* Why do crickets have black teeth? * Why do chickens have beaks? * Why do spiders have small waists? The short answer is . . . Ananse did it! You can find the long answers to these and other intriguing questions in this collection of West African folktales. All twelve stories feature Kweku Ananse, the trickster, who is sometimes a man and sometimes a spider. Follow along as he works his mischief. On the way, you'll discover why spiders look the way they do, why termites are so angry and what happened to the crocodile’s ears.

This book provides a factual basis for evaluating economic, historical, and sociological theories that explain the rise and fall of civilizations.

Anansi the Spider's plan to trick his friend Turtle into doing all the work while he teaches Anansi to catch fish somehow gets turned around. While Anansi doesn't learn his lesson, he does learn the invaluable skill of weaving.

Ajuba, the Fisherman's daughter, has to retrieve her dead father's bones from the bottom of the sea in order to bring harmony back to her seaside village. In fulfilling her task, she must evade the clutches of The Fish-man of the Purple Lake, a monstrous creature who guards the lake with a sword made of a thousand shark's teeth. But the Fish-man, once a beautiful boy called Musa, has his own story about how he came to dwell alone, underwater, cast into the sea by a golden eagle as punishment for a treacherous deed.

This astonishing novel takes us on a journey along the river of one family's history, carving a course across two centuries and three continents, from ancient Africa into today's America. Here, through the lives of Mother Africa's many daughters, we come to understand the real meaning of roots: the captive Proud Mary, who has been savagely punished for refusing to relinquish her child to slavery; Earlene, who witnesses her father's murder at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan; Big Momma, a modern-day matriarch who can make a woman of a girl; proud and sassy Cinnamon Brown, whose wild abandon hides a bitter loss; and smart, ambitious Alma, who is torn between the love of a man and the song of her soul. In The River Where Blood Is Born, the seen and unseen worlds are seamlessly joined--the spirit realms where the great river goddess and ancestor mothers watch over the lives of their descendants, both the living and those not yet born. Stringing beads of destiny, they work to lead one daughter back to her source. But what must Alma sacrifice to honor the River Mother's call?

The trickster is on a mission! He is most certainly cunning and clever, but is Kweku Ananse the most clever of all? Well, he thinks so and in Today‘s Water, he sets out to prove it! Along the way, we find out why the sky is far from the ground and how it came about that all stories are Ananse stories. Enjoy this collection of folktales from the Asante people of Ghana, featuring Kweku Ananse, who is sometimes a man and sometimes a spider. keywords: African Folktales, Ananse the spider, Ananse story, trickster, Ghana, Anansi

Ruth Finnegan's Oral Literature in Africa was first published in 1970, and since then has been widely praised as one of the most important books in its field. Based on years of fieldwork, the study traces the history of storytelling across the continent of Africa. This revised edition makes Finnegan's ground-breaking research available to the next generation of scholars. It includes a new introduction, additional images and an updated bibliography, as well as its original chapters on poetry, prose, "drum language" and drama, and an overview of the social, linguistic and historical background of oral literature in Africa. This book is the first volume in the World Oral Literature Series, an ongoing collaboration between OBP and World Oral Literature Project. A free online archive of recordings and photographs that Finnegan made during her fieldwork in the late 1960s is hosted by the World Oral Literature Project (http: //www.oralliterature.org/collections/rfinnegan001.html) and can also be accessed from publisher's website.

Contains seventeen stories gathered from the Ashantis of West Africa.

A collection of ten stories about the trickster spider god, Ananse. Sometimes things go Ananse's way and other times he makes a fool of himself and is ashamed-but never for very long. Suggested level: primary, intermediate.