Anansi and the moss-covered rock

At a Glance

• Central figures: Kwaku Anansi, the spider trickster; his neighbors the bush deer, the lion, the elephant, the hyena, the monkey, and the guinea fowl; and Anansi’s youngest son Ntikuma.
• Setting: Akan tradition (modern Ghana / Côte d’Ivoire); Anansi cycle, preserved in oral form and widely known across the African diaspora.
• The turn: Anansi discovers a strange moss-covered rock in the forest that knocks unconscious anyone who says certain words near it, and he uses the rock to steal food from every animal in the bush.
• The outcome: The guinea fowl, smallest and most careful of the animals, figures out Anansi’s trick and uses the rock’s power against him, then returns every stolen thing to its rightful owner.
• The legacy: The story explains why Anansi the spider hides in dark corners and ceilings - he was so ashamed after the guinea fowl exposed him that he could not show his face in the open again.

Anansi was walking through the forest one afternoon, not looking for anything in particular, which is when Anansi always finds trouble. The path curved around a stand of oil palms, and there in a clearing sat a rock. It was not a large rock. It was covered in thick green moss, the kind that grows where rain sits and never dries. Anansi had walked this path a hundred times and never seen it.

He stopped. He looked at the rock.

“What a strange moss-covered rock,” he said.

The moment the words left his mouth, the world tilted. His legs folded. He dropped flat on his back and lay there stiff as a plank, unconscious, while the forest went on without him.

The Rock’s Secret

An hour passed. Anansi woke up. He was lying on his back in the clearing, staring up through the palm fronds at the sky. His head hurt. His legs were tangled. He sat up slowly and looked at the rock, which sat there the same as before, green and wet and ordinary-looking.

Anansi thought about what had happened. He said the words again in his mind - what a strange moss-covered rock - and then he said them out loud, very carefully.

“What a strange moss-covered rock.”

Down he went. Flat on his back. Out cold.

When he woke the second time, Anansi was not confused. He was delighted. He understood the rock perfectly. Anybody who said those words near the rock would fall unconscious for a full hour. Anybody. And if someone was unconscious for a full hour, well. A person could take things from them. A person could take anything.

Anansi dusted himself off and went home to think.

The Bush Deer’s Yams

The next morning Anansi went to visit the bush deer, who had just harvested a fine crop of yams. Anansi complimented the yams. Anansi talked about the weather. Then Anansi said he had found something interesting in the forest and would the bush deer like to see it.

The bush deer came along. They walked the path through the oil palms. They reached the clearing. The bush deer looked at the rock.

“What a strange moss-covered rock,” said the bush deer.

Down he went.

Anansi ran to the bush deer’s house, loaded every yam into a sack, and carried the sack home. He was back sitting under his own tree by the time the bush deer woke up.

The Lion, the Elephant, and the Hyena

Anansi did the same thing to the lion, who had a store of dried meat. Led him to the clearing. The lion saw the rock, said the words, and fell. Anansi took every strip of meat.

He did it to the elephant, who had a clay pot full of palm wine. The elephant was heavy when he fell - the ground shook - but the words worked the same. Anansi rolled the pot home.

He did it to the hyena, who had a basket of groundnuts and a bag of peppers. Anansi did not even feel bad about the hyena. Nobody feels bad about taking from the hyena.

He did it to the monkey, who had a pile of fresh mangoes and a bunch of plantain. The monkey fell sideways and hit a root, but Anansi did not stop to check on him. He had plantain to carry.

Every animal Anansi visited said the same thing when they saw the rock. Every animal fell. Anansi’s house filled up with food. He ate yams for breakfast, dried meat for lunch, palm wine in the evening, groundnuts and mangoes whenever he liked. He grew fat. He grew lazy. He stopped even pretending to work.

The other animals, meanwhile, woke up in the clearing one by one, walked home, and found their stores empty. They suspected Anansi. They always suspected Anansi. But they could not prove a thing, and none of them could remember what had happened after they saw the rock.

The Guinea Fowl at the Clearing

The guinea fowl was the last one Anansi had not tricked. She was a small bird with spotted feathers and a careful way of walking, picking her steps like each one mattered. Anansi invited her to come see something interesting in the forest.

They walked together. They reached the clearing. The guinea fowl looked at the rock.

She opened her beak. Then she closed it.

She looked at Anansi, who was watching her with great attention and standing a little too far to the side.

“Isn’t it something?” Anansi said. “Don’t you want to say what you think of it?”

The guinea fowl walked around the rock. She pecked at the moss. She tilted her head and looked at it from the other side.

“It is a rock,” she said. “It has moss on it.”

Anansi waited. The guinea fowl said nothing else.

“But doesn’t it strike you as strange?” Anansi said. “A rock like that, covered in moss, sitting here? Wouldn’t you say it was a strange - ”

“I would say it is a rock,” said the guinea fowl. “With moss.”

Anansi was getting frustrated. He leaned in. He pointed at the rock.

“What a strange moss-covered rock!” he said.

Down he went.

Anansi in the Clearing

The guinea fowl stood over Anansi’s body for a moment, watching. Then she went to Anansi’s house and saw the yams and the dried meat and the palm wine and the groundnuts and the mangoes and the plantain, piled up in every corner.

She went to the bush deer’s house first. She carried his yams back. She went to the lion’s den. She returned the dried meat. She rolled the elephant’s palm wine pot home. She brought the hyena his groundnuts and peppers. She returned the monkey’s mangoes and plantain.

Each animal she told the same thing: Anansi has a rock in the forest. Do not say certain words near it. And do not trust Anansi with your food.

When Anansi woke up an hour later, he was alone in the clearing. He walked home. His house was empty. Every corner bare. He went to find the bush deer, who turned his back. He went to the lion, who growled. He went to the elephant, who sprayed dust in his face. He went to the monkey, who threw a mango pit at his head.

Anansi did not go to the guinea fowl. He knew.

He sat in his empty house and the shame came down on him like rain. He could not face the other animals. He could not walk the paths. He climbed up into the darkest corner of his ceiling and pressed himself flat against the wall.

He has been hiding in corners ever since. If you look up at the ceiling in your house and see a spider sitting very still in the darkest spot, that is Anansi. He is still ashamed.