Anansi (Kwaku Ananse)

The clever spider of Akan stories, who through slavery also became known in Suriname and the Caribbean.

Kwaku Ananse is the most famous figure in the stories of the Akan in Ghana. Ananse means spider in Twi, and Kwaku is the name for a boy born on Wednesday. He is a trickster: small and weak, but so clever, cheeky and cunning that he outwits more powerful animals and even the gods. Sometimes he is hero, sometimes villain, and often both.

The best-known story tells how all the stories in the world once belonged to Nyame, the sky god. Ananse wanted them, and Nyame asked a high price: the python Onini, the leopard Osebo, the hornets Mmoboro and the forest spirit Mmoatia. With cunning and patience Ananse caught them all. Since then stories among the Akan are called anansesem: spider stories.

Through slavery Ananse travelled to the Americas. In Suriname he became Anansi, and the Anansi-tori are a beloved part of the culture there, told at mourning and at celebrations. He also lives on in Jamaica, Curaçao (Nanzi) and elsewhere. For many people in the diaspora Anansi stood for surviving by wit, even when you are weaker than those who rule over you.

In dream interpretation Ananse comes into view above all with dreams about spiders. In an Akan or Surinamese reading a spider is therefore not only frightening. It can stand for cleverness, resourcefulness and stories: a solution you must find by cunning, or a story that wants to be told. At the same time Ananse shows where cleverness tips into deceit, and a dream with a spider can also ask who is spinning a web in your life.

On Dreamkin Ananse therefore appears in the readings about dreams with spiders.