Aso and Anansi’s Stories

By Aria Spencer-Carter

Millions of years ago, the Ashanti Spider Prince—Anansi—was bored. And jealous.

Of his own father, the Sky God, Nyame. Of his stories.

So, both Anansi and his wife—the Ashanti Spider Princess, Aso—marched right up to Nyame’s skies, and they demanded the stories from him. And  .  .  .  he didn’t let him have them so easily.

“Before I let you have the stories, you must do something for me first.”

“What?” Anansi asked.

“I want some animals in exchange for the concept of stories. The Onini. The Osebo. The Mmoboro. And the Mmoatia. There’s no time frame on when you need to get these to me, but the longer you take, the longer you’ll spend away from the stories.”

“Then we’ll hurry,” Aso said.

So, Anansi and Aso went in search for the python, leopard, hornet, and the  .  .  .  mmoatia.

Aso walked up to the Onini—the python—one day.

“Foolish, Anansi! He thinks you’re shorter than a stick. I tell him you’re not and he’s just like ‘prove it!’ So here I am. Want to help me prove it?”

“Yeah, I wanna prove Anansi wrong!”

Onini lay down next to a stick that happened to be lying on the ground. But he had a hard time staying straight.

“How about I wrap my silk around you and the stick so you can stay straight?” Aso offered.

“Go ahead.”

Aso wrapped her silk around him until he was bound to the stick.

“One down, three to go!”

And for the Osebo—the leopard, she went into the forest which he lived in. When it was nighttime, she dug out a hole near his house; in the morning Osebo fell into it.

She walked by him, “Do you need help getting out of there?”

“Yes!”

She spun her silk down to him, “Here. Grab on.”

Osebo took her silk. And  .  .  .  she wrapped him up in it. “Two down, two to go!”

Next, she stood outside of Mmoboro’s hive, waiting for him to come out. When he finally did, she cried, “The rains are coming!—Quick!—Come hide in my basket!”

Mmoboro quickly flew inside her basket. And   .  .  .  she snapped the lid closed. “Three down, one to go!”

Finally, she went to her kitchen and made a nice big batch of puff-puffs. She brought the puff-puffs to Mmoatia. But since they’re invisible, she just placed it on the branches of some random tree and climbed to the limb above that one to peer down at it.

Soon enough, she heard, “Ooh, puff-puffs, yummy!” Some of the puff-puffs began to disappear like some invisible thing was eating them.

Aso jumped down from her limb and snapped the lid down on her bowl. “Four down, up to Nyame we can go!”

So back up to Nyame Aso and Anansi marched.

With that Onini.

And that Osebo.

Don’t you forget that Mmoboro.

And that small, invisible thing called a mmoatia.

Nyame gave them the stories.

They were walking way back down to the ground where they lived when Anansi decided to be clumsy.

He dropped the stories from the sky to the ground, out to the world. Everyone could have a story. Stories aren’t just for gods and spiders; they’re for everyone. Everyone who reads, everyone who listens, everyone who thinks, everyone who watches, everyone who tells, everyone who writes, everyone who sings, everyone who dances, everyone who lives. Everyone who exists.

Giving storytellers a purpose. (‘Cause everyone knows without stories, storytellers are useless. I’d be useless right now!)

The world’s great! But it’s even better because of our stories.

- Total nr. of readings: 227 Copyright © The author [2020] All Rights Reserved. This story may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the author except for personal use.