Greedy Kwaku Ananse disgraced

Once upon a time, Kwaku Ananse, his wife and children had a large farm on which they cultivated various crops such as yam, plantain, cassava and maize. As a result of their hard work, they always had enough to eat, sell and store for a rainy day.

Ananse’s major problem, however, was that there was scarcity of meat in the kingdom, so they often had their meals without any meat. 

For someone who loved meat so much, this became a great source of worry to Ananse. He was, therefore, prepared to pay anything to ensure that his supply of meat was guaranteed. It was this desire that led Ananse to seek help from a spiritualist in one of the neighbouring communities. 

That day, Ananse travelled through dangerous paths to get to the spiritualist’s abode. Finally, when the spiritualist appeared, his scary looks really frightened Ananse but he was desperate so he didn’t give up.

When his interest was finally served, Ananse left the spiritualist’s place a happy man. This was because the spiritualist gave him a charm that could kill most of the animals for him to have some meat for his meals as he desperately wanted. All Ananse had to do was to make that preferred animal recite the words, ‘Ekyem, meat, meat, meat’ anytime they got close to the charm.

Ananse happily arrived home and decided to put the charm to a test. He asked his wife to prepare him a delicious meal and when the food was ready, he served some of the food together with the charm and put it on a table and waited patiently for the first animal to come so that he would sacrifice him.

The aroma of the food was so strong that within minutes, it attracted the first animal, the grasscutter. Ananse readily promised to offer the grasscutter some food provided he would recite the words, ‘Ekyem, meat, meat, meat’. The  grasscutter agreed but unfortunately for him, immediately after doing so, he fell and died. Quickly, Ananse took the grasscutter and ordered his wife to prepare fufu and light soup with it for him.  

He did the same thing to the hen and the goat. It didn’t take long for the animal kingdom to note the disappearance of some animals. It was the monkey who noticed that all the three animals disappeared after visiting Ananse at home. He, therefore, took it upon himself to investigate his suspicions.

It was while hiding at a place in Ananse’s house that the monkey witnessed what had happened to the fourth animal, the sheep. What even got the monkey angry was the joy with which Ananse and his family celebrated the death of a fellow animal. 

Immediately, the monkey promised to make Ananse pay for causing the death of his fellow animals just because he wanted to satisfy his crave for meat. He reported the incident to the rest of the animals and told them of his plan for revenge. They readily gave him their support.

The following day, the monkey went to Ananse’s home just when food was ready. The other animals hid in the nearby bush. When the monkey requested for some of the food just like the other animals before him did, Ananse asked the monkey to recite the famous words, ‘Ekyem, meat, meat, meat’. 

The monkey intentionally made a mistake and so asked Ananse to correct him. Ananse, however, refused  and that was when the monkey confronted him with what he had seen him do to the other animals.

He denied this vehemently but when he saw that the monkey was serious, he started looking for a way to escape. Truly, he attempted to run away and just when he did, the rest of the animals came out of their hiding place and attacked Ananse and his family. In the end, they were banished from the kingdom and asked to take nothing along.

Thus, Ananse’s greed, which was aptly supported by his family, brought him nothing but disgrace. As children, let us not do bad things to others for those things could harm us one day.

David Ansah,

Pentecost School,

Takoradi.