Anansi is a West African god. He often takes the shape of a spider and is considered to be the spirit of all knowledge of stories. He is also one of the most important characters of West African and Caribbean folklore. Known as Ananse, Kwaku Ananse, and Anancy, and in the southern United States he has evolved into Aunt Nancy. He is a spider, but often acts and appears as a man. The Anansi tales originated from the Ashanti people of present-day Ghana. The word Ananse is Akan and means “spider”. They later spread to other Akan groups and then to the West Indies, Suriname, and the Netherlands Antilles. On Curaçao, Aruba, and Bonaire he is known as Nanzi, and his wife as Shi Maria. Sometimes he looks like an ordinary spider, sometimes he is a spider wearing clothes or with a human face and sometimes he looks much more like a human with spider elements, such as eight legs.
Alias Anansi
Real Names/Alt Names Anansi, Ananse, Kwaku Ananse, Anancy, Mr. Spider, Spider Man, Aunt Nancy
Appearance List The Tshi-Speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast (1887) by A. B. (Alfred Burdon) Ellis; Annancy Stories (1899) by Pamela Colman Smith [Internet Archive] [UPenn]; The voice of Africa v. 1 (1913) by Leo Frobenius — valued for early observations and visual documentation despite controversial diffusionist interpretations of African civilization [Smithsonian]; Jamaica Anansi Stories (1924) [Internet Archive]; Akan-Ashanti Folk-Tales (1930) by R. S. Rattray; Anansi, the Spider Man: Jamaican Folk Tales (1954) [Internet Archive]; Ananke: The Web of Life in Africa (1958) compiled and retold by Peggy Appiah; West African Religion (1949) by Geoffrey Parrinder; African Mythology (1967) by Geoffrey Parrinder; African Religions and Philosophy (1969) by John S. Mbiti; Nyame ne Aberewa: Towards a History of Akan Notions of ‘God’ (2013) by Jan G. Platvoet [Web]
Description Anansi is a West African god. He often takes the shape of a spider and is considered to be the spirit of all knowledge of stories. He is also one of the most important characters of West African and Caribbean folklore. Known as Ananse, Kwaku Ananse, and Anancy, and in the southern United States he has evolved into Aunt Nancy. He is a spider, but often acts and appears as a man. The Anansi tales originated from the Ashanti people of present-day Ghana. The word Ananse is Akan and means “spider”. They later spread to other Akan groups and then to the West Indies, Suriname, and the Netherlands Antilles. On Curaçao, Aruba, and Bonaire he is known as Nanzi, and his wife as Shi Maria. Sometimes he looks like an ordinary spider, sometimes he is a spider wearing clothes or with a human face and sometimes he looks much more like a human with spider elements, such as eight legs.
