West African Folk Tales

Compiled by an American missionary, West African Folk Tales by William H Barker is a delightful collection of folk tales from Nigeria, Ghana, Mali, Mauritania and other countries along the west coast of Africa. These stories spread in various forms to other countries like the West Indies, Suriname, the Netherland Antilles, etc and can be still heard today among the people of these countries. West African Folk Tales is a wonderful read for both young people and older readers alike. The stories are charmingly retold. Most of them are about Anansi, the trickster god of the West African people. He is worshiped as the god of all stories and often takes the form of a spider, which is considered to be very cunning. Anansi the Spider sometimes has a human face, wears clothes or assumes human form but keeps his eight legs. The first story in this book tells of how the Anansi tales originated. In the olden days, goes the tale, all stories were only about Nyankupon the chief of gods. But Anansi the Spider felt that he should be the hero of all stories. He goes to the chief and demands that he should be made the hero, whereupon the chief sets some conditions for Anansi to fulfill before he can call himself a hero. How the clever Spider achieves this forms the rest of this entertaining tale.