Finding the real Brer Anancy

Nov 22, 2015 News

– Writer Barrington Braithwaite weaves a compelling tale about the Caribbean’s most enduring character

By Michael Jordan
Crammed in the filthy holds of slave ships, the captured and terrified Africans need all the spiritual strength they could summon to survive the journey to the New World. They find that strength from a witty spider-god who remains with them, and the many generations that follow, and who they eventually come to know as Brer Anancy…

Writer and illustrator Barrington Braithwaite in his studio

That’s the compelling story that artist and writer Barrington Braithwaite has woven about the Caribbean and South America’s most enduring character, Brer Anancy. He’s done so in his new graphic novel (no longer called ‘comic books’) “The Adventures of Brer Anancy: Voyage to the New World.”
Colourful, beautifully illustrated and printed locally, “The Adventures of Brer Anancy,” written in two parts, tells the story of how Kwaku Anancy, son of the Ashanti Sky God Lord Nyamie, is selected, (quite against his will) to board a slave ship and guide the hapless captives during and after their arduous journey.
While the stories West Indian children grew up with depict ‘Brer Anancy’ as a lazy, greedy, cunning spider who has no qualms about using his wits against his own family (who can forget the story in which Anancy schemes against his wife and children to get the largest share of plantains?), Braithwaite is at pains to explain that the Anancy, who originated from the Ashanti tribes of Ghana, West Africa, is much more than this shallow characterization.
“We have inherited a perception of Anancy that places him in a certain category as

The cover of Braithwaite’s latest production

a trickster god,” he says.
Anancy, in fact, is actually the offspring of the Ashanti sky god, Lord Nyamie. He never seeks to usurp the higher gods, but outwits those who seek to match wits with him.
A meticulous researcher, Braithwaite became intrigued some 20 years ago with this ‘spider trickster,’ while working on one of his books.
Who was Anancy? He wondered. Where did he come from? What was his back-story and why did he seem to be embraced by cultures from Suriname to Panama to parts of America?
“Other than being the proverbial ‘smart man’, Anancy is now a part of our national heritage. Politicians refer to ‘Nancy story’ in reference to political arguments. I have had meetings with people from Panama…from Suriname, and everybody seems to own Anancy.
“I drafted my first book on Anancy in 1988. I decided to find out about Anancy. It took me a lot of years and a lot of money to do this.”
Without the existence of the Internet back then, this research entailed the purchasing of numerous books on African architecture, folklore and geography.
“I have had to buy books on Ashanti architecture, books on Ashanti civilization, on West African folklore, since Anancy is West African. You have to read…buy, read…buy, before you put the first page down.”
Braithwaite also said he had to recognise that the Ashanti have a pantheon of gods.
“There is a father god and there is a mother, and Anancy is one of the offspring.
“But how did Anancy get here? In the context of how I write, Anancy had won the stories from his father, the sky god, Lord Nyamie, and it is in that context that he was sent onto the (slave) ship.” Braithwaite revealed that Anancy will also have to match wits with the crew of the slave ship.
The artist describes Anancy as “the first ‘Spiderman’ of the comic book world.” Indeed, an edition of the popular, American-based Marvel Comics depicts ‘Kwaku Anansi’ as the original Spiderman.
“But I don’t think anyone has done what I have done (with the characterization of Anancy). It took me two years to get the copyright certificate from the American Library of Congress, for the concept of Anancy that I fashioned.”
“I can’t place a cost on this book in the Guyana context based on what I have put into it. We (artists) don’t get grants in this country. We have to finance everything. We are the only sector that doesn’t receive any monetary assistance from the state.”
He pointed out that, except for GT&T, most of the financial support, in terms of advertisements in his publication, came from slammer players in the business community. In fact, he said that the manager at one entity declared that “people don’t read anymore.”
Braithwaite is the illustrator behind other graphic novels as The Silk Cotton Tree (which was also a play that was staged at Carifesta), The Shrouded Legacy, and the immensely popular Jaguar series, which was also made into an award-winning play, staged by the late Norman Beaton.
Barrington estimates that the second edition of “The Adventures of Brer Anancy: Voyage to the New World,” will be out in five months. At present, copies of his first edition are available at Austin’s Book Store, Universal Book Store, and Nigel’s Supermarket.