About this folktale
Ananse's Fatal Counting Trick: How Monkey Outsmarted Him - A Twisted African Tale is published on Mythopia by Konlan Mikpekoah. The narrative connects to themes and tags including African Tales, Ghanaian Tales, Ananse, African Stories. 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.
Ananse decided to play a trick.
He dug five yam-hills,
and then he sat beside his yam-field,
weeping. Hog walked by.
"What's wrong?" Hog asked.
"I can't count my yam-hills," said Ananse.
"You fool!" said Hog.
"I'll count: one-two-three-four-five."
When Hog said "five" he dropped down dead.
Ananse ate him. Goat too.
Dog. Cow. Then Monkey came.
"One-two-three-four," Monkey said,
"plus one more!"
"You fool!" shouted Ananse.
"Can't you count? It goes like this:
one-two-three-four-five!"
When Ananse said five,
he fell down dead. Monkey ate him.
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