Honoring Lives That Matter

Anansi the Spider-Man and the Pandemic

 "Wear your mask my friend." Osebo said to his new Kente cloth-wearing buddy. The leopard did not have to practice safe distancing since he was not human.

Once in a before time, Kweku Anansi the Spider-man's main enemy was Osebo the Terrible Leopard. Then came a great PANDEMIC and everything changed. Now they are friends. As the Keeper of All Stories, this spider-man, the son of N'yame the Great Sky God and Asase Ya, the Earth Goddess, had been turned into a spider by his father. Since he was half human and half insect, he was half susceptible to catching the Corona-virus that had been sent by Brother Death as a curse for eating wild meat. So, since he had survived encounters with death, Anansi wrote a best-selling book about surviving the virus.

Since he was an Ashanti from Kumasi, Ghana, he titled the story to honor the world-wide protests and to prove Brother Death wrong, so he called the book "Black Lives Matter." The book became almost as famous as Anansi. One of his stories titled "Anansi, King Drybones and the Rubber Tree" is included here as a cautionary tale. 

Let's start from the beginning.

Osebo the Leopard was not the only being that scared Anansi. They were used to fighting and disagreeing about almost everything, just because that's what gods, animals, and humans did. However, everyone, except N'yame the Great Sky God, feared Brother Death.  You see, the Ashanti story goes that N'yame had been killed by Death before. But, because of a great medicine, N'yame overcame death's sting with a secret antidote. The antidote? He moved far away up into the sky. Besides, N'yame's distance meant that he would also not have to bother with people who kept bothering him with requests. People would always say, "N'yame, give me this! N'yame, give me that!" So, he finally moved his house out of reach when one man, digging with a hoe while planting yams, stuck N'yame in the eye! 

ONE STORY

NOTES:
1. It is in Anansi the spider’s storytelling that humans have sought healing. So it is also no coincidence that the Democratic Congressional members wore Anansi’s Kente cloth as scarves to honor George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement.
2. Anansi means spider. The weaving of Kente cloth was inspired by Anansi. His web taught the people how to weave. Kente cloth was originally made to be worn by Ashanti royalty. Today, it can be found as s hallowed symbol and an African American graduation atire.

3. For a video on Kente cloth go to:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/democrats-kente-cloth-ghana/2020/06/08/dc33bcc4-a9b5-11ea-a43b-be9f6494a87d_story.html%3FoutputType%3Damp

4. *About LATEX: And why Black Lives Matter. All human beings on planet Earth are descended from African people. Also, in color pigmentation, BLACK is the presence of ALL colors. Without People of Color, we would not even have rubber duckies much less soccer/football, basketball, volleyball, tennis, among many other team sports. As well as lifesaving latex rubber from the Olmec ancestors. The Olmec was the Americas' Mother Civilization just as was the Ancient Egyptians in the Eastern Hemisphere.

Above: Photographs of just two of many gigantic Olmec stone heads of rulers in Xapala, Mexico, dated 800 B.C. Anansi thinks that the lower image uncannily looks like George Floyd.