Tit for Tat

For many months a great famine had gripped the land. Meat was so scarce that only the wealthy chiefs could afford it, and ordinary people were starving. Anansi and his family were in a sorry state.

Then one day Anansi’s eldest son, Kweku Tsin, was overjoyed to find a spot deep in the forest where plenty of animals still lived. Knowing his father’s crooked ways, he kept the place to himself. But Anansi soon noticed that Kweku came back to the village loaded with meat day after day and sold it at a good price to the hungry villagers. Anansi demanded to know the secret, and his son sensibly refused to tell. So the old man decided to find it out by a trick.

One night, while Kweku was sound asleep, Anansi crept into his room and cut a tiny hole in a corner of the bag his son always took to the forest. He filled the bag with ashes and put it back exactly where he had found it.

Next morning Kweku slung the bag over his shoulder as usual and set off. With every step he took, a little ash trickled out onto the ground behind him without his knowing. An hour later Anansi followed, and the trail of ashes led him straight to the animals’ home in the forest. Kweku was already there. Anansi drove him away at once, claiming that by the law of the land the place now belonged to him. Kweku saw how he had been tricked and made up his mind to get the meat back.

He went home and made a tiny figure, hung little bells around its neck, and tied a long thread to its head. Then he walked back toward the hunting ground. About halfway there he hung the figure from a branch over the path and hid in the bushes nearby, holding the other end of the thread.

Meanwhile his greedy father had killed every animal he could find, meaning to get rich as fast as possible. He skinned them and dressed the meat to sell in the villages round about. With his first load he headed for home. Halfway along the path he came upon the little figure hanging in his way. Believing it must be one of the gods, he stopped. As he came nearer, the figure shook its head hard at him, and Anansi took this as a sign that the gods were displeased. Hoping to calm them, he asked, “May I give you a little of this meat?” The head shook again. “May I give you half of it?” The head shook once more. “Do you want all of it?” he shouted angrily. This time the figure nodded, looking well satisfied. “I will not give you all my meat!” Anansi cried. At that, the figure shook from head to foot as if it were in a terrible rage. Anansi was so frightened that he dropped the whole load and fled. As he ran he shouted over his shoulder, “Tomorrow I’ll go to Ekubon—you won’t be able to take my meat from me there, you thief!”

But Kweku had heard where his father meant to go, and the next day the figure was hanging in his path again. Again Anansi had to abandon his whole load, and again he shouted out the name of the place he would try next.

It went on like this, day after day, until every animal in the wood had been killed. By then Kweku Tsin was very rich, while his father was as poor as ever and had to go to his son’s house every day to be fed.

When the famine ended, Kweku gave a great feast for the whole village. With everyone gathered, he told how his father had cheated him and how he had turned the trick around. The villagers roared with laughter. Anansi was so ashamed that he promised Kweku he would give up his wicked tricks. He did not keep that promise for long.

About this telling

“Tit for Tat” is the sixth story in West African Folk-Tales, collected and arranged by W. H. Barker with drawings by Cecilia Sinclair (Harrap, 1917). Ekubon, the place Anansi names as his next market, is the only town named in the tale.

The trail of ashes from a slit bag turns up again in the same book, in “The Grinding-Stone That Ground Flour by Itself,” where Anansi uses it to follow his cousin. Sinclair’s drawing for this story captures the moment Anansi asks the little figure, “May I give you a little of this meat?”

Read the original: Barker’s West African Folk-Tales (Project Gutenberg)

Best for ages 9–12 — a neat trick-and-counter-trick plot that rewards close listening.

Reading the story closely

The ash trail gives Anansi information his son meant to withhold. In the counter-trick, Anansi himself supplies the information Kweku needs by shouting his next destination. The father moves from secretly collecting clues to carelessly giving them away.

Draw two routes through the forest: the trail Anansi follows and the paths on which Kweku places the figure. Add a speech bubble wherever a character reveals useful information. Then examine the cost beyond the contest: every animal in the wood is killed. Kweku wins the proceeds and later shares a feast, but the hunting ground is exhausted, and Anansi’s last promise does not produce lasting reform.

Talk about it

• How did Anansi find his son’s secret hunting place?
• Why was Anansi so afraid of the little figure in the path?
• Do you think Kweku Tsin was right to trick his father? Why?

Related stories

• The Grinding-Stone That Ground Flour by Itself — Anansi uses the same ash-trail trick
• Thunder and Anansi — Kweku Tsin uncovers another of his father’s secrets
• The Squirrel and the Spider — a thief who is robbed in his turn