Ananse With the Broken Legs

A very long, long time ago, there lived three handsome kings in a very big town situated at the North-East part of Ankoma called Braabo. They were very close friends but living in different zonal areas in Braabo. In the Eastern part of Ankoma also lived by a tick tall dart man called Ananse with his one and only beautiful daughter Serwaa in a village called Gaisu. Ananse was as strong as a trained up lion in the deepest forest whlist his daughter was beautiful as a flower growing besides a still water.

Ananse knew that his beautiful daughter will one get married to one of the handsome men on earth therefore he gave his daughter the necessary needs and care to prevent any misfortune that may occur or happened to his daughter. Due to his culture as traditionalist, he made some drugs from

herbs to cure and protect themselves from any infections. In a nutshell, he was a farmer who visited his farm to get some food and stuff to the house for survival.

One day, the three handsome kings got the know of the beautiful girl Serwaa in the village Gaisu. They realized that there is no beautiful girl in their town than Serwaa. They then decided to go and ask for her hand in marriage from Ananse and see whose approval will be granted by the father. The next day one of them traveled that way from Braabo Gaisu just to ask for her hand in marriage. Ananse who is as old as 70years was weak and cannot go to farm for food had no option than to say yes.

Three days later, there came the time for the ceremony to take place. The first king came for the bride but Ananse was wise enough to tell the king that the bride is dead; but the king said nothing but wept and went away. After, the second king also came for the bride, and Ananse told him the same story that the bride is dead. This made him weep bitterly whilst Ananse stood there pretended to be weeping as well. The second king left also without a word from his mouth.

Within a short time, the last king came for the bride. Again Ananse told him the same thing that the bride is dead. The king wept and later gave some money to Ananse for the funeral rites of the bride. Ananse then saw that the king is such a

good and caring man who can handle the daughter properly. He then told hi m the truth that the bride is still alive. This made the king very excited and her the bride home as his wife.

Finally, the second and the first kings saw that the third king with the bride and realized that Ananse lied to them. For this reason they went to Ananse to collect the bride price from him. They went with chains of cast irons and wires for which they intend to use to chain Anan se to his last breath is he refused to pay back the money collected from them.

Truly when they went there Ananse had no money to pay back. Ananse was beaten severely by the two kings and in the process broke his legs. It was through this that Ananse is now having four pairs of jointed legs and always hide in his web to avoid any foreign influence.

About the Author

Working with the Book Club International program Barnabas Yin wrote and illustrated this story in 2010. Barnabus is a student at the Methodist School in Elmina, Ghana.