Editing Anansi (section)

=== Teaching Narratives ===
The Jamaican versions of these stories are some of the best-preserved because Jamaica had the largest concentration of enslaved Ashanti in the Americas. Akin to their Ashanti origins, each of these stories carries its own proverb at the end.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anansistories.com/Traditional_Stories.html|title=Traditional Anansi Stories|website=anansistories.com}}</ref> At the end of the story "Anansi and Brah Dead", there is a proverb that suggests that even in times of slavery, Anansi was referred to by his Akan original name: "Kwaku Anansi" or simply as "Kwaku" interchangeably with ''Anansi''. The proverb is: "If yuh cyaan ketch Kwaku, yuh ketch him shut",<ref>[http://www.nlj.gov.jm/?q=jamaican-proverbs#quaku "Jamaican Proverbs"]{{dead link|date=February 2025}}, National Library of Jamaica.</ref> which refers to when Brah Dead (brother death or drybones), a personification of Death, was chasing Anansi to kill him; its meaning: The target of revenge and destruction, even killing, will be anyone very close to the intended, such as loved ones and family members.

However, like Anansi's penchant for ingenuity, Anansi's quintessential presence in the [[African diaspora|Diaspora]] saw the trickster figure reinvented through a multi-ethnic exchange that transcended its Akan-Ashanti origins, typified in the diversity of names attributed to these Anansi stories, from the "Anansi-tori"<ref>A. P., and T. E. Penard. "Surinam Folk-Tales". The Journal of American Folklore, vol. 30, no. 116, 1917, pp. 239–250. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/534344.</ref> to the "Kuenta di Nanzi".<ref>Mondada, Joke Maaten, "Narrative Structure and Characters in the Nanzi Stories of Curaçao: a Discourse Analysis". (2000). ''LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses''. 7214.</ref> Even the character "Ti Bouki", the buffoon constantly harassed by "Ti Malice" or "Uncle Mischief", a Haitian trickster associated with Anansi,<ref name="Murray 2014">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MWRyBAAAQBAJ&q=%22ti+malice%22+%22anansi%22&pg=PA163|title=Roots of Haiti's Vodou-Christian Faith: African and Catholic Origins|last=Thomas|first=R. Murray|year=2014|publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]]|isbn=978-1-4408-3204-8|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Tell my horse|last=Hurston|first=Zora Neale|date=2014|orig-year=1938|publisher=HarperCollins e-Books|isbn=978-0-06-184739-4|oclc=877987972}}</ref> references this exchange: "Bouki" itself is a word descending from the [[Wolof language]] that also references a particular folk animal (the [[hyena]]) indigenous to them. The same applies to Anansi's role in the lives of Africans beyond the era of slavery; New World Anansi tales entertain just as much as they instruct, highlight his avarice and other flaws alongside his cleverness, and feature the mundane just as much as they do the subversive. Anansi becomes both an ideal to be aspired toward, and a cautionary tale against the selfish desires that can cause our undoing.<ref name="Murray 2014" />{{rp|163–164}} Anansi has effectively evolved beyond a mere trickster figure; the wealth of narratives and social influences have thus led to him being considered a classical hero.<ref>Van Duin, Lieke. "Anansi as Classical Hero". ''Journal of Caribbean Literatures'', vol. 5, no. 1, 2007, pp. 33–42. JSTOR, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/40986316?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents 40986316]</ref>