O! Jebu! Stared At The Beginning As Ananse Tickled Himself In The End - Novisi Dzitrie

O! Jebu! climbed the mountain and stood atop, akimbo!
As if as if...
looked deep down the valley into the hole;
raising his head next to look up at the empty sky.

This system is sick...
O! Jebu! must face the tasks:
put things apart; make sense of the whole;
bring the pieces back together!
But where...
where do we place the noesis?

O! Jebu! stretched his right hand upwards...
The sky was nowhere within his reach!

So let us tell tales...
for the lack of knowledge
between the hole deep down the valley and the empty sky high above.
Let us say... they say...

They say Mawu used to live on the next floor upstairs!
And as it used to be... they say...
O! Jebu! could stand on his two feet and touch the sky
or when he felt like it, he could look out of his window
and give Mawu a wink or a wave of high five!

But it came to pass... the ancestors disobeyed Mawu!
Day after day
they lifted their heavy pestles skywards
and pounded the peace of Mawu
as they crushed yam, coco-yam, plantain and cassava into fufu.
So Mawu stormed out in anger
and removed the sky from within the reach of man!

And so O! Jebu! must now rent the services of an intercessor,
born of a virgin or of pure oracles,
if he ever wishes to speak to Mawu the omnipresent!
And yet little did Mawu the all-knowing know
O! Jebu! would soon fly aircrafts into his sky.
Mother of palmwine! Mawu Sodza!

The same God who remains the same, they say,
and yet changes regardless without prior notice.
Mother of palmwine! Mawu Sodza!

So let us tell another tale.

They say, again, so let us say:
Let us say Kweku Ananse the spider took the place of O Jebu
and presented himself before Death
in a puzzle of many a great complication.

So Death said to Ananse:
"Because you have eaten my food,
you must die...you will die! You and your family!"

But Ananse did not want to die. No!
Instead, Ananse pedaled his many legs
in one heart-throbbing attempt to flee...
So they say... and so let us say...
Let us say it is the reason why Ananse is seen caught in his own web
in corners or on ceilings of buildings in his attempt to flee…
Flee...flee from Death!

So we tell tales...
Tales to fill up the space, to make up for the lack of knowledge
between the hole deep down the valley and the empty sky high above;
strange-tales... fairy-tales...

Tales that make us cry maa maa! Or make us laugh kwa kwa kwa!

Tales of why the crab is headless,
Tales of why the moon dies,
... of why soldier-ants move in a file,
... of why indeed the monkey has a tail!

Author Profile - Novisi Dzitrie

Biography:

Novisi Dzitrie is a Ghanaian who was born in Kakata, Liberia. He moved to Ghana when he was four years old, long before the war. Novisi has ventured a number of genres of writing but poetry comes pleasingly to him as a first love. Some of his short stories have been published in The Mirror, and two of his poems were recently published in the anthology Look Where You Have Gone To Sit, edited by Martin Egblewogbe and Laban Hill.

Five Questions with Novisi Dzitrie:

1. How long have you been writing poetry?

I started writing poetry by some "accident" in 1999. So that makes about 13 years now.


2. Who are your favourite poets? Which poets have most informed and inspired your work?

I must confess I didn't read much poetry before I found myself writing it. So I’m yet really in the process of discovering the works of other poets. However, I generally tend to like works from Nigeria for the force behind their words and for their palpable frankness. Niyi Osundare, Ogaga Ifowodo, J P Clark, Christopher Okigbo, and Wole Soyinka readily come to mind. Elsewhere, I like works by Eavan Boland, someone I consider, if you want, a man of a woman in her writing. And closer home in Ghana, I have developed some connections with works by Kofi Anyidoho and Martin Egblewogbe. These are poets whose works I have been informed and inspired by in many ways than I can consciously mark out.


