled with hot water. The old woman didn’t like the look of this, and she jumped up, grabbing her stick. As she did so, she kicked over the bucket, and the hot water spilled over her feet, scalding them. She started screaming and waving her stick at the twins, at which Atta dropped the little girl, and he and Attakuma ran away, laughing. The old woman was furious, and decided to follow them so that she could teach them a lesson. First she wrapped some old cloth around her scalded feet, then she tied the girl onto her back. She picked up her stick, and followed the twins. But of course they were much quicker than she could ever be, and she couldn’t see them. But she was so furious that she was determined to catch up with them. She went to see an old witchdoctor who lived nearby, and told him what had happened. The witchdoctor agreed that she should go after these nasty youngsters and punish them. He gave her a stick, and said: “Tap this stick on the ground three times, and you will be able to see their footprints, to show you where they went. Just follow the footprints and you will catch up with them.”

At one end of the stick were three small branches, one was covered in gold, one in cowries and the other in kente cloth. The old lady thanked him, and went on her way, back to her hut, so that she could discover their tracks. When she got there, she hit the stick on the ground three times, as she had been told, and the ends of the stick started to glow. Soon the twins’ footprints became visible to her, and she followed them.

The twins had been resting a little further along the way, when they heard the old lady approaching. They didn’t want the old lady to find hem so they climbed the tallest tree they could find to hide in the foliage. But the old lady had spotted them, and walked right up to the tree where they were hiding. She hit the trunk of the tree three times with the stick the witchdoctor had given her, and the whole tree began to shake violently. The twins couldn’t hold on and the both fell out. Before he fell, Atta managed to grab a leaf from his sack, and chewed it as he was falling, so that when he hit the ground he wasn’t hurt. But Attakuma didn’t move, she just lay there as if dead. Atta took the chewed up leaf from his mouth, and squeezed some of the juice in his sister’s nostril upon which she immediately regained consciousness.

They ran away as fast as they could, the old lady following at her own slow pace. Presently they came to a very big river, they could only just make out the other side. They knew that in order to escape the old woman pursuing them they would have to get across the water. Just then a large vulture landed on the riverbank. They ran up to the bird and asked for its help. “We’re being pursued by an old witch, explained Attakuma, and she wants to kill us! We have to get to the other side of the water, please help us!” The vulture agreed to help them, and told them to climb on his back. He flew up easily and was over on the other side of the river in no time. After the children climbed off his back, Atta said to the vulture: “Be careful if you see that old woman. She might ask you to take her across as well, because she appears quite determined to catch us!”

Attakuma joined in: “If she asks you, you should say yes, certainly, but then make sure you drop her in the middle of the water! I’m sure she can’t swim!” The vulture just grinned. “Don’t you youngsters worry about me, he said. I’m quite capable of looking after myself.” As he flew back across the water, the twins decided to stay a while, and see what would happen.

The vulture returned to the other side of the river, and there he saw the old woman carrying her grandchild on her back, sitting in the sand, rubbing her poor aching feet, exhausted by her efforts. He greeted her and asked her if she was the one chasing a boy and a girl across the bush. The old woman confirmed that she was indeed the one, and then explained to the vulture what they had done to her and her granddaughter, and how, with the help of the witchdoctor’s stick, she had been able to follow them. The vulture was shocked and agreed to help the old woman teach the twins a lesson. He asked to borrow the magic stick, which he took in his strong beak, and went in search of a large piece of flotsam. He soon found something suitable, and lifted it up with his claws. Then he flew high up over the water, carrying the stick in his beak, and the flotsam in his claws. When he was over the middle of the water, he dropped the flotsam, which landed in the water with a big splash. The twins were on the other side of the water, watching the vulture. They saw him drop a large shape, and they assumed that this was the old lady. They cheered loudly, and watched as the vulture made his way towards them. “Well done, vulture! That taught the old hag a lesson!” they shouted.

The vulture now hovered over them with the magic stick. First he hit Atta on the head with it, then Attakuma. Atta shouted “Hey, mister vulture, what are you doing?” Attakuma just screamed. Their legs, their feet and their toes turned into roots, and dug into the sand at the water’s edge, their bodies turned into tree trunks, and their heads, arms, hands and fingers turned into branches. As leaves started to grow on the branches, a few moans were heard, then all fell silent except for the leaves rustling in the wind, and the sound of water lapping the roots. That’s how mangrove trees came to grow by the side of the river.

The lazy townspeople

The lazy townspeopleTraditional

Once upon a time there was a town where all the people were exceedingly lazy. They didn’t like to do any kind of work at all! They didn’t clean up their yards, they didn’t keep their streets clean, and they couldn’t be bothered to weed their vegetable patches. The place was disgusting, it was a disgrace. The chief hated it, he quite liked cleanliness, and every so often he would start a clean-up campaign. But only a handful of people ever turned up to lend a hand, and even then they would stop working after one or two days, and the weeds would grow again and in the blink of an eye the place would be just as bad again as it ever was.

One day a hurricane blew through the town; after it had passed the place looked even worse than before, but the worst thing was that an enormous tree had been blown over and thrown right across the main road leading to the market place. The first trader came along, carrying his produce, and found the road blocked by the tree. He said: I haven’t got time to move this tree! I’ve got to get my produce to the market!” So he walked around the tree, and carried on his way. And a second and a third trader came along and did exactly the same thing. Nobody could be bothered to do anything about the obstruction. People were coming and going, looking at the tree and just walking around it. The chief heard about the tree blocking the road. He asked; “Why don’t some of these people get together and move it?” But days went by and nobody did anything about it and the tree remained where it was. The chief came up with a plan to teach his townspeople a lesson. Very early the next day, before the sun had come up, he took some of his servants and got them to dig a hole under the tree. He hid some gold in the hole and got his servants to cover it up again. Then he made them swear to keep this affair a secret. Back at his palace, he instructed his town crier to go round and summon all the citizens to gather at the spot of the fallen tree that afternoon.

When they were all together the chief made a speech to his people suggesting that if all of them worked together, it would not take very long to remove the obstacle. One of the farmers said: “The hurricane put that tree there, let’s ask the hurricane to move it out of the way.”

“Yes, said another, why should we exert ourselves?”

“What’s wrong with walking around it?” asked another. The chief was exasperated. He was just about to give up when a skinny young man stepped forward. He was just a poor farmer, who had no living relatives in the town: “I will have a go,” he said, and started pulling and pushing to shift the heavy tree. The other townspeople just stood there and watched, some making fun of the young man. The chief waited for a short while to see if anybody would come forward to help the young man, and when he saw that nobody else made a move, instructed his servants to lend a hand. Once the tree had been moved to the side of the road, the Chief went up to the young farmer, and took him to the spot where he’d buried the gold that morning. The chief told him to dig there, and promised him that he could keep whatever he found there. The young farmer started digging in the road, and very quickly uncovered the gold. He was overjoyed.

The chief said to him: “All this gold is yours to keep. You have deserved it, and you can do with it as you please.” And to the lazy townspeople he said: “Let this be a lesson to you all! Laziness doesn’t get you anything. Rewards come to the person who is prepared to work hard.”

 

Kate Awo Fumey told this story to Frans Timmermans