Anansi the Blind Fisherman

When Anansi grew old he became a fisherman, and soon afterward his eyesight began to fail. In the end he went completely blind. He was still very strong, though, so he kept on fishing with the help of two men.

These two men were very kind to him and helped him in every way they could. Each morning they led him down to the beach and into the canoe. They told him where to cast his net and when to pull it in. When they came back to shore, they told him exactly where and when to step out, so that he did not even get his feet wet.

This went on day after day. But instead of being grateful, Anansi behaved very badly. When they told him where to put his net, he would snap, “I know. I was just about to put it there.” When they told him it was time to get out of the boat, he would say, “Oh, I know perfectly well we’re at the beach. I was just getting ready to step out.”

It continued for a long time, with Anansi growing ruder to his helpers every single day, until they could stand it no more. They decided that when the chance came, they would punish him for his ingratitude.

The next day he came down to the beach with them as usual. When the canoe was ready, they told him to get in. “Do you think I’m a fool?” he said. “I know the canoe is there.” They said nothing, climbed in, and patiently paddled out to the fishing place. When they told him where to spread his net, he answered with such a stream of insults that they made up their minds then and there.

By now the canoe was full of fish, so they turned toward home. When they had gone only a short way, they stopped paddling and said, “Here we are at the beach.”

Anansi told them at once how foolish they were to tell him something he knew so well, and he added a great many rude and insulting remarks that made them truly angry. Then he jumped proudly over the side, expecting to land on the sand. To his great surprise, he found himself sinking into deep water. The two men paddled quickly away and left him to struggle.

Anansi was a strong swimmer. But being blind, he could not see which way the land lay. So he swam and swam until he was completely exhausted, and he drowned.

Where this tale comes from

“Anansi the Blind Fisherman” is story XI in W. H. Barker and Cecilia Sinclair’s West African Folk-Tales (Harrap, 1917). Unlike many of the book’s Anansi stories, Anansi cannot escape the final deception. His helpers falsely announce that they have reached land, then leave him in deep water. The ending makes this a troubling story about both verbal cruelty and lethal retaliation.

Barker says the collection was built from versions told by teachers in training at Accra, whose recollections he compared in preparing the collection. This is the collector’s account of his method, not proof that the printed versions preserve an unchanged tradition.

Read the original: Barker and Sinclair, West African Folk-Tales (Project Gutenberg)

Best for older readers with an adult — a blind man is deliberately deceived, abandoned in deep water and drowned; discuss the helpers’ responsibility as well as Anansi’s insults.

Reading the story closely

The same directions that first make fishing accessible become a weapon. “Here we are at the beach” has earned Anansi’s trust through repetition, so the final false instruction works even while he insists he already knows. His blindness is not a moral failing, and his rudeness does not justify killing him.

Compare the first safe landing with the last false one. Identify what the helpers know, what Anansi can know, and the moment assistance turns into deliberate harm. Rewrite that moment with the helpers ending the arrangement after bringing him safely ashore. This preserves their right to refuse abuse without accepting the tale’s deadly punishment.

Think about it

• How did the two men help Anansi every day?
• What did Anansi say whenever they helped him?
• How could the helpers have set a boundary about insults without placing Anansi in danger?

More stories like this

• Anansi and Nothing — Anansi’s bad behaviour has deadly results
• The Ungrateful Man — a tale about repaying kindness with harm
• How Wisdom Became the Property of the Human Race — Anansi learns from his son’s advice