In the old, old Ghana where I was born once upon a time, there was this old crook by name Kweku Ananse. He was a fictional crook, a cunning man, a smart guy, an anti-hero, who took delight in duping people, in fooling people, in outsmarting people, to his own gain.
All the children of Nigeria born in Ghana, know Kweku Ananse. He was called Ananse for short, but everybody knows him as Kweku Ananse. Long before Ghana was colonised and called Gold Coast, Ananse was there. Long after Gold Coast was rechristened Ghana by that famous son of Ghana, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah at independence on March 6, 1957, Kweku Ananse is still alive. He cannot die, because he is a fictional hero or anti-hero. He will not die because he lives in fables, in folktales in what is called “Anansesem” or “Ananse tales” told by the aged to children.
In the era of slavery, when the white man came and took our people away as slaves and shipped them across the seas to America and to the Caribbean, they took away with them the unforgettable tales of Kweku Ananse. In the plantations where they were forced to work, the slaves kept their identity with the unforgettable tales of Ananse.
According to Wikipedia, “Ananse tales are some of the best-known in West Africa. The stories made up an exclusively oral tradition and indeed Ananse himself was synonymous with skill and wisdom in speech. It was as remembered and told tales that they crossed to the Caribbean and other parts of the New World with captives via the Atlantic slave trade. In the Caribbean Ananse is often celebrated as a symbol of slave resistance and survival. Ananse is able to turn the table on his powerful oppressors using his cunning and trickery, a model of behaviour utilised by slaves to gain the upper-hand within the confines of the plantation power structure. Ananse is also believed to have played a multi-functional role in slaves’ lives, as well as inspiring strategies of resistance. The tales enabled slaves to establish a sense of continuity with their African past and offered them the means to transform and assert their identity within the boundaries of captivity.”
Today, the offspring of slavery in Jamaica, in Cuba, in Suriname, in Antigua, in Guyana, in Trinidad and Tobago and the whole of the West Indies and even the United States all still remember their Ananse tales which their forefathers took along with them and passed down generation upon generations. Tales which years and pangs of slavery could not wipe away from the hard disk of human memory. That is why today in America or the Caribbean you still hear about Ananse stories which they call Anansi or Anancy tales. In some of these places, Ananse has metamorphosed into Nancy or Aunt Nancy. Even with time, Kweku Ananse has not changed his character. He is still the same, old crook: a cunning man, a ‘wayo’ man, a ruthless Machiavellian who wants to reap where he did not sow. After all these years, Ananse is still Ananse, a master of chicanery who can outsmart or outwit a whole community, a whole nation, with his acts of guile and subterfuge.
Oh, I remember Ghana of my childhood, how we used to sit by the moonlight, or under a mango tree, listening to the wise old men of the village telling us about Kweku Ananse whose stories are didactic tales from which children learn wisdom.
In Ghanaian folklores, the Ananse was a spider who transformed into a human being capable of weaving a web of lies to fool the world. Once upon a time, Ananse, the evil genius had even tried to fool the Almighty God of Africa who is called “Nyame” or “Nyankopon.” If you see Ghanaians walking along the path of honesty and honour, then it is because from childhood, they had been fed with tales filled with anti-Ananse warnings.
But today, Ghana has been polluted by Nigerians who have gone to that country to introduce Ghanaians to fraud, to cheating, to lying, to stealing, to robbery, to what is called “419” in Nigeria. As we all know, Nigeria is the real Ananse country with another name. Nigeria is the birthplace of 419, the home of ‘magas’ and ‘mugus’ as they are called. A land of quick money, easy money.
Nigeria is the place where you have to constantly be on the alert, where you have to sleep with one eye open, because somebody can rip you off at any time of the day or night.
Now, you know what I am talking about. You know this 419 song by Kelly Handsome that goes: “Mugu, don’t pay, shout Hallelujah. Maga, don pay, shout Hallelujah…”
In this great land of chicanery that is celebrating one hundred years of independence, you can suddenly be woken from sleep early in the morning. You pick your phone and try to shake off the sleep. The voice at the other end greets you: “Good morning Mike, how is Nigeria? I hear the NEPA situation in Nigeria is getting worse and worse. I hear for days and weeks now, you have been sleeping in darkness in terrible heat. We hear that Goodluck Jonathan has been trying his best but still he cannot give us steady light…”
“Please, may I know who is on the line?” you ask.
“Ah, you don’t know me again. Oma se o. You don’t know your brother in London. So, you can’t even recognise my voice again. No, no, no, I am disappointed. You must guess my name.”
You play along and say something like: “Is that Brother Lanre?” And he tells you: “God bless you. I thought you have forgotten my voice.” And the drama continues.
From then on, he begins his Ananse tales, telling you about a deal, telling you about his goods that have arrived at the port. He spins all kinds of yarns, sucking you in, mentioning millions of pounds sterling that will come out of the business, that will fetch you good money. But in reality, there is nothing like that. Everything is fiction. All that the crook wants is your money. All he wants is to make you cry in the end, after duping you of your hard-earned money. You know all these scenarios better than I do. Because Nigeria is a country of 419ers looking for whom to dupe, whom to fool, whom to deprive of his or her money. Everybody has his or her own 419 bad experience. Now, let me tell you one that happened to me this week:
THE message came in the form of a text on my mobile phone. An urgent text message carrying what sounded like good news. It carried a headline or better still a title: FGN, Strictly confidential. The body of the text reads:
Mike Awoyinfa, Your name is listed for federal appointment; send your CV to SGF through this email: osgf@presidencyngov.org. Call Kabiru Mustapha (press unit) 08086761411 for details. Dr. (Mrs) Allimat Dalhatu
I read the text and I simply shook my head and muttered to myself: These Nigerians, you can’t beat them.
Now, with my name listed for federal appointment, what was I supposed to do? To jump for joy and shout one big Hallelujah? To kneel down in prayers of thanks to God Almighty? To go wild in celebration as if I have won a jackpot? The truth is that I have never ever prayed to God or begged God for anything federal. And still I pray: May I not get any federal appointment or federal honour in this present Nigeria. That is my prayer. Woman, I know you will not say Amen. But I say a big Amen, in Jesus name!
Nigeria is truly a great country blessed with creative people. If only we can apply our creativity into something positive. Rather than the chicanery of a spider called Kweku Ananse. May God help Nigeria @ 100!
The post Ananse country called Nigeria appeared first on The Sun News.
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