3. What do you hope to accomplish with your poetry?

I write to express myself; to free my head from being flooded with thoughts and keep me from going mad. I like to brood over issues and search for logical threads but I don’t like to memorize points. I think there is enough storage media in the world for that. Yet I don’t think there are enough words, breath or punctuation to hold the places in the expression of ideas by any one individual, and that is where poetry comes in handy for me. Poetry can say a lot in a few words.

So I’d say I want simply to contribute my thoughts to the body of ideas that already exist in society so I don’t need to be around in person before anyone can access these. That for me is critical because I hold the firm position that human beings have come very far and so should have enough to learn from so that we can minimize the mistakes we make.


4. Your poems are punctuation-rich (lots of exclamation marks and ellipses and colons and question marks). What drove you to adopt this style?

I just don’t seem to have enough words to capture the moments between speech and thought, the moments between high and low pitches of sound, the moments between choking on something and the welling up of tears in the eyes and so on. Such moments, for me, are rich and need somehow to be communicated, however inadequately, even with the form of text on paper, so that one needs not be told these moments explicitly. That is how I find life to be. Genuine tears, for example, are not announced, they just happen by the kick of some emotions. So I don’t know if I should call it a style really, but I try to employ punctuations to capture those moments when thought processes are not complete or when sentences need not be completed before communication is effected and so on.


5. Do you believe that poetry can affect the politics of Ghana? If so, how? Are there particular types of poetry that are better suited to accomplishing this than others?

I’d say yes, poetry can affect the politics of Ghana and I think it already does in varying ways that may not be readily obvious. It depends on the quality of the discourse. If the discourse is about triviality then I’d not expect positive impacts. So to answer the question of how, I’d say the debates must be high on sustainable philosophical and theoretical postulations or affirmations. And poetry is one tool for capturing theories succinctly in as much as they help in dissecting issues.

I’d not say some particular types of poetry are better suited. I’d rather say, like any other political tool, it must just be appealing no matter how it’s crafted, and then people’s attention can be captured for the intended message. Even for mere aesthetics, which poetry provides in abundance, we can observe that Obama in America, for example, won an election by delivering awe inspiring prose-poems on his campaign. The phrase "Yes We Can" speaks volumes. Nkrumah did a similar thing in his speeches for Ghana’s Independence and for African unity, and the poet holds the unique place in society for establishing such influences in the political discourse with his/her craft. Indeed I actually hold the position that a poet has no option than to speak to political choices, either directly or indirectly, because a poets art is affected by the political forces.

Contact Novisi:

dnovisi(at)gmail.com

Root - Oritsegbemi Jakpa

Instead of telling your children
of our heroes, folklores, tales, and sayings,
you went out all day to talk
and laugh with your visitors
only to come home spent.
Now they grope blindly
among the wild wind of new ways
without the shelter of their history,
their living anchor, their root.



"Root" is part four of our four-part series of poems on Ananse stories. Previous installments can be found in our archives.

Author Commentary - Oritsegbemi Jakpa

Biography:

Oritsegbemi Emmanuel Jakpa was born in Warri, Nigeria, studied at the University of Lagos and the University of Iowa, and is currently living in Ireland where he is pursuing an MA in Creative Writing at the Waterford Institute of Technology.

Oritsegbemi's Thoughts on African Stories:

When we hear music, we respond with feelings. Music is an active process going back and forth back and forth, for the same reason that we dance to hip hop. Storytelling has the ability to create this oscillatory exchange, visual classroom of mutual active participation, that neither detachment nor attention deficiency is possible. Scholars have widely documented how such environment nourishes the stems of childhood education, and promotes the fecundity of the mind.

While anyone is free to pursue the notion that we are made of stories, that our past, present and future are glued together by stories, I would not say whether this is so but that there are stories everywhere around us; stories even in the closed business of creatures that do not use words.

I allude here to Anansi the Blind Fisherman, among a string of stories called Anansi and the Spider, forged from the most banal observances. As we know, this and many other African stories were kept alive over generations by orally transmitting them.

