Anansi and Brother Death

It's Anansi. Just hanging out.

By request, this week, we are looking at a story about Anansi. Anansi is a character in West African and Caribbean folktales. He is also a spider. (I'm sorry for those of you who are freaked out by spiders. Maybe go back and reread last week's tale instead.) This version of the story seems to come from Jamaica. Anasi and Brother Death is a story about how lazy Death is. Read the story and turn it on its head with me below.

When the story opens, we have Anansi walking for a long time and in need of some water. When he meets a silent and apparently deaf old man, Anasi walks into his house and takes whatever he wants. The old man doesn't stop him, so Anasi feels like he can come back again and do the same thing. Not once does the old man, Death, move or say anything to stop him. On the third day, Anansi brings his oldest daughter and decides that she will be Death's wife as repayment. A person/spider as repayment for three large meals doesn't seem like a fair trade, but I've never liked the idea of trading people for things. Even after Anansi presents Death with a bride, Death still doesn't say or do anything. Is it that hard to say you're not interested? Apparently it was easier for Death to kill her and eat her than to tell her father that he didn't want her.

I can't understand Death's motivation, but I suppose that if he made a meal out of Anansi's daughter and another meal out of Anansi, then he would have made up two of the meals he lost. These must be very large spiders, or Death is very small. In either case, it's good to know that Death can't climb or throw things. Although, on the off chance that he's improved in these two areas, you might not want to stake your bid on immortality just by staying up somewhere high. I was intrigued that the vision of Death was so limited. He had trouble talking and he can't throw things or climb. I wonder what else this version of Death can't do. Are there more ways to cheat Death than just a chess? That will probably have to be an ongoing topic of discussion. At least in Anansi's case, running and building webs are good enough.

The moral of this story is either: don't take things from people without asking, or if you're going to steal from Death, don't try to marry one of your children to him.