Me: Good morning, Agya Kweku Ananse.

Ananse: Good morning, young woman. As for me, I am well. You are the one who has come from afar. What brings you here today?

Me: I am hoping that you can spare a few minutes to answer some questions.

Ananse: What sort of questions?

Me: Oh, I am a storyteller. Many of my stories are about you. My audience cannot get enough of you. So I have come to learn more about you.

Ananse: In that case, make yourself comfortable. I would not want you to disappoint my fans. I can teach you and them a lot, you know.

Me: I know. In fact, I am following your excellent example from that time when you worked as a barber. Your excellent service saved Lizard from starvation during that terrible famine.

Ananse: Ah yes, I remember that. Good times, good times. That Lizard fellow never comes around anymore though.

Me: May I ask why?

Ananse: We had a falling out. He’s such a nervous creature these days. Always darting about, moving his head this way and that way.

Me: Yes, I heard you had something to do with that. In fact, I wrote about that in one of my books.

Ananse: What did you hear?

Me: Well you know how he tried to help you marry that princess? The one whose name you had to guess right to marry. What’s her name again?

Ananse: Please don’t remind me. I would be a prince but for that thief!

Me: That’s not quite what I heard. In any case, it is your fault that Lizard cannot speak and moves his head about like you said.

Ananse: Rubbish. Twea kai! If anything bad happened to him, it’s his own fault. I am completely innocent.

Me: Agya Ananse, it was not only the Lizard. I hear there are many other things that you are responsible for as well.

Ananse: That is true. Everybody owes me something. In fact, I am the one who gave mankind stories. Yes me. I did that. Stories used to be all about Nyankupong, the supreme god. He owned all stories too. If you must know, I was very clever in my dealings with him. Now, all stories are my stories. That is why we call them Anansesem.

Me: Oh yes, I heard that story many times from when I was small. I wrote it up in my very first book of African folktales.

Ananse: Mo, that is well. As our cousins in Nigeria say, “The lizard who jumped from the high iroko tree said he would praise himself if no one would.” It is not mere boasting when I say that I am the most clever and the most resourceful person on earth.

Me: About the most clever person thing, I remember a story about your water riddle and that …

Ananse: Let’s not go there. You know what? I’m not feeling well right now. Let’s do the interview another day. I must rest now.

Me: But I heard some stories about things that are your fault. I’m putting many of them in my next book. Don’t you want to comment before I tell them to my audience?

Ananse: What stories?

Me: Well, I hear it’s because of you that crocodiles hide their ears and chickens have beaks.

Ananse: What! I had nothing to do with any of that. I am completely innocent. Go and come back tomorrow night. I will tell you how chickens got beaks. I will even have the people, who saw it happen, here to confirm the story.

Me: Thank you, Agya Ananse. I came a long way to speak to you. Won’t you please tell me the story now?

Ananse: Absolutely not. Young people these days! You think you know everything. Who tells stories during the day?

Me: Why would you not tell a story during the day?

Ananse: If you tell a story during the day, your father will become a monkey and your mother will become a frog.

Me: Oh come on!

Ananse: He he he he he.

Me: Agya Ananse!

Ananse: Come tomorrow evening. My children will be here, and we’ll make it an event.

Me: I’ll be here. If it is not too much bother, I would also like to hear about the crocodile’s ears, the elephant’s bottom and the angry ants.

Ananse: No, I will only tell you about the beak business. I don’t have as good a memory for those other stories.

Me: Could that be because you are not so innocent in those stories?

Ananse: Oh, just be off with you now, impertinent child. Come back later.

Me: Yoo, Agya Ananse, I will take my leave now. I will be here tomorrow. Thank you for talking to me.

Ananse: Walk well.