For hardly anywhere could stories be of immediate value than in Africa where tendencies abound in the culture of our people to relay advice in an intrusive and instructive mode, as obviously observed about the ways parents articulate admonitions, sometimes accompanied with physical chastisement. Teachers till this day carry canes to school to punish any truancy and disobedience. Our forefathers full of wisdom understand the time and timeless importance to have handy a 'low-key' alternative in articulating advice or warnings. Anansi the Blind Fisherman comes as one of those rare classics of example.

I believe as more people shy away from confrontational claims, such stories popularity will grow, will become more reliable vehicles and efficient transporting mediums for articulating advice, warning, culture, etc. Recently, I met a lady in her mid 30s who has never married. She told me she doesn't want any one to tell her how to live her life. We could associate with such an instance, and within the near circle of our companies, people that seem to appreciate the relative comfort and mental security of speaking and writing behind the hard firewall of 'I think'.

"Tell it veiled," seems to be the motto. So the people have to opt out of the message contained in it if they want, rather than being made to opt in. Common sense obviously points in this direction. Anansi the Blind Fisherman tells how Anansi both old and blind with the help of two good men was able to do fishing. They lead him to and out of the canoe every morning and every evening in that order. They told him where to cast his net and when to pull it in, among other things they did for him, but Anansi never returned their help with thanks; on some occasions he claimed even to know what they know in his blindness. One day, when they told him "Here we are at the beach," He promptly retorted that they were foolish to tell him a thing he knew so well. But he did not know they had settled in their mind to abundantly punish him. He then stepped out of the canoe arrogantly, expecting to land on the shallow river bank. To his sad dismay he found himself drowning. The two men paddled off quickly as he drowned to death.

The lesson pops up clearly, but to say it clear in prose, 'you should always thank your helpers' might encourage some ill sentiment in some people that are uncomfortable in taking in advice.

Of course the telling of such stories as a medium of articulating advice, wisdom, culture, etc. in Africa has reached its low-water mark. Not every one of the stories sticks in the mind to start with, and not many of them translate so easily into digestible and practical messages. And sometimes when they do, the importance of those messages tend to occupy a back seat, because they are just stories; and sometimes that should be swallowed with salt. I silently ponder here the comparative impart of Christ's proverbs and the Ten Commandment, or the Sermon on the Mount.

In short, the Internet continues to shift the world to, and drift it on, a newer curve. We hope that web addresses like One Ghana, One Voice will make retelling our great stories more exciting. We call for more critical attention to be allowed to African stories; as a lens to magnify the understanding of African cultures, and a tool for growing and weeding African literature.

Contact Oritsegbemi:

jakorem(at)yahoo.com

Anansesem - Emma Akuffo

When I was a child
a spider ruled the world.
We huddled around the coal pot at night
watching honey drip from grandma's lips
depicting magnificent tales
of a spider world far more enchanting than our own
where the crafty one born of a Wednesday has three sons
of disproportionate limbs, topsy turvy heads
and pot-bellied middles.

They made plans and cavorted with other shifty individuals
reflecting a world not unlike our own.

We held our breath
savouring the last morsel of
life's lessons learnt.
When I was a child
and a spider ruled the world.



"Anansesem" is part three of our four-part series of poems on Ananse stories. Previous installments can be found in our archives. Check back next week for the final installment.

Author Profile - Emma Akuffo

Biography:

The daughter of a Ghanaian diplomat, Emma Akuffo was born in Russia in 1965. Her childhood years were spent in a number of countries including India, Italy and Ghana, finally settling in Britain with her parents, two brothers and two sisters, at the ripe old age of 11.

Emma holds a PhD in biochemistry and works as a Research Scientist. She lives in England with her husband and two children. When she is not pushing back the frontiers of medical science or engaged in a mad rush after her children, she enjoys cycling into the sunset, swimming in moonlit waters and creative writing, particularly from an inspirational perspective.

A number of Emma’s poems have been included in anthologies from Dogma Publications and Forward Press. Her work is also featured at, amongst other places, brightlightmultimedia.com.

