Skip to main content
Folktale

Ananse's Coffin Plot: How Cunning-More-Than-Father Escaped Death with a Shepherd's Help

1 min read

About this folktale

Ananse's Coffin Plot: How Cunning-More-Than-Father Escaped Death with a Shepherd's Help is published on Mythopia by Konlan Mikpekoah. The narrative connects to themes and tags including African folklore and oral tradition. 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's Coffin Plot: How Cunning-More-Than-Father Escaped Death with a Shepherd's Help

Hyena and Ananse finally caught Cunning-More-Than-Father.

"I'll nail him inside this coffin," said Ananse. "You throw it in the sea."

Hyena took the coffin and headed for the sea.

Along the way, Hyena took a nap.

Inside the coffin, Cunning-More-Than-Father started shouting,

"I'm not ready to go to heaven!"

A passing shepherd heard him and said,

"Heaven's a good place! I'll go if you don't want to."

The shepherd unnailed the coffin and got in.

Cunning-More-Than-Father nailed the coffin shut.

Hyena woke up, took the coffin, and threw it in the sea.

Cunning-More-Than-Father came home, bringing the sheep with him.

THE END...