ANANSI THE SPIDER: THE ORIGINAL SPIDERMAN

EVERY HERO HAS A STORY: BLOGGING FROM A TO Z APRIL 2015 CHALLENGE

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Image by Ben Hodson, Illustrator

WAIT!! Don't step on that spider or scream when its eight legs scamper unknowingly across your arm - not yet! The trickster arachnid is my unlikely hero for our letter A of the A-Z Blog Challenge.  He can certainly be a pest - a bit of a rogue to gather unearthly results in deceiving, yet clever ways, whose goal is to acheive it all for himself, but, in so doing, often triumphs for all over much stronger beings than himself. Why, if it wasn't for Anansi of the Ashanti people/Ghana, West Africa, we wouldn't have stories to storytell or stories to check out of our libraries. The Anansi tale I speak of is "Anansi Brings Stories to the World." Anansi hears that the sky God, Nyame, has a box filled with stories and yet all who attempted to gather these stories failed. It was Anansi who shunned fear, used his abilities and inventive nature to climb up to Nyame by creating a unique web, accepting the 3 challenges of capturing leopard, snake, and hornet in exchange for the stories. Nyame is impressed and feels Anansi is certainly worthy of these stories and hands them over. Unfortunately for Anansi, the bag of stories opens up on a bramble bush on the way down to earth, and the stories blow in every direction across the earth for all to share. I'm guessing Anansi was quite disappointed but perseveres to his next adventure. He is a symbol of brains over brawn and his stories  withstand the test of time reminding us that a balanced society filled with dignity, courage and honor is worth all challenges set before us, at any cost.

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Activities and Lesson Links to Anansi the Spider

String figures are fun to use while telling the story of Anansi. It didn't take me long at all to create Anansi - patience is the key. Watch the Youtube below.

Here's a Wonderful Tale of Anansi told by Storyteller Bobby Norfolk

Anansi on Pinterest - Art activities and Lessons
Anansi the Spider by Gerald McDermott- Lessons and links
Jamaica Anansi Stories - Anansi tales travelled quickly and so we can find him on many continents!