Not many have heard the name or been told the story of the tricky and mischievous spider called Anansi. It is about an old Akan folklore character named Anansi, which, in the Akan language is the word ‘spider’. Known more to the West Africans, the Caribbean, and more specifically, Ghanaians, it originated from the Ashanti tribe in Ghana before spreading to different sides of the world like the West Indies, Netherlands Antilles among other places. This is because of the people who were enslaved during the Atlantic slave trade. These people were the main reason why the stories got to cross the oceans with the slaves through the use of oral tradition.  

Anansi stories are of an incredible amount of variety and even the name is represented in several other ways like; “Ananse”, “Anancy”, “Kwaku Ananse”, “Kompa Nanzi” to mention a few. Also, Anansi is depicted in a variety of ways in these stories as well. In some of the stories, Anansi was known to be either a man, a spider, or a combination of both, basically, an anthropomorphous person. He is a cultural hero who does things on behalf of his father, Nyame, the sky god. His mother’s name is Asase Ya and in some myths, he is known to have a family; a wife named Okonore Yaa or Aso in most regions. To properly analyze and explain the Anansi stories we must study the characters, the setting, the plot, and the main idea of the majority of the stories. The setting as earlier stated is West African and more specifically, Ghanaian. The characters have been ever-changing but the constant person obviously is Anansi and his trickiness. The plot as well is of a very wide variety as different authors write about Anansi in the same light but in so many different situations. In most of these situations, he has the odds stacked against himself for something he wants or he is too greedy with his wants and he escapes these situations by applying his cleverness which leads us to the main idea. For us who specialize in paper flower decoration and handmade greeting cards, the main idea is about storytelling. Anansi’s rise to becoming the king of all tales involved him going through a series of tests of which he made use of his wits to outsmart those who were in every way stronger than him. At the time of slavery, these stories were stories that carried hope as it was, to them, a message of resistance to the unfairness and how they were still capable of overcoming all forms of odds against them. These stories told to them by elders is one of the things that has led to their freedom now. Because of the hope given to them from storytelling, they believed in themselves and their ability to overcome powerful threats and so they did. This comes to show how important it is to tell stories even in this age, and we make it easier for you as you get to tell your stories using our handmade greeting cards. You get not only to pass down your customs traditions and stories but you get to do it in style using our paper flower decorations that are Handmade in Atlanta among many of our other creative methods.