Anansi stories
A spider mask from West Africa
(but only fifty or a hundred years old)
These stories about Anansi were not written down until about a hundred years ago, so we can't know whether they are the same stories that people told in West Africa before 1500 AD or not. But they are traditional stories, and many people think that they are versions of stories that were told a very long time ago. One reason we think the stories were told for hundreds of years is that people told very similar stories in Central Africa and South Africa, so the people in those parts of Africa must have had time to learn the stories, or maybe the Bantu brought these stories with them when they traveled to Central Africa and South Africa.
Certainly people were telling these Anansi stories in the 1700's AD, because many of the people who were forced to leave Africa and go to North America as slaves brought these stories with them, where they became known as the Br'er Rabbit stories. Click on the link to read some stories about Anansi the Spider:
- How Anansi gave people stories to tell
- Anansi and the Turtle
- Anansi and the Wisdom of the World
- How Anansi taught people to farm
You might want to compare these Anansi stories to the Br'er Rabbit stories.
