The Trickster Tricked!
There are many stories told all over the world about tricksters; people or animals
who try to trick others into doing something. The trickster is often lazy and
mischievous, he usually wants something for nothing, or perhaps he just wants to
be naughty; but one thing you can depend upon, is that the trickster always gets
found out in the end!
Some of the best known trickster stories are the Anansi stories from West Africa.
Anansi is a spider. He’s great fun and very lovable; he’s very clever, extremely
naughty, and is always playing tricks on people, so as you can imagine, he’s
always in trouble. But somehow, no one can ever stay cross with Anansi for long.
Anansi likes eating, but he doesn’t like work, as this story shows.
Once upon a time there lived a very hard-working fisherman. He was always up
with the sun, setting his nets in the river, or off with the tide to the deep waters of
the sea. In the evening, after he’d taken the fish to market and eaten his tea, the
fisherman would sit outside his house mending nets, or would go down to the
harbour to clean or repair his boat. He was always busy.
Anansi watched him. He saw how hard the fisherman worked, but ha also noticed
the fine fat fish that the fisherman brought home to his wife and family every day.
Fish that his wife would bake or fry, poach or steam or make into delicious soups
or stews or pies.
Anansi’s mouth watered at the thought of all that fish. He liked fish. He especially
liked thick white fish, dipped in batter, and fried until it was soft and juicy inside
its crispy crunchy coating.
Suddenly Anansi had an idea! “I know what I’ll do,” he said to himself. “I’ll offer to
work for the fisherman, then he’ll give me some fish for helping him.” But Anansi
had no intention of doing any work. He was going to trick the fisherman into giving
him all the fish he wanted.
Anansi strolled down into the harbour. The tide was out and the fisherman was
scraping barnacles from the underside of his boat. “Would you like some help?”
called Anansi. “Would you like me to work for you? We could be a good team, you
and me!”
The fisherman looked up from his work. He knew Anansi of old! He knew his ways
and his tricks, but the fisherman had a few tricks up his sleeve too! “Why not?” he
called to Anansi. “I shall be pleased to have you aboard. I could do with a bit of
help. You can start tomorrow.”
The people standing watching said, “What a fool you are, fisherman. Anansi will
trick you! He’ll make you do all the work and he’ll get all the fish. You’ll see!”
“Yes! We’ll see!” answered the fisherman.
Early the next morning Anansi presented himself for work. “Now, we need to sort
out who’s going to do what,” said the fisherman. “And as I see it, somebody has to
do the work and somebody has to get tired. So, we’ll take it in turns, shall we?
This morning I will do all the work and you can get tired, then this afternoon we’ll
change over and you can do all the work and I’ll get tired.”
Anansi looked puzzled. Things were not going quite as he planned. “Shall we do
that?” asked the fisherman. “I’ll do the work first and you can get tired?” “No, no,”
cried Anansi, who, above all else, hated to get tired. “No, that’s not a good idea at
all. I’ll do the work and you can get tired.” “Well, if that’s what you want,” said the
fisherman.
So Anansi pulled up the anchor and steered the boat up the river. He put the traps
over the side of the boat and lowered them one by one. All through the afternoon
he lowered those traps and pulled them up again to take out the fish they had
caught. And the fisherman sprawled on the bench in the boat and snoozed and
nodded and snored.
By the end of the afternoon Anansi was exhausted, but the fisherman said he was
so tired he hardly had the energy to go home and eat his tea. “I’ll pay you this
evening when we take the catch to market”, the fisherman said, and he staggered
home for his tea, moaning and groaning and grumbling and grousing about how
terribly tired he was.
Later that evening Anansi met the fisherman down by the harbour. The fisherman
insisted that it was his turn to do the work of carrying the heavy baskets of fish to
market, and Anansi’s turn to get tired. After all, that was what they’d agreed.
Taking turns was only fair. “No, no,” cried Anansi in anguish, because above all
else, he hated to get tired. “No, no, you can’t trick me. You’re going to make me
get tired. I’ll do the work and you can get tired.” “Well – only if you’re sure,” said
the fisherman. “I’, perfectly sure,” said Anansi, who was not at all sure how things
had got to this state.
So Anansi carried all the heavy baskets of fish from the boat in the harbour, up
the steep hill to the market, whilst the fisherman plodded along behind, huffing
and puffing and blowing and gasping as though he were very tired. When they
arrived at the market place, Anansi set the fish down under the trees, and the
fisherman sat down on an upturned box next to them. The customers soon arrived
and began to buy, and in no time at all, every single fish had been sold and the
fisherman was jangling a bad full of money. He reached into the bag and pulled
out three small coins which he gave to Anansi. “One for this morning’s work; one
for this afternoon’s work and one for this evening’s.” he said.
And Anansi realised, that instead of tricking the fisherman as he’d planned. The
fisherman had tricked him. Anansi had done all the work, yet had no fish and
hardly any money. At first Anansi felt angry, but he was a good loser, so he
laughed at himself and danced away into the trees, singing, “There’s always next
time. I shall win next time!”
Anansi learned that if you play tricks on people, you have to be prepared for them
to play tricks on you! And if you try to get out of doing the work, like Anansi
thought he was going to do, you might end up doing twice as much.
A prayer
Father God, please help us to do our fair share of the work when something needs
doing. Help us not to be greedy and not to trick people into doing things for us.
Help us to be open and honest in our dealings with others.
Amen
A spider in a web to colour
Can you help Anansi find his way to the fish?