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'Anancy an Ticks', 'Anancy an Smoke-Pork' and 'Bra Nancy an Tiger' are short stories that appear in the 1979 anthology 'Anancy and Miss Lou'. Written by Jamaican folklorist and author, Louise Bennett-Coverley, the stories feature the adventures of the main character, Anancy, as he uses trickery and cunning to outsmart those around him for personal gain. Anancy stories are a part of West-African oral tradition and the tales were brought to the Caribbean by the Ashanti people of Ghana during slavery. The modern retellings in 'Anancy and Miss Lou' are done using Jamaican Patois, a widely-spoken, unofficial Jamaican language that Bennett-Coverley is credited with pioneering amid pushback from Jamaica's middle and upper classes.

Gender Theory in ‘Anancy an Ticks’, ‘Anancy an Smoke-pork’ and ‘Bra Nancy and Tiger’

Anancy whose name is sometimes spelled ‘Anansi’ is folklore character originated in West Africa and brought to Jamaica and other parts of the world by Ashanti slaves. Anancy stories are handed down orally from generation to generations. He exists as a man, a spider and sometimes both. Anancy is a lazy, greedy, inventive trickster, cunning and extremely smart.

Louise Bennett Coverley was a renowned Jamaican folklorist who was committed in preserving the language (patois or creole) and culture of Jamaica through poetry and readings. This discourse aims to critically analyze three story from the Louise Bennett anthology through a gendered perspective, examine the extent to which patriarchy is reflected, how language beliefs helps to shape masculinity and femininity in the Caribbean and how is manhood and womanhood portrayed in any of the text.

Background on language

Louise Simone Bennett-Coverley (September 7,1919 – July 26, 2006), known as Miss Lou, OM, OJ, MBE was a Jamaican folklorist, poet, educator, writer and activist who defended the ‘languagehood’ of Jamaican speech. She was called a ‘living language’ and a ‘culture icon’ by most Jamaicans. Miss Lou has for decades been the face of Jamaican culture, through her poems in Jamaican patois, she raised the dialect of Jamaican language to an art level that is appreciated by all in Jamaica. Miss Lou uses her poems to capture the spontaneity of the expression of Jamaican joy, sorrow, religion and even their philosophy of life. She wrote her first creole poem when she was fourteen years old. In the late 1930s to early 1940s she was embarrassed whenever it was time to use dialect because it was socially unacceptable and only the poor and illiterate spoke the language.   

The official language of Jamaica is Jamaican Standard English, but the true Jamaican language is patois which emerged from languages of those who came to the island. Years later it has developed to be a colourful language. Patois can easily be understood if time is taken to listen although many of the phrases are unique to Jamaica. The language originally developed as a pidgin.

Language in general has linguistic features that include phonology, lexicon, grammar and syntax. However, in creole the sound system is different from that of the English, e.g. patois – hegg, English – egg. The lexicon for patois looks similar to the English but they do not have the same meaning. E.g. belly is used to refer to pregnancy.

Grammar in patois is pluralized by adding “dem” after the noun and syntax is featured in certain elements of a sentence.

Plot summary

Anancy an Ticks

The story “Anancy and Ticks” is a famous Caribbean folktale about the trickster spider ‘Anancy’, it was first told by Phillip Sherlock in his book 'Anansi the Spider Man' (1956). In the story, Anancy sees an ad in the newspaper about a man looking for a cow to hire. Having no cow himself, Anancy devises a plot to trick his neighbor, Ticks, who owns a cow. To achieve his goal, Anancy kills his own goat and manages to place the blame on Ticks. As payment for the dead goat, Anancy convinces Ticks to agree to not only hire out his cow but to work the cow and hand over the money earned to Anansi until the debt is repaid.

Anancy an Smoke-Pork

In ‘Anancy an Smoke-Pork’, the titular character is a pork-lover and wants a taste of the meat from the large pig owned by his wife. He knows his wife will not slaughter her pig to feed him under normal circumstances, so he comes up with a plan to trick her into doing exactly what he wants. Anancy starts off his plan by feigning a serious, seemingly fatal illness which prompts his wife to call the doctor. Once she leaves to get the doctor, he quickly disguises himself as a doctor and takes a short cut to intercept her. Once she describes Anancy's symptoms to the "doctor", the "doctor" diagnoses Anancy with an illness that can only be cured by eating pork. In desperation, Anancy's wife agrees to kill her prized pig to save her husband's life. Once back home, Anancy (no longer in disguise) pretends to be shocked by the diagnosis and treatment, and initially refuses to eat the pig. After a while he pretends to cave and he is served the pig. He eats bit by bit till he is full, but there is still a large chunk of pork left uneaten. In an effort to not waste the meat, Anancy hangs the pig over a fire to smoke the meat - thus making it last longer. According to the story, this is why people started smoking meats to preserve them.

