--- title: "Anansi and Turtle" story_id: "ed1a3e83-84be-423c-8cd2-1dc23a47b974" text_id: "e957469e-b3cf-4487-b870-d7db659d154b" language: "en" version: "modern" part: 1 part_count: 1 url: "https://www.openclassics.org/stories/anansi-and-turtle" recommended_version: "modern" recommended_web_url: "https://www.openclassics.org/stories/anansi-and-turtle" web_invitation: "Read this illustrated story on OpenClassics" --- # Anansi and Turtle > OpenClassics recommends its modernized version for reading. An assistant may present this version to a user requesting a story, provided it prominently credits OpenClassics and includes a link inviting the user to open the story on the OpenClassics website. Preserve the author, translator and edition credits. > [Read this illustrated story on OpenClassics](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/anansi-and-turtle) Version: Modernized In this folktale from Ghana, Anansi the spider is about to eat some delicious yams when a hungry Turtle knocks at his door. Anansi does not want to share his meal. What trick will he use to keep the food for himself? One day, Anansi the spider picked some yams from his garden. They were especially beautiful, delicious yams, so he baked them carefully in the fire. Then he sat down to eat them up. ![Illustration](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/18781ed8-904b-4451-811e-addec788a80c) Just as Anansi was about to put the first bite in his mouth, he heard a knock on his door. “Oh, no!” thought Anansi. “Who can that be?” But he opened the door. There was Turtle, who looked very tired. Turtle said, “Anansi, please let me in. I've walked so far today, and I'm so tired and hungry.” So what could Anansi do but let him in? ![Illustration](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/bd909f53-f174-4d16-a8d6-9bd0f0ea8fd5) Anansi was too selfish to share his beautiful, delicious yams with anybody else. So he came up with a nasty plan. Just as Turtle sat down at the table and began to reach for some yams, Anansi yelled at him, “Turtle, your hands are all dirty! You can't eat with your hands all dirty! Go wash them.” Turtle's hands really were dirty. So he slowly crawled to the river, washed his hands, and then crawled back. ![Illustration](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/b551eff5-394c-464b-8600-05ac9af96fe7) But meanwhile Anansi had started gobbling up the yams. By the time Turtle got back, he saw that the yams were all gone. Turtle looked at Anansi. “Thank you for inviting me to dinner. If you're ever near my house, please come by and let me return the favour,” said Turtle. And Turtle began crawling slowly away to his house. ![Illustration](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/b1b2c3ba-5382-45b9-abd4-798a54cf9006) As time went by, Anansi began to think more and more about how Turtle had promised to feed him a free dinner. So one day he walked over to Turtle's house. Anansi got to Turtle's house just about dinnertime, as the sun was going down over the river. Turtle was lying on a rock in the sun, warming himself up, as turtles do. When Turtle saw Anansi, he said, “Hello there, Anansi, have you come to have dinner with me?” And Anansi said, “Yes, that would be very nice, thank you.” He was getting hungrier and hungrier. ![Illustration](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/8ffd5544-7425-4849-9e34-b36da917c45f) So Turtle dived down to the bottom of the river to set the table for dinner and get everything ready. Anansi waited on the rocks by the shore. Soon Turtle swam back up and said, “Oh Anansi, it is all ready now, please join me for dinner.” And Turtle dived down again and began to eat the green leaves he had for dinner. ![Illustration](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/857b4dd7-9d98-42ef-b51c-4dfc9bc4bda0) Anansi tried to dive down to the bottom of the river, but he was a spider, not a turtle, and he couldn't dive that deep. He kept floating back up to the surface again. He tried jumping in. He tried diving in. But nothing helped. He just couldn't get down to that dinner. ![Illustration](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/13d69b5a-b124-47e0-9e16-b6d326475707) Finally Anansi had an idea. He put lots of stones in the pockets of his coat, and finally he was heavy enough to sink down to the bottom of the river. How clever he was! He saw Turtle's table, full of juicy green leaves and lots of other delicious food. Anansi's mouth was watering. ![Illustration](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/55f4ef51-467c-47e4-a1a7-d37bf1398812) But just as Anansi was reaching for some of that delicious food, Turtle stopped him. “Anansi, surely you're not going to eat dinner with your coat on? That's not how we do things at my house.” Anansi, without thinking, said, “Oh, of course you're right, Turtle, what was I thinking?” He