Emma’s poem ‘Love spoke’ was awarded a diploma in the UK section of the Scottish International Open Poetry Competition, 2004.

Five Questions with Emma Akuffo:

1. What role have Ananse stories played in your life? How have they shaped your writing?

I have vague recollections of hearing the Ananse stories in my childhood so I cannot pinpoint how it has influenced my writing (apart from writing "Anansesem," of course)! However the subconscious is a peculiar beast and particularly in our formative years, most things we see, hear or feel will influence how we perceive and respond to our world throughout our lives. So I won't be surprised if a little something of Ananse stories creeps into my writing every now and then.


2. What has the subject of "Ananse stories" allowed you to explore in your writing that you otherwise could not?

Using the poem itself as an example, the characters in the Ananse stories are probably not that different to ones we encounter in real life!


3. You recently participated in our Roundtable Discussion on women writers in Africa in which, when speaking about girls access to literature, you noted: "The poorer, less literate, families will not prioritise education and may actively discourage girls from pursuing education to a significant level. Therefore, we must not forget to reach out/communicate to these less visible parts of our society. Certain traditions remain but there should me some means of compromise." Is there a way, perhaps, to harness the power of Ananse stories to help achieve these goals, and to negotiate the suggested compromise?

Definitely! Children and young people are influenced and motivated by stories (real or imaginary) that teach ideals, concepts and morals. Perhaps Ananse had a wife or daughters that aimed and succeeded in doing something bigger than expected from them? If not, it's about time someone started writing with such characters in mind...

4. When you write a poem like "Anansesem", are you intending it for an audience? If so, is that audience Ghanaian? English? International?

"Anansesem" is primarily targeted at Ghanaians who grew up listening to such stories and can identify with the characters, but also aims to reach beyond that audience, to arouse the curiosity of international readers who do not know these stories to find out more. I'm not sure if they were published internationally. Perhaps any reader who knows of these books can shed some light?


5. Are you working on any new poems or projects that may interest our readers?

I'm trying to tie off many loose ends at the moment, not least of which is the OGOV anthology. I nearly lost what I had compiled so far when my computer crashed recently but luckily it was backed up on disc. I'm also trying to lay down some other commitments to make way for my passion for writing, so watch this space!

Contact Emma:

emmaakuffo(at)aol.com

Ananse's Grave - Kae Sun

We hated here and now,
we wasted space for some gold rush.
If told to trade we would for the emptiness
that was born of the earth's touch.

We created here and now
and never was a sound so loosely sung,
heard across the latitudes of whatever laid in our way.

Meanwhile beneath those bridges, through rustling leaves,
the spider and his stories weave.
Tales grow as tall as a warrior's bloodline,
as tight knit as the women's patterns.
Our children have been to Ananse's grave
surprised to find the prince of cunning so depraved.
"Take the words off our hearts," they said.
Well today even those words are dead.


"Ananse's Grave" is part two of our four-part series of poems on Ananse stories. Previous installments can be found in our archives. Check back next week for the next installment.

Author Profile - Kae Sun

Biography:

Kwaku Darko-Mensah Jr. (aka. Kae Sun) is a Ghanaian born singer, songwriter and poet. He is currently based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He has recieved a B.A. from McMaster University in Multimedia and Philosophy.

Five Questions with Kae Sun:

1. What role have Ananse stories played in your life?

I heard a fair bit of Ananse tales growing up; they definitely triggered my imagination. What makes them special is that each story has a strong moral lesson. This poem is inspired by the fact that I can't for the life of me remember any of the stories and the sad fact that those morals and stories can so easily slip away.


2. What has using the trope of Ananse stories allowed you to explore in your writing that you otherwise could not?

They haven’t influenced my writing yet. I’m on a journey of rediscovery. For me, the stories are most potent when narrated in Twi. That’s the way I first heard them so I’m yearning for that experience. Maybe that’s the point, you hear them as a child and if you don’t memorize and re-tell them they slip away.