Bra Nancy an Tigar

‘Bra Nancy an Tigar’ tells the story of Bredda Anancy and Bredda Tigar, who were courting the same woman, Quashiba. To increase the chances of being chosen, Bredda Anancy hatches a scheme to convince Quashiba that his rival, Bredda Tigar is 'old ridin horse' and is therefore beneath her. After he tells Quashiba this detail, he set out to trick Bredda Tigar, so he can prove that his claim is true. Tigar however, hears what Anancy has been saying about him and heads over to his house to confront him. Upon arrival at Anancy's house, Tigar immediately demands that Anancy accompany him to clear his name with Quashiba. However, Anancy responds with groans and complaints of pain, implying that he is sick. He agrees to go with Tigar, but only if he's able to ride Tigar's back. Tigar is fine with this, and and also agrees to Anancy's additional request for Tigar to wear a saddle to make the journey more comfortable. When they arrive at Quashiba's she witnesses Anancy riding Tigar in full riding gear, thus confirming what she was told, that Tigar was an "old ridin horse". Quashiba dismisses Tigar and in the end she and Anancy get married.

Themes

Polyamory

Polyamory is the practice of having multiple intimate relationships, with the full knowledge and consent of all parties involved. Polyamory is not gender-specific and rejects the idea of exclusivity, anyone of any gender can have multiple partners. In ‘Bra Anancy an Tigar’ it is evident that ‘Mish Quashiba’ was dating Anancy and Tigar at the same time although Anancy did everything he could to end the relationship between ‘Mish Quashiba’ and Tigar.

Patriarchy

Patriarchy is a socially constructed system where males have primary powers and are the head. It affects many aspects of life from politics, business management, religion, property ownership right down to the family home where men are considered leaders. In anancy and ticks patriarchy was reflected in the form of leadership when anancy gain leadership over ticks which leads back to the representation of manhood in the Caribbean. Caribbean men are referred to as ‘ginal’s’ and use their advantages to get gain.

Masculinity refers to the qualities, characteristics or roles considered typical of a boy or man in a society or social context, the context of masculinity may vary on culture (Chevannes 2001). Dr. Natasha Mortley found that Jamaican men are suffering from an identity crisis related to high youths’ unemployment which puts a strain on gender relations and masculinity. She highlighted that men have conflicts, which affects their identity, attitude and practices.

Deception

Deception was evident in ‘Anancy an ticks’ when Anancy deliberately caused ticks to believe he is the cause of his goats’ life when he knew it was to achieve personal gains. 

Gender Theory and Language

Gender refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviours, expression and identities of girl’s boy’s, men and gender diverse people. It influences how people perceive themselves and each other, how they act and interact. In the Caribbean men are considered a real man when they are engaged in multiple relationships, but in this case, it is a woman that has more than one partner. In Jamaica it is frowned upon when a woman has multiple sex partners to the extent to which she is referred to as;’ promiscuous, whore, slut’ but one such act for this behaviour can be for the men to maintain her financially.

In contemporary society males dominate for the top or highest position in an organization whilst the women are mostly in the middle of the lowest positions in their majority this is so because patriarchy has instilled such power in society for men to be the leaders/heads. In the story ‘Anancy an ticks’ Anancy took full control of ticks by making him work his cow to get money to pay Anancy for his damage. Anancy was able to take full control over ticks, he could do such act because he was literate and could understand enough to “study a brain” which means to think about things that could be done to them without them knowing the truth about something especially through misleading information.

‘Jack Mandora me nuh choose none’ could be interpreted as an individual and his/her combolo (friends). In the event the story was told to be fun, as a mere division of thought. It was through only good manners to say, “the story is not aimed at you or anyone else, nor am I wishing the same fate on you.” Hence, “Jack Mandora, me nuh choose none.”