Reporter releases compilation of Bra Anansi stories

Folklore is a common source of inspiration for writers and in Belize, few characters are more popular than Bra Anansi, the mischievous spider who uses his superior intelligence to get what he wants. Today, freelance reporter Roy Davis released a compilation of his stories about the adventures of Anansi and friends under the title, All in One.

Roy Davis, Writer, Bra Anansi Stories
“From I was a child I use to hear the stories told to me and when I get older, I was intrigued by the character, the Bra Anansi character, you know tricky and everything like that, cunning, use ih and brawn versus brain. Bra Anansi dah the brain, Bra Tiger dah the brawn. Eena this world, you got the small fish and the big fish and I consider myself wah small fish so maybe I dah wah Anansi character fu true. I wah use my brain fi try to get by and survive eena this world.”

Janelle Chanona
“And every story have a moral right?”

Roy Davis
“Yes, they do have a moral, because I show like sometime greed mek wah person do foolish things…there’s a moral to each of the stories. And the first eight stories in the book are stories that were published before but the last set dah stories that were never published before. And the stories, I kinda mek them more modern eena the sense that I have television, one of them is a critique of the gang thing and whatnot and whatnot, that one I call Top Dog, but all in all, the stories them dah fi entertain, fi mek people laugh and I hope that whosoever read them, I know some people read them already, wah find them humorous.”

Copies of All in One can be purchased at The Book Centre, Angelus Press and from the author for twenty dollars a copy. According to Davis, Bra Anansi stories originated in Ghana, West Africa and were brought to the Caribbean by slaves.