3. There are so many potent lines in this poem, it's hard to pick just one to explore. Still, the one that stands out the most for me is 'If told to trade we would for the emptiness / that was born of the earth's touch'. Could you discuss this line a bit more? What inspired you to write it, what you hope for readers to take away from it?

The earth’s touch is comforting and restorative. The irony here is that when we trade all that’s given to us naturally then the earth itself cannot console us. That’s my interpretation of it off course; I encourage readers to find their own meaning in that line. It definitely addresses the consequences of giving up ones right, whether it's land or tradition.


4. In your last profile, you mentioned the role the Wole Soyinka edited Poems of Black Africa collection has on your development as a writer. Do you think that the creation of such a seminal book for the new generation of African writers is possible? Do you think it could find an audience?

I think it’s not only possible, but long overdue. I’ve come across folks, some university professors, who can’t name a single African poet. That’s sad given the richness and diversity of African poetry.


5. Here on OGOV, readers have gotten to know your poetry, but not your musical pursuits - would you like to take a moment to tell readers about this part of your life, and perhaps discuss the connection between your poetry and song?

I have an EP out currently and I play regularly in Canada. The music itself draws from a vast array of influences from folk music to hip-hop. My song writing and poetry go hand in hand, they compliment each other and address the same themes. I’m working on a full length album now which is definitely more rootsy and stripped down.

Contact Kae Sun:

Email: kaydimes(at)hotmail.com
Websites: www.kaesunmusic.com, www.myspace.com/kaesun

We Speak of Kweku Ananse - Prince Mensah

Ananse sem se so, se so’ara;
Se wonnim Anansesem a,
Na ese wo’ara.[i]

In lands of the four-legged,
The eight-legged was sage
At whose feet life begged
For a decent wage.
In universe of web and wit,
Ananse dwelt and dealt with
His wife, Aso and son, Ntikuma.
Their lives were built on drama.
We humans still sit by firesides
To discuss their escapades.

Our lives are explained by eight legs
And the one that moves them
Around the world of animals.
Kweku Ananse, he who eggs
Beasts onto mayhem.
Jackasses and jackals
Knew him as the Jekyll
While others knew his Hyde.
Deception was his thrill,
Its success was his pride.

In the time of timelessness
When animals talked with men,
Kweku roamed from village to village
Seeking fools to deceive.
His circumventive business
Gave others harsh lessons to learn,
Earning spite in story and adage.
Winds blew strong, Ananse held on
To strings of his web,
Determined to live by con,
Dwelling on wisdom’s ebb.

He watched his true believers
Gouge upon his guile
He winked at them in their stupor
Telling them how smart they were.
None had developed feelers
To discern falsehood’s bile;
They regarded him with great honor
More than the lion in his lair.
Even men came to him for advice
And they were given enough to suffice.

Kweku met his match in Entetia the Ant.
Both were smart, small and scheming.
While the Ant knew how to work for a living,
Ananse loved to have others work for him.
Soon, clouds of trickery wore thin
And the animals grew to love the Ant.
He made them rich through working
While Ananse stole their earnings
By claims of gratitude owed to him
In a scheme selfish and mean.

They found him out on bright day
Through the accursed triplets;
Eti konokono the Big Head,
Efu dontwe-dontwe the Big Stomach
And Enan kon’wia the Skinny Legs.
They heard him hatch a new plan:
He wanted to steal and run away
With treasures of golden bowls, trinkets
And ornaments on the dead.
The triplets launched an attack
On Ananse but his eight legs
Got swift and he ran

Out of the kingdom as shame
Rained on his name.
His infamy was immortalized by verb,
Spun into native proverb:
If Ananse asks you to look to the sky,
Fix your eyes on the earth;
If he asks you to watch the earth,
Look hard into the sky.
The earth is yet to acknowledge receipt
Of another whose name is deceit.

