Anansi and the Corncob

The tales around Anansi are most often associated with the Ashanti

people, but this particular story amongst the Krachi people, who lived

near the Ashanti people but were fiercely independent and had a

powerful Shrine which allowed them to keep their independence.

At the beginning of time, the Sky God, Wulbari lived down amongst

mortals and he would lay down nest to Mother Earth. For a while, this

was fine, but as time passed it became a problem for Wulbari to be so

close to people and he was forced to move away. He did not make the

decision lightly, but he was becoming affected by the actions of people.

When the village women were making found, they would pound their

pestles into him, his eyes would sting from all the fires that were used for

cooking, when the men of the world had been working and their hands

were dirty, they would wipe them clean on Wulbari without any concern

that he was the Sky God. All of that was bad enough, but the final straw

for Wulbari was when the old women of the villages would cut off parts of

him to thicken their soup!

Wulbari was fed up with being used and abused and so he left the world

of men and went to live with the animals instead where he believed he

would be treated in a manner more befitting his status as the Sky God.

One day, Anansi the spider came to see him and asked Wulbari to give

him a corn cob. Wulbari was confused and asked why the spider would

want a corncob? Anansi replied that if Wulbari gave him a corncob, in

exchange he would bring him 100 slaves. Wulbari did not believe that it

was possible to exchange a corncob for 100 slaves, but he gave the

spider a corn cob to humour him.

Anansi took the corncob and headed towards the town of Tariasu. Once

he arrived, he approached the village chief and asked if he would

provide Anansi with a bed for the night. The chief agreed and once

Anansi was settled, he went back to the chief. Anansi told the chief that

he had a problem. He explained that he had been entrusted by Wulbari

with a corncob and he needed to take it to Yende. Anansi explained that

it was very important he did not lose the corncob and if possible, would

the chief be able to provide a safe place to leave it. The chief,

understanding how valuable the corncob was, agreed to keep it safe in

his own house.

However, Anansi was a trickster and should not be trusted. During the

night, he crept into the chief’s house and took the corncob, which he

threw into the chicken coop. Chickens really like corncobs and so by the

time everyone was awake, the corncob had been eaten.

Anansi loudly complained to everyone who would listen that he had

given the corncob to the chief to protect, and it had been eaten by his

chickens. Anansi wailed loudly that it was an insult to Wulbari, and he

would need to be compensated for the loss. The townsfolk were worried

that they had insulted the Sky God and so they gave Anansi a big basket

of corn in payment for the lost corncob.

Anansi took his leave of Tariasu and walked until he was too tired to

carry the basket any further. He sat down and rested under the shade of

a tree, until a man approached hum carrying a chicken. Anansi gave the

man a lot of compliments about his chicken, and they reached a deal

where Anansi would trade his basket of corn for the chicken. The man

took the basket of corn and Anansi continued on his way towards

Kpandae.

When he arrived, Anansi repeated exactly what he had done at the

previous town; he asked for lodging and a safe place for his chicken as it

belonged to the Sky God, Wulbari. The chief agreed and the chicken

was put into a coop in the town.

Once again, Anansi waited until everyone was asleep and crept into the

chicken coop, where he slaughtered the chicken for sacrifice. He then

took some of the chicken’s blood and some feathers and put them on the

door of the chief’s house. Happy with the night’s work, Anansi cleaned

himself up and went to bed.

The following morning, he asked about the whereabouts of his chicken

and when he found out that the chicken was dead, he shouted and

raised a fuss. Anansi showed the townsfolk the feathers and the blood

on the chief’s door and then a young boy came running with the body of

the chicken which he had found on the outskirts of the town. Anansi

wailed that the chief had betrayed him and killed the chicken that was

beloved to Wulbari, and the people were scared that this would bring the

anger of Wulbari down on them. They pleaded with Anansi to tell them

how they could make this right.

Anansi pretended to think deeply and then announced that the only way

to appease Wulbari would be to allow Anansi to take ten sheep from the

town to replace the chicken. Please with his work, Anansi left the town

and walked for a while before stopping to rest and let the sheep graze.

