So tonight, we were sitting outside of the house with Brother and Sister Abu and they started telling stories. Back when they were young, the people used to sit outside in large groups when it got dark and they would exchange stories. It’s like the ancient people who passed all their stories along through word of mouth – Kind of like Odysseus and all of his adventures in the Iliad and the Odyssey, the Ghanaians have a man that they told all their stories about.
His name (translated into English) is “Wednesday Spider Man” (The Ghanaians name themselves after the day of the week they were born on. I was born on a Saturday, so my Ghanaian name is Ama. Spencer was born on a Friday, so his name is Kofi) Anyway, this man’s name in Twi, I think, is Ananse or something like that and he is a trouble maker who is always causing problems.
Anyway, he had a wife, her name is “Thursday Lover” (I don’t remember the Ghanaian names, I just remembered the translations because I thought they were awesome!) He also had 3 sons. The oldest’s name is “Big Head”, the next is “Big Stomach” and the last is “Skeleton Legs”.
Here's one of the stories we heard tonight.
So one day, Ananse was climbing a coconut tree by the river and as he was climbing he hit his head on one of the coconuts. Being mad at this coconut he threw it from the tree and into the river. As the coconut landed in the river Ananse noticed that a large pot surfaced. He quickly climbed down and jumped into the river to fetch the pot.
When he got the pot to shore and looked it over he said, “Oh Pot, you are so gorgeous!” And the pot said, “No, I am not gorgeous.”
Ananse looked at the pot and said “Well if you’re not gorgeous then what are you?”
“You say, ‘make food’ and I make it.”
Ananse was thrilled! He told the pot to make food and he had all the food he could imagine. He then decided to hide the pot so that no one else would find it. Then, when he went home at night and his wife had a hard time finding food for the day he would just tell her, “Oh no, give it to the children, I’ll be okay.” And then he would go to the pot and eat his heart out.
Now the children thought it was rather weird that their father had suddenly become so giving, when he was usually so selfish when it came to the food. So they followed him after dinner one day and saw him feasting on the food from the pot and realized what was going on. After Ananse had left the children found the pot in the hiding spot and said, “Oh Pot, you are so gorgeous!” And the pot said, “No, I am not gorgeous.”
The children then looked at the pot and said “Well if you’re not gorgeous then what are you?”
“You say, ‘make food’ and I make it.” So the children told the pot to make food and they feasted. But the children, who were much like their father, became extremely feisty with each other, and in their struggles to get more food the pot broke and the children scattered.
When Ananse came the next day and saw his broken pot he was extremely mad. So he climbed the coconut tree again and threw the pot back into the river hoping another one would come out. But this time, a cane surfaced.
Thinking this was a good sign he pulled the cane out of the water and said, “Oh, you are a beautiful cane!” and the cane said, “I am not beautiful!” and Ananse replied, “Well if you’re not beautiful then what are you?” The cane then said, “Well, I am a cane, so I cane.”
Not really knowing what that meant Ananse replied, “Well cane then!” And the cane started beating him over and over and over. It wasn’t until he was all covered in bruises that a man walked and said, “Tell the cane to stop!”
Ananse hadn’t thought of this yet and said, “Stop Cane!” and it stopped.
So although he was in much pain he decided to hide the cane in the same spot as the pot and see if he could catch the person who broke his pot.
That night when his wife brought out dinner Ananse said, “Oh don’t worry, I’ll be fine, give it all to the kids.” The kids all looked at each other and thought that their father had found another food pot!
Being quite excited, they hurried along to the hiding spot of the pot. Upon finding the cane they said, “Oh, you are a beautiful cane!” and the cane said, “I am not beautiful!” and the kids replied, “Well if you’re not beautiful then what are you?” The cane then said, “Well, I am a cane, so I cane.”
Not really knowing what that meant they replied, “Well cane then!” And Ananse watched his three kids get caned from behind a bush, and yelled,
“See the one with the big head!? Smash it hard to make it smaller!
“And the one with the fat stomach? Try to beat out all the extra juices in there!
“And the kid with the skeleton legs? Break them!”
Then when they were all good and bruised he yelled from behind the bush, “Tell it to stop!” And they yelled, “Stop Cane!” And when it stopped Ananse was proud to have taught his children a lesson.
HAHA! Not really what you’d expect from a regular bedtime story huh? But I wish everyone could hear the way Stephen laughs at the end of his stories. Someone always seems to be getting beat or smashed in the head by a ram or something and he is always cracking up about it. Yes, it may be a little morbid, but it’s so funny to see a 67 year old man tell these stories in Ghanaian English and then crack up at them!
But maybe you’ll just have to take my word for it :)
Here's some pictures of Emily and I holding the cute puppies if you don't appreciate the beating.
In this picture they were about 2 weeks old. The mother is VERY protective of the puppies. If even one of the babies starts to whimper while we are holding them she basically flips. She growls, barks and does just about everything but attack us. We try to stay away when she's around. So we've decided that ambushing the puppies when the mother is gone is definitely the best way to go!
No comments:
Post a Comment