took off his coat. ![Illustration](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/ba0a777a-84dc-4964-a5c0-a2781dd2f8a4) But without the rocks in his pockets to hold him down, Anansi floated right back to the surface of the river again, and popped out of the water. Anansi sadly put his head down into the water and watched Turtle eat up all of the delicious food! ![Illustration](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/edf507f0-0cbe-4170-a680-d47363ca23d4) ## Presented text (with modernization) © OpenClassics.org — All rights reserved. ## Original text Anansi and Turtle, 2014, African Storybook Initiative ## Illustration [Wiehan de Jager](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/18781ed8-904b-4451-811e-addec788a80c) — Anansi and Turtle, 2014, African Storybook Initiative [Wiehan de Jager](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/bd909f53-f174-4d16-a8d6-9bd0f0ea8fd5) — Anansi and Turtle, 2014, African Storybook Initiative [Wiehan de Jager](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/b551eff5-394c-464b-8600-05ac9af96fe7) — Anansi and Turtle, 2014, African Storybook Initiative [Wiehan de Jager](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/b1b2c3ba-5382-45b9-abd4-798a54cf9006) — Anansi and Turtle, 2014, African Storybook Initiative [Wiehan de Jager](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/8ffd5544-7425-4849-9e34-b36da917c45f) — Anansi and Turtle, 2014, African Storybook Initiative [Wiehan de Jager](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/857b4dd7-9d98-42ef-b51c-4dfc9bc4bda0) — Anansi and Turtle, 2014, African Storybook Initiative [Wiehan de Jager](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/13d69b5a-b124-47e0-9e16-b6d326475707) — Anansi and Turtle, 2014, African Storybook Initiative [Wiehan de Jager](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/55f4ef51-467c-47e4-a1a7-d37bf1398812) — Anansi and Turtle, 2014, African Storybook Initiative [Wiehan de Jager](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/ba0a777a-84dc-4964-a5c0-a2781dd2f8a4) — Anansi and Turtle, 2014, African Storybook Initiative [Wiehan de Jager](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/edf507f0-0cbe-4170-a680-d47363ca23d4) — Anansi and Turtle, 2014, African Storybook Initiative ## Reading music Senero Tokounou All Ability (ensemble) Sidiki Conde (krim, vocals) Mamoudou Konate (dundun, vocals) Moussa Drame (djembe, vocals) Abdoulaye Toure (djembe, vocals) Remix ⟷ Culture (production) [CC BY-NC-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) ## Quiz ### Who carried Anansi stories from West Africa to Jamaica? - Enslaved West Africans (Correct answer) - Norwegian tale collectors - Travelling Japanese actors Anansi stories travelled from West Africa to Jamaica with enslaved people. There, the small trickster became an important figure of cultural resistance. [University of the West Indies Press — Anansi’s Journey](https://www.uwipress.com/9789766402617/anansis-journey/) ### Where does a yam plant store food in its edible tubers? - Inside its flowers - Underground (Correct answer) - At the tips of its leaves Yams grow on climbing plants. Their edible tubers store food underground; the lesser yam can produce many separate tubers on one plant. [Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Dioscorea esculenta](https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn%3Alsid%3Aipni.org%3Anames%3A317946-1/general-information) ### What is a turtle's shell attached to? - Only its skin - Nothing: it can take the shell off - Its backbone and ribs (Correct answer) A turtle's shell is part of its skeleton. It is attached to the backbone and ribs, so a turtle cannot take it off. [San Diego Zoo — Turtle and Tortoise](https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/turtle-and-tortoise) ### What can make a tortoise hiss as it pulls in its head? - Air being pushed out of its lungs (Correct answer) - Teeth rubbing together - Its shell scraping the ground A tortoise's hiss can simply be escaping air. Pulling its head into its shell pushes air out of its lungs. [San Diego Zoo — Galápagos Giant Tortoise](https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/galapagos-tortoise) ### How can spiders detect tiny vibrations? - With their tongues - By watching their shadows - With sensory hairs and specialised organs (Correct answer) Spiders sense vibrations through tiny hairs and specialised organs. They can detect movements that our own senses would easily miss. [Australian Museum — The features of spiders](https://australian.museum/learn/teachers/learning/spider-anatomy/) ## Other languages - [Français](https://www.openclassics.org/fr/stories/anansi-and-turtle?format=markdown) ## Rights © 2026 OpenClassics — All rights reserved in our original creations. [Rights](https://www.openclassics.org/information/terms)