Anansi saw a group of people approaching and they were showing great

distress. The people were carrying the body of a young man and told

Anansi that they were returning him to his village to be buried. Anansi

asked how far they had to travel, and the people told him it was a great

distance. Anansi thought about this and said to the people that they

body would not last until they arrived at their destination, and if they

would allow him, he would exchange the boy’s body for the ten sheep.

Although this was a very strange request, the people agreed and left

with the sheep, leaving Anansi with the boy’s corpse.

Later that night, Anansi took the body and walked to the town on Yende

where he approached the chief. He asked the chief for somewhere to

sleep for himself and his companion. Anansi did not tell the chief that his

‘companion’ was dead, he pretended that he was just asleep from

travelling so far. Anansi told the chief and his people that he was

travelling as part of Wulbari’s court, and the people were honoured to

host such a distinguished guest. Anansi told the people that the person

he was travelling with was the son of Wulbari and he was extremely

tired. The people gave Anansi food for his companion, which Anansi

took inside but ate himself and the dead have no need for food.

Anansi returned outside and the chief’s people sang, danced, and

banged their drums in honour of their guests. No one questioned why

Wulbari’s son slept through all the noise. In the morning, Anansi asked

the chief’s children to wake up Wulbari’s son for him and if he did not

wake, they should beat him for his laziness. The children did as they

were told and when they could not awake him, they began to beat him.

Anansi then said he would wake the boy up and when he entered the

hut, he began to shout the name of Wulbari’s son and try and shake him

awake, which obviously was never going to happen! The people heard

the commotion and came running into the hut. All they saw was Anansi,

the chief’s children and a dead body of who they believed to be

Wulbari’s son. Seeing the corpse the people were terrified of the wrath of

Wulbari, and the chief said he would kill his children for what they had

done. Anansi said he would need to think and that nothing should be

done except burying the body until he thought things through. The town

threw an elaborate funeral for the boy.

Finally, Anansi made his decision. He said that he would take the blame

for the death of Wulbari’s son, but he asked the chief to send 100 young

men with him so that they could back up his story. Relieved that they

would be able to save their town, the chief picked out 100 of the

strongest, healthiest, young men that the town had. Once this was

organised, Anansi returned to Wulbari’s court. He presented the young

men to Wulbari and said that he had traded a corn cob and returned with

100 souls as he had promised. Wulbari was so impressed with Anansi’s

skills that he honoured him and gave him a position within his court.

However, Anansi was too proud, and it began to tell everyone how he

was cleverer than Wulbari himself and soon Wulbari heard this and

became angry. He called on Anansi and told him to bring him something,

but he did not tell Anansi what that thing should be. Anansi thought

about it, and when evening arrived Wulbari said that since Anansi was

saying he is clever than him he should go out and proved it.

Anansi left Wulbari’s court, and he collected all the birds that he could

find. From each bird he took one feather and then he made himself a

cloak with them. Once he had completed his strange cloak, he went

back to Wulbari’s court and climbed a tree. As he sat in the tree, people

began to talk about the strange creature that they had seen but no one

knew what it was. An animal who lived close by told Wulbari that maybe

Anansi would know what it was, but Wulbari said that he had sent

Anansi away to find something, so they could not ask him.

The animals were confused and curious about what the something was.

Not knowing that Anansi was the creature up the tree, Wulbari confided

in the animals that he meant that Anansi should bring him the sun, the

moon, and the darkness. Wulbari laughed saying that if Anansi thought

he was as clever as Wulbari then he would be able to work this out for

himself. The animals agreed that Wulbari was indeed extremely clever to

think of such a difficult task.

Now that Anansi knew what he was expected to bring for Wulbari, he left

court again and went searching. He was gone from court for a very long

time and the story of how he found the something that Wulbari requested

is not known. However, after a long time, Anansi returned with a bag and

stood before Wulbari, who asked if he had brought him something.

Anansi opened the bag and darkness flooded out. He then pulled out the

moon which gave a little light in the darkness and finally he pulled out

the sun. Anyone who had been watching closely was blinded by the sun.

Anyone who was not looking directly at him was not harmed.

And so, because Wulbari asked Anansi to bring him something,

blindness entered the world.