Se hum ne ham shia na mmrika asa,
Ato konkonsa ne akasa akasa.
Gyimie nye, etese kaka.[ii]



[i] Ananse’s story is being told, let it be told;
If you know not Ananse,
That’s your problem.

[ii] If speed and wind meet, that will be the end of sprinting,
All a gossip does is talk and talk and talk.
Foolish is not good, it is like a mouth sore.


"We Speak of Kweku Ananse" is part one of our four-part series of poems on Ananse stories. Check back next week for the next installment.

Author Profile - Prince Mensah

Biography:

Born a Leo in Accra, Ghana, Prince Mensah attended school at Adisadel College, Extra Mural Academy, African-American HIV University and Mediation Training Institute. He is a poet and playwright who emphasizes on the authenticity of the African experience as a parallel of Western civilization. His inspirations are Jesus Christ, Wole Soyinka, William Shakepeare, Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama. Prince is a Consultant in Workplace Mediation and is presently working as a Life & Health Insurance Producer. He is married to Charisse and the couple lives in Maryland, USA. Two of his books, Seven Steps to Amazing Love and Memoirs of A Native Son are slated to be in bookstores worldwide by the end of October 2008.

Prince is the head of North American promotions for One Ghana, One Voice.

Five questions with Prince Mensah:

1. What role have Ananse stories played in your life? How have they shaped your writing?

Ananse stories were all that I heard from my parents, uncles and aunts. It was their way of advising and admonishing me. There is a saying in Asante that goes, ‘Oba nyansafuo ye bu nu be, yenkano asem’ which means, 'You speak to a wise child with proverbs, not with speeches.' This has shaped my writing in a manner that I want my readers to reach their own conclusions. I do not want my subject matter to be overtly obvious. There has to be a healthy level of mystique to it.


2. What has the subject of "Ananse stories" allowed you to explore in your writing that you otherwise could not?

I used to write a lot of folklore before I moved to the USA. This project gave me a chance to revitalize that part of my writing. Ananse stories are part and parcel of Akan oral tradition. It is a pity that our children read fairytales in nursery and kindergarten when we can introduce them to Ananse stories or any other folklore unique to our specific cultures.


3. This poem has some really great lines which the tongue just rolls along with, such as "Ananse dwelt and dealt with". This seems to fit well with the subject of the smooth-talking Ananse. How conscious are you of the alignment of the rhythm of your poem with the rhythm of its subject? Does this just come naturally to you?

I did not realize that until you brought it up. I was in the moment of retelling a story and I am excited that I conveyed a sense of Ananse’s character. I try to emphatize with whatever subject I am writing about. I want to see the world from their eyes. As a poet, attention has to be paid to word sounds and sentence flow. I try to do that every time.


4. As demonstrated in your last poem on this site, you have begun setting your poems to images and releasing them as videos on Youtube. How has this experience been for you? What do you think the videos add to the poems for your readers/viewers?

Technology is the sign of the times. As poets, we must take advantage of the internet as the main medium of reaching our readers. You will be able to turn your readers into listeners, which is a step further in the poet-reader relationship. I have used YouTube and Sound Lantern to resounding success. I think because my audience is not sitting right in front of me, the video puts them in the mood and perspective of the poem. Although it is impossible to inject a cinematic aura into a poem of three minutes, it helps the audience talk about the subject after the poem ends.


5. Are you working on any new poems or projects that you think our readers might be interested in?

Two books of mine are going to be in print by the end of October 2008. Seven Steps to Amazing Love by Xulon Press and Memoirs of a Native Son by Publish America. Go get them from Amazon or Barnes & Noble. I am preparing some poems for the Yaa Asantewaa and Zimbabwe series. I am working with the Wine Glass Court Poets in Columbia, Maryland to read poetry in parks this fall. I am hoping that we can arrange for a Conference on Black Poetry in North America next year.

Contact Prince:

Email: pryncemensah(at)yahoo.com
Website: http://www.freewebs.com/pryncemensah/