How We Got the Name ‘Spider Tales’

Long ago, every story that people told belonged to Nyankupon, the chief of the gods. The tales carried his name, not anyone else’s. Spider, whose other name is Anansi, was a vain creature, and this bothered him. He wanted the stories to carry his name.

So Anansi went to Nyankupon and made a bold request: from now on, could all the tales men told be called Anansi stories instead of Nyankupon stories? The chief of the gods agreed, but only on one condition. Anansi must first bring him three things—a jar packed with live bees, a boa-constrictor, and a tiger. Anansi gave his promise.

He began with the bees. Taking an earthen jar, he walked to a place where he knew they swarmed in great numbers. As soon as he was close enough for them to hear, he started arguing with himself out loud. “They could never fill this jar.” “Oh yes, they could.” “No, they couldn’t.” Before long the bees came buzzing over to ask what all the muttering was about. Anansi told them that he and Nyankupon had quarrelled. The god said bees were unable to fly into the jar; Anansi had insisted they could. The bees were insulted. Of course they could, they said—and in they flew to prove it. The moment the last one was inside, Anansi sealed the mouth of the jar and sent it off to Nyankupon.

On the second day he cut a long stick and set out to find a boa-constrictor. Outside the snake’s home he held another argument with nobody. “He is just as long as this stick.” “He is not that long.” “Yes, he is.” He kept repeating it until the boa slid out to see what was the matter. “There has been a quarrel about you in Nyankupon’s town,” Anansi explained. “His people say you are shorter than this stick. I say you are every bit as long. Please let me measure you.” Suspecting nothing, the boa stretched himself out straight beside the stick. Anansi wasted no time: he tied the snake to it from one end to the other and sent him, too, to Nyankupon.

The tiger was left. On the third day Anansi took a needle and thread and sewed up his own eye. Then he went to a den where he knew a tiger lived and began to shout and sing so loudly that the tiger came out to find the cause of all the noise. “Can’t you see?” cried Anansi. “My eye is sewn shut, and now I see such wonderful things that I have to sing about them.” The tiger wanted to see those wonders too. “Sew up my eyes,” he said, “so that I can see the same surprising sights.” Anansi did it at once. Now the tiger was helpless, and Anansi led him straight to Nyankupon’s house.

Nyankupon was amazed that the little spider had managed all three tasks. He kept his side of the bargain on the spot: from then on, the old tales could be called Anansi tales.

Where this tale comes from

“How We Got the Name ‘Spider Tales’” is the very first story in W. H. Barker and Cecilia Sinclair’s West African Folk-Tales (London: George G. Harrap, 1917), opening the book’s section of Anansi, or Spider, tales. Barker explains that the material came from experienced teachers studying at the new Government Training Institution for Teachers in Accra, and that gathering several versions of each story informed his editorial choices about what to include. Those choices reflect the collector’s judgment, not a guarantee of one pure or definitive telling.

Barker’s introduction also comments on Nyankupon. Quoting the writer A. B. Ellis, he renders the full title Nana-Nyankupon as “Lord of the Sky.” Sinclair’s drawing for this tale shows the bees streaming into Anansi’s jar.

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

Best for older readers with an adult — includes sewing eyes shut and capturing animals through deception; the tricks are harmful and must not be reenacted.

Reading the story closely

The first two tricks ask a creature to prove a claim about size or ability. Anansi makes cooperation look like a chance to win an argument. The last trick changes the lure: the tiger wants access to wonders Anansi claims to see. In each case, the promised benefit conceals the captor’s real purpose.

Make three cards headed claim, invitation and consequence, one set for each capture. Which part of the plan does each animal fail to know? Nyankupon rewards success, but readers can distinguish successful planning from fair treatment. Winning the name of stories is also different from making every story about Anansi himself.

Questions to ask

• What did Anansi want Nyankupon to give him?
• How did arguing with himself help Anansi catch the bees and the boa-constrictor?
• Was it fair of Anansi to trick the tiger into having its eyes sewn shut? Why or why not?

Related stories

• How Wisdom Became the Property of the Human Race — Anansi tries to keep all the world’s wisdom in one pot
• Thunder and Anansi — Anansi meets Thunder at the bottom of the sea
• Tit for Tat — Anansi’s son pays back one of his father’s tricks