KWEKU ANANSE AND THE LION: Once upon a time, Kweku Ananse and his family with all the animals in a forest were scared to come out of their houses because Lion who was the most powerful amongst them killed and ate all animals that came his way. They were scared to go in search of food, take a bath in the stream or even go near the forest pond to drink water. After starving themselves indoors, for sometime, they held a meeting and sent a delegation to Lions house to make an appeal on everyone’s behalf. This annoyed Lion very much and he therefore replied that he would also starve to death if he stopped eating them. On that note, the animals came to an agreement with the lion that each afternoon, one animal will be brought to his house as his meal since after all, either they starve to death or go out and get killed. From then, a family gave out one member each day to the lion. The day finally arrived for Ananse to give out one family member for the lion’s meal. Shortly before noon, Ananse put his entire household to sleep and locked them up in a room. When the animals arrived at noon to take Ananse away, he pleaded with them to allow him to go alone. On his way, Ananse bought some fruits and went to sit by the forest pond to eat and then put the peels at a distance from where he was sitting and begun thinking. Ananse came out of his thoughts at the sound of the footsteps of the lion who was angrily coming to the pond. When the angry lion who stood on the other side of the pond saw Ananse, he asked him where he had been. Sadly, he replied saying he bought fruits to give to the lion as a dessert after the lion had eating him but another lion threatened him and took it from him. He also told the lion about a lot of unpleasant things which the other lion said of him. This really annoyed the lion and when he asked Ananse where to find his enemy, Ananse pointed into the pond. At that the lion looked in the pond and when he saw his own reflection, he started insulting it. All the insults echoed back to him because the pond was deep. Then without thinking the lion foolishly jumped into the pond to fight his enemy when Kweku Ananse deceitfully suggested it. Ananse laughed at the wailing lion till no sound was heard from him. He quickly rushed home with the good news which spread quickly through out the forest. The happy animals named Ananse as the wisest in the land and they all lived peacefully ever after.
Posted on: Thu, 19 Sep 2013 17:18:03 +0000