A jungle. A host of masked figures. The leader of them steps forwards, followed by an attendant.
Anansi:
All the world’s a jungle, and the earth
Hiss a deathly hum and buzzing thirst.
Ants and bees, jaguars and trees,
River, vine, beast earthly and divine.
Priest:
Anansi, Lord, I am yours.
Receive this here chicken bone, ink and wine
And teach me with your visions of the sky.
Anansi:
Idiot priest.
What use has man for the fickle empty sky?
Tree grows up, but man grows inside his empty head.
Priest:
What then can I ask of you instead?
Anansi:
Ask not why the Sun cuts through the soul.
Ask not why the day grow dark and cold.
Ask not what the gods want with him.
Priest:
And yet you called me?
Anansi:
Sharp as the spider’s fang.
Look around, earth is where likes of you belong.
I will learn you a vision of the ways of fate.
The jungle closes in, an’ your white man
Is scared, for he knows the beast it bring.
Drum pound heavy with spit and sweat, no rhythm
Simpler than a heartbeat touchin’ ‘im.
Boom Boom Boom. Tss. Boom. Tss. Boom. Tss. Boom.
The snake slither in the growth down there
An’ whisper in him ear. And now him hear
A prophesy plucked from the heart of darkness.
Up our river come a young man full o’ pride,
Wantin’ to make our man a lickle God.
But what he find within? He find ‘im madness,
And now he run back to him lickle business an’ cry.
Spin a long thread, my child, because the soul
Of the earth is a jungle, an’ every man know it.
All them business with them money and them work
Has built this here jungle up in faraway land,
Everyting growing, always, birthin’ on the flesh
O’ everyting else. Tis a cannibal world that kiss you
An’ make you feel love for a pretty girl.
We know the name, there but one name,
An’ they dare not utter it, though it look ‘em in the eye.
Them religions give a stupid faith, but who need faith
Who live with ‘im toes in dirt, who nostril breathe air?
The Christian man bring him cross, the people follow
And fill him churches with my music, my song.
The Islam man bring him sword, an’ live in fear
Because he cannot look a pussy in the eye.
My spiders crawl everywhere, an’ when they bite
A poison burn hot and spread like a madness,
Makin’ ‘em spring and sing tongues
An’ crave the man. Them legs be quaking,
An’ morals troubling over history. An’ all, we laugh.
Priest:
And what do I do?
Anansi:
(Thinks for a second).
Go down them ships,
An’ tell them sorry slaves a spider’s on them backs.
Priest:
Should we cut them?
Anansi:
Shh, cut them free?
You still a boy, you still believe a word
Like free mean true. You starin’ too long up there.
Stick your nose back in dirt, taste black soil,
No man got no business wit’ any man up there.
We crawl like spiders on the face of the jungle
No matter who the prince be callin’ himself today.
Go down them said slave ships an’ bang a drum.
The jungle has learned how to swim, an’ all that grows
Belongs to us. Blessings and you move.
exeunt.