The Triangular Trade and the Trickster Spider: How African Story-telling Spread Across the Globe in Secret

Speaker: Anne-Marie Langford, Learning Development Tutor.

Black History Month event

According to legend, Anansi, the trickster spider, was half god and half human but has since evolved into a multifaceted being who is not quite animal and not quite man. This change in Anansi’s fortunes reflects the changes experienced by African enslaved people who used this oral tradition of story-telling to maintain a connection with their history and culture in a time of rupture.

During the Triangular Trade, or transatlantic slave trade (circa 1526-1867), enslaved people were forcibly carried between Africa and the Caribbean. The stories travelled with enslaved people, spreading this story-telling from Africa to the Caribbean, Americas and Europe, through people of African ancestry and evolving across generations.

This talk includes an exploration of the historical and social context of Anansi stories and their journey across the globe, followed by a 20 minute interactive story-telling performance of “Why all stories are spider stories” which is an introduction to a performance project happening later this year.

Register for The Triangular Trade and the Trickster Spider.