West+African+Tricksters

**__West African Tricksters__** By: Hannah Wagener

Eshu, Anansi, Olifat, Gluskap, and Maui are all West African Tricksters. A trickster is a character that plays tricks on the humans or gods and is found to be childish, greedy, and very clever. They are often fairly powerful and also can be friendly; helpful at times. Usually in the end of the story the trickster's plan backfires and creates a problem. Tricksters come up in many stories as different shapes and forms, but mostly show up as animals. (Source 1)
 * __ What I Found __**

Eshu, also commonly known as Legba, deals with communication, miscommunication, and travel. He is god of the Yoruba people of Nigeria in West Africa. He has a tendency to create problems between humans and gods. In one of the stories, he became a messenger after stealing yams from one of the high god's gardens and used the god's slippers to frame him. He ordered Eshu to visit the sky every night to tell him everything that had happened down on earth because he knows all of the languages spoken down there. Also, he carries up sacrifices to heaven that people offer to the gods. In another story he tricked the sun and moon into changing places which caused a big chaos. Eshu often pairs up with Ifa, and once threatened that he would ruin him. All of these stories represent how he is a trickster god. (Source 1)
 * __ Eshu[[image:http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/images/mlw_0001_0002_0_img0070.jpg width="150" height="227" align="right"]] __**

Anansi shows up in the mythology stories as a spider but can also transform into a human, rabbit, fox, or other creatures. West Africans consider Anansi to be the creator of their world. He usually goes around as a cunning, crafty trickster making his life easier for him but harder for others. He does this by fooling the humans or even gods using his cleverness and knowledge. Anansi has pledged to serve the gods for the rest of his life and Nyambe allowed him to take secrets to earth. In some parts of North America he is known as Aunt Nancy or Miss Nancy. (Source 1) Anansi has superhuman strength, stamina, and resisitance to injury. He is known to be swinging through trees as a human spider. (Source 3) Many of the stories told about Anansi were brought to the West Indies, South America, and North America by African Slaves from back in the day. (Source 1)
 * __ Anansi __**

Olifat was one of the most important tricksters and cultural heroes to Micronesian Mythology. He was a contradictory figure to both heaven and earth. He would rise to heaven on a column of smoke and often went down to earth on a bolt of lightening. Olifat tries to disrupt the gods by making funny noises, usually animal ones. On earth he likes to play tricks on humans such as giving sharp shark teeth to them and putting stingers on the tails of scorpions. (Source 2)
 * __Olifat__**

**__Gluskap__**   Gluskap's name can be spelled as Gluskabi, Gluscabe, and Koluskap because of the Wabanski language and were originally unwritten. He used magic, cleverness, and trickery to obtain food, drink, and women. He soon became jealous rather than greedy. There isn't much information about Gluskap because he as more of a cultural hero rather than a trickster but had many characteristics that shows up as a trickster. (Source 1)

Maui is a powerful trickster known for creating the Pacific Islands. He would perform deeds to make the humans impressed with him like making the sky higher or making the days longer. Maui would create islands when he would be fishing. He would put the line in the water and when he began to pull up the ocean floor would rise up with it. Once, Maui tried to become mortal by tricking Hina, the goddess of death, when she was sleeping. He crawled into her body and tried to pass through it. While he was doing this she woke up by the call of birds and crushed him to death. (Source 5) The tricksters of West Africa, South America, and West Indies all show how their society is full of stories that are passed down from generation to generation. The stories told aren't all serious; some of them have a funny twist to them because of the tricksters. Their society shows that they don't mess around if someone has messed with humans or the gods and that there are consequences if you do. West African culture would tell stories through their memory because they didn't write anything down and wouldn't read from a book. These stories, which are called myths were told from what they either heard from somebody else or from what they made up. The myths are a shared heritage of ancestral memories, related from generation to generation. The myth becomes part of the make up of a society. These myths of tricksters are told and passed from generation to generation in West Africa began as god figures. In a time of not knowing about the afterlife, but knowing death is for sure, the most notable figure, Eshu, developed as the gatekeeper between the world of man and gods. The African society that developed these myths was primitive in our terms today and took the imagination and native spirituality and built stories that turned into the myths that are recorded in today. The fear of death and what happens afterward is what started these stories around the campfires in the villages of Africa. It was the spirituality of the ancient times that these gods came to be talked about and the stories began and the tricksters added as characters to spice up the stories. The religions of the Europeans tried to do away with these myths and the ancient spirituality but the religions could not make them go away because the myths were a strong part of the African culture. The myths are still spoken about today and made their way to the Southern United States when the Africans were brought to America as slaves. Religions of Islam and Christianity did take hold in parts of Africa but the native spirituality that was part of the culture remained and is still remembered today. (Bibliography 4)
 * __ Maui __**
 * __ Explanation __**

1. [] 2. [] 3. [] 4.http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Go-Hi/Heroes.html 5.http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Le-Me/Maui.html
 * __ Sources __**

[] http://www.angelfire.com/rpg2/eternal_night/Eshu.html [] http://www.deeknow.com/notes/maori/maui.html []
 * __ Stories __**

**__ Bibliography __** 1. "Tricksters." //Myths Encyclopedia//. 2010. Advameg Inc., Web. 12 Jan 2010. [] . 2."Gluskabi/Gluskap Stories and other Wabanaki Legends ." //Native Languages of the America//. 1998-2009. Web. 12 Jan 2010. . 3."Anansi." 8/27/08. Marvel Characters Inc., Web. 12 Jan 2010. . 4.Press, Petra. //Great Heroes of Mythology//. New York, New York: Friedman/Fairfax Publishers, 1997. 104-106. Print. 5."Micronesian Mythology." //Myths Encyclopedia//. 2010. Advameg Inc., Web. 15 Jan 2010. . 6."Maui." //Myths Encyclopedia//. 2010. Advameg Inc., Web. 15 Jan 2010. .