The folk tale relates one of the adventures of Anansi, the Spider-man, a
mythical trickster among the Ashanti, the Wolofs, and other peoples of
Ghana and West Africa.
Anansi's fame has spread throughout the world, and generally depicts
him as a conniver and full of deviltry. In the well-known story Spider
and the Box of Stories, Nyami, the Lord of the Sky, keeps a box beside
him in which are all the world's stories. Spider asks Nyami for the box
so that he can release the stories. Nyami agrees to give him the box if he
will first bring a python, a leopard, a hornet, and a creature that none can
see. Spider does so by first misleading his victims with falsehoods and
then capturing them with trickery and pain.
Nyami, nevertheless true to his word, gives Spider the box of stories and
Spider releases them to the world. The myth, told in this fashion, depicts
how a noble gift from the Lord of the Sky enters the world through
dishonesty and the abuse of creatures who are also under Nyami's care.
In Stories To The World I tried to replace deception and entrapment with
respect for life.
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