Once upon a time, a long time ago, there lived a spider named Anansi. Anansi’s wife was a very good cook. But always, Anansi loved to taste the food that others in the village made for themselves and for their families.<\/p>\n
One day, he stopped by Rabbit’s house. Rabbit was his good friend. \u201cThere are greens in your pot,\u201d cried Anansi excitedly. Anansi loved greens.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are not quite done – said Rabbit -. But they will be soon. Stay and eat with me.\u201d \u201cI would love to, Rabbit, but I have some things to do,\u201d Anansi said hurriedly. If he waited at Rabbit’s house, Rabbit would certainly give him jobs to do. \u201cI know – said Anansi -. I’ll spin a web. I’ll tie one end around my leg and one end to your pot. When the greens are done, tug on the web, and I’ll come running!\u201d Rabbit thought that was a great idea. And so, it was done.<\/p>\n
\u201cI smell beans – Anansi sniffed excitedly as he ambled along -. Delicious beans, cooking in a pot.\u201d \u201cCome eat our beans with us – cried the monkeys -. They are almost done.” \u201cI would love to Father Monkey, \u201csaid Anansi. And again, Anansi suggested he spin a web, with one end tied around his leg, and one end tied to the big bean pot. Father Monkey thought that was a great idea. All his children thought so, too. And so, it was done.<\/p>\n
\u201cI smell sweet potatoes – Anansi sniffed happily as he ambled along-. Sweet potatoes and honey, I do believe!\u201d \u201cAnansi – called his friend Hog -. My pot is full of sweet potatoes and honey! Come share my food with me.\u201d \u201cI would love to,\u201d said Anansi. And again, Anansi suggested he spin a web, with one end tied around his leg, and one end tied to the sweet potato pot. His friend Hog thought that was a great idea. And so, it was done.<\/p>\n
By the time Anansi arrived at the river, he had one web tied to each of his eight legs. \u201cThis was a wonderful idea – Anansi told himself proudly -. I wonder whose pot will be ready first?\u201d Just then, Anansi felt a tug at his leg.\u00a0 \u201cAh – said Anansi -. That is the web string tied to Rabbit’s greens.\u201d He felt another. And another. Anansi was pulled three ways at once.<\/p>\n
“Oh dear,” said Anansi as he felt the fourth web string pull. Just then, he felt the fifth web string tug. And the sixth. And the seventh. And the eighth. Anansi was pulled this way and that way, as everyone pulled on the web strings at once. His legs were pulled thinner and thinner. Anansi rolled and tugged himself into the river. When all the webs had washed away, Anansi pulled himself painfully up on shore.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh my, oh my – sighed Anansi -. Perhaps that was not such a good idea after all.\u201d To this day, Anansi the Spider has eight very thin legs. And he never got any food that day at all.<\/p>\n
(Folktale from West Africa \u2013 Photo: 123rf.com)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Once upon a time, a long time ago, there lived a spider named Anansi. Anansi’s wife was a very good cook. But always, Anansi loved to taste the food that others in the village made for themselves and for their families. One day, he stopped by Rabbit’s house. Rabbit was his good friend. \u201cThere are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7712\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}