This question is based on MARRIAGE OF ANANSEWA. Which of these best describes Ananse?

Answer Details

In Efua Sutherland's The Marriage of Anansewa, Ananse is best described as a trickster and manipulator. He is drawn from the Akan spider-trickster tradition (Anansi), and in the play he embodies cunning, deception, and self-serving scheming.

Ananse's central scheme involves offering his daughter Anansewa's hand in marriage to four different chiefs simultaneously, collecting generous bride prices from each. He has no intention of honouring all four commitments; instead, he plans to choose the wealthiest suitor and pocket the gifts from the rest. This requires elaborate deception - lying to the chiefs, staging false crises, and even orchestrating Anansewa's fake death to extricate himself from the tangle of commitments he has created. Every move is calculated to maximise his personal gain.

The other descriptions contradict what the play shows. Ananse is neither naive (he is highly calculating) nor kind (his schemes harm others). He is not generous and selfless - greed is his primary motivation. While he may be clever, "wise but poor" mischaracterises him because wisdom implies moral judgment, whereas Ananse's intelligence is purely instrumental, deployed for self-enrichment rather than genuine insight. The trickster-manipulator label captures both his folk-tale archetype and his specific behaviour in this play.