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Trickster Tale

Ananse Tricks Hyena by the River: A Clever African Folktale

1 min read

About this folktale

Ananse Tricks Hyena by the River: A Clever African Folktale is published on Mythopia by Konlan Mikpekoah. The narrative connects to themes and tags including African Tales, Ghanaian Tales, Ananse. Even shorter folktales carry moral and cultural weight: readers often compare how the lesson applies today, and how the same motif appears across regions. If you know another version from your family or community, Mythopia welcomes a respectful retelling so audiences can compare tone, detail, and local wisdom alongside this text.

African folktale illustration – Ananse Tricks Hyena by the River: A Clever African Folktale

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Ananse and Hyena went to the river.

"Take out your guts before your bath!"

Ananse told Hyena, and Hyena did.

Then Ananse ate Hyena's guts while Hyena took a bath.

"Where are my guts?" shouted Hyena.

"The monkeys took your guts to Monkey-Town,"

said Ananse. Hyena ran to Monkey-Town,

and the monkeys were all singing:

"All the monkeys swallowed them up!

We ate Mister Hyena's guts!"

Hyena got mad and started killing the monkeys.

One of the monkeys shouted,

"Stop that, Hyena! It's only a song!

Ananse taught us this song yesterday."

So Hyena knew Ananse had tricked him again.

THE END...