WHY THE SEA IS ALWAYS BOILING

              The animal learnt later on, that God had not changed the date, but that it was Ananse who had been callous to them. Because of this, they also took their own plan against him. The reason why Brother Ananse wanted that position, because was he wanted to get greater part of the meal that was going to be prepared.

              Ananse liked food so much that he could eat as many as twelve barrels of ‘’fufu’’ at a time and drink twenty four gallons of water in addition. That was not all; He could eat six bags of orange in addition to it. So it was a great chance for him to eat.

                Because of Ananse’s plan, when it was time for work, Ananse put all the other animals he employed in charge of the tent building. They were to cut trees from the forest, which was a long distance away from the palace, where the party was going to be held. As some were doing that, others were to dig holes whiles others were to cut palm trees, to shade the tent from the sun. As for Ananse, he was going to be at the kitchen doing the cooking all alone.

                The party was going to be attended by a lot of guest, and so Ananse needed to prepare a very large meal to serve them all. He started with the soup. He gathered all the big rivers into a very big pan he went to bring a very large quantity of salt to give the food a very good taste.Then it was left with meat and vegetables. Ananse went to complain to God that because there were too many fishes in the world and, they could rise and overthrow Him one day, and so He should allow him to use the fishes as meat for the soup. God felt that the idea was right and so permitted Ananse to use the fish’s meat. In those days, fishes did not live in water. They also lived on land like the other animals.

THE ANIMALS EXECUTE THEIR PLAN

As all these were going on, the other animals were also plotting against Ananse. They knew that the plan of Ananse was to prepare the meal using the other animals either as labourers or meat so that eventually, he would enjoy the meal alone. So they planned to stop. They planned to kidnap Ananse so that the party would not come on. If there was no one to prepare the meal, there would be no party at all. Some of the animals preferred the party to comes off, leaving Ananse not to enjoy all the food alone.

               So one day, as Brother Ananse was going about the cooking, fetching fire wood for the soup, the animals sent monkey to go and spy on him. The animals had dug a very deep hole and spread it with net. They covered the net with leaves and sand so that Ananse would not notice that there was a net trap him. Their plan was to catch him into the net, and never release him again.

They made four strong animals to go and hold the four corners of the net. Meanwhile, Monkey was on a tree waiting for Ananse to come and pass on the net. The animals went and built the trap at a place where Ananse passed always, and so there was no way he was going to be spared.

             Ananse had put salt into the water and added fishes to it. He fanned it to make sure the water was boiling. Then he decided to get some vegetables to start the soup ‘’Ta la talalaala, tala lala laala’’. Ananse was whistling as he walked gently to the farm for vegetables. But as soon as he reached the site where the operation was going on, Monkey gave a signal to the four strong animals.

             Immediately they received the signal from monkey that Ananse had stepped on the net, the four strong animals left the parts that they were holding and Ananse fell heavily into the hole. Immediately, Ananse started shouting and crying; ‘’Help! Help!’’ he screamed.

             When the animals saw that their plan had worked and Ananse was in trouble, shouting for help, they run to tease him. They said, ‘’do you think you will always win? You wanted to fool God and we, but we got you. The salted and fish will keep boiling till the end of the world. However, because it is not a complete soup and we cannot call it by the long name, ‘salted sea and fish’ all the time, we shall call it ‘sea’. Anytime you hear the name sea, you will cast your eyes back to see what you wanted to do to us all.’’

             This was the sad end of Ananse when he wanted to proof wiser than all other animals and how the sea got his name. It is also why the sea is salty, always boiling and has a lot of fishes in it.