Surinamese Anansi stories, now part of Dutch heritage

This video from Jamaica says about itself:

Anansi and the Pot of Beans

19 October 2006

Anansi loves his grandma’s beans.

Stories about spider Anansi on heritage list

Today, 02:27

The stories about the spider Anansi are from now on recognized on the National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Netherlands. This Caribbean storytelling tradition has its roots in slavery.

The Anansi stories have been told for centuries in West Africa. The slave trade spread them to Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles. The postwar migration brought them also to the Netherlands.

The Knowledge Centre of Intangible Heritage says the stories have a positive connotation, despite the dark past. They “contribute to strengthening the awareness and pride in heritage and culture.”

Dutch as frogs

The main character is a savvy spider which likes to fool other animals. Anansi is an ambivalent figure, a trickster, who also regularly harms his own wife or children.

In the days of slavery the narrators could also use the stories to embarrass the plantation owners. Dutch did not realize they were ridiculed in the fairy tales as frogs.

The stories were formerly told from parent to child, but now also through theater, schools and libraries. One of the most famous books about Anansi was written by the Surinamese former President Johan Ferrier.

Exotic

The Anansi stories are an exotic addition to the heritage list, because nearly all have a European origin …

Of the 93 traditions 6 have a multicultural background, like the Surinamese koto and angisa costumes and tambú drums from the Antilles.

The non-Western traditions in the list:

Indies rijsttafel: Indonesia
Maroon culture: Suriname
Anansi: Suriname
Angisa and koto clothes: Suriname
Henna art: Turkey, Morocco
Tambú: Antilles

The addition of the Anansi stories to the heritage list will be celebrated today at the new Anansi tree in the Open Air Museum in Arnhem. Twenty storytellers will keep the stories alive for the visitors the coming time.

This video from the Netherlands says about itself:

The Power of Stories – Performance Wijnand Stomp (official trailer English)

1 October 2014

Theatre maker Wijnand Stomp and documentary maker Jean Hellwig present a stand-up storytelling show for people from 10 to 110 years old. In a mix of theatre, comedy and documentary they bring the audience in a cheerful way in contact with stories about the history of slavery.

The flamboyant Mister Anansi (Wijnand Stomp) sits on his porch in what he calls his “Anansi Tree”. From the branches hang old shoes. The window of his house is a television. It reveals in mini documentaries the special encounters during his journey along the Transatlantic triangle of the slave trade: Zeeland – Ghana – St. Eustatius. Mister Anansi tells about the new stories he created and his energetic Aunt Jewel drops by for a game of domino. With her hilarious First National Slavery Quiz she confronts the audience in a humorous way with the traces of slavery, under the motto ‘Hats off to slavery’.

In The Power of Stories Stomp and Hellwig weave a web of slavery in the Netherlands with personal stories from overseas. At the end of the show Mister Anansi lets his audience in notes write about their personal links with slavery. He keeps these stories in the shoes on his Anansi tree and lets the wind take them traveling.

SUITABLE for theaters, festivals, schools, libraries and cultural heritage institutions.