The Autobiographical Voice of Kweku Ananse: Self-Representation, Storytelling, and Narrative Authority in Akan Oral Tradition "How Wisdom Became the Property of the Human Race." West African Folk-Tales "How Spider Obtained the Sky-God's Stories." African Folktales

Kweku Ananse has traditionally been studied as a trickster, moral instructor, and cultural symbol within Akan oral tradition. While existing scholarship has examined his intelligence, rhetorical skill, and social significance, little attention has been paid to how repeated storytelling constructs Ananse as a self-representing narrative figure. This paper argues that Ananse's autobiographical voice emerges not through a written life narrative but through the cumulative performance of Anansesɛm, where his identity is continually shaped by recurring speech, actions, successes, and failures. Drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin's theory of dialogism, Michel Foucault's theory of discourse and power, and Paul Ricoeur's theory of narrative identity, the study examines How Spider Obtained the Sky-God's Stories and How Wisdom Became the Property of the Human Race. The analysis demonstrates that Ananse's voice is dialogically produced through storytelling, his narrative authority derives from his symbolic association with the origin and transmission of stories, and his identity is continually reconstructed through oral performance and cultural memory. The paper further argues that although Ananse is symbolically recognized as the custodian of storytelling, the wisdom embedded in Anansesɛm remains a communal resource rather than an individual possession. By reconceptualizing Ananse as a self-representing narrative figure, this study contributes a new perspective to Akan oral literature and highlights the relationship between storytelling, narrative identity, cultural memory, and narrative authority in African oral tradition.