Emily's Africa Page

This is a silhouette that I made by painting a sunset then adding the black paper scenery and monkey.

This story is dedicated to my sister Megan and her friend, Jessalynn.

Dolphin Press, Spring 1999

It all began when Ananse travelled to the jungle and found a zebra with no stripes. He asked, "Where are your stripes?"

"The sun faded them away," replied Zebra.

So, Ananse goes to the village and looks for some black paint. He finds some black paint, but he does not have enough money. So, he goes to the wishing well and grabs three pennies. Then, he has enough. Next, he goes and buys some black paint. Then, he walks back to the jungle. He paints the plain white zebra with black paint for stripes, but then Zebra took a bath and all of the paint came off.

"Oh, no!" cried Ananse. "Wait, I know what to do!"

The next day, Ananse quickly spun a web up to visit Sky God. "O' great Sky God, I need to have some stripes for Zebra in the jungle," said Ananse.

"Oh, it is you, so small, so small Ananse. You must find me Clemmy the little monkey who swings so fast, so fast, Mufa the butterfly who flies down by the short palm trees, and also Tia the Cheetah who runs so very fast," said Sky God.

"I will," said Ananse.

"Twe, twe, twe," laughed Sky God.

Back in the jungle, Ananse came upon Clemmy the monkey who swings so fast. He quickly grabbed some grass, tied it together, then he got a banana and hooked it on. Suddenly, Clemmy saw the banana and started to eat it. But while she was eating, Ananse had tied a string so that when he pulled it Clemmy would be caught in the grass. When she was about to go back to swinging, Ananse pulled the string and caught her. Then, he spun a web around her and set her by a nearby tree where the sunlight was shining in.

Then he walked deeper into the jungle and looked a little bit to the right and saw Mufa the butterfly flying down by the short palm trees. Ananse grabbed some wood off of one of the trees and found some grapes and smashed them so he could use them to paint a face on the wood so it would look like a giant fly.

Then, bringing the giant, wooden face of a fly, he went to the village to get some thread to make a net to catch Mufa the butterfly in. When he tried to fly away from the giant fly he would see. Then, after he had bought the thread he started to make it, but he ran out of thread and did not have enough money to buy more, so he used some of his silk. When he finished he was very hungry, so he got a few bananas to eat on the way to the jungle. When he got there he saw Mufa again. He quietly crept over to the palm tree Mufa was by and held up the giant fly. Mufa tried to fly away but got caught in Ananse's net. Ananse quickly spun a beautiful web around the top of the net. Then, Ananse found the tree he had put Clemmy by and put the net on the right of the other web.

Then, he started to head to the end of the jungle when he got really tired. So he laid down by a shady tree and fell asleep.

When he awoke he saw Tia. When he saw Tia he looked around for some thing to use to catch her. He looked and looked. Nothing was in sight, so he decided to use some of his silk. He made a huge web where there was a little space between two trees.

When he finished he saw Tia moving closer to the web. Suddenly, Tia ran into the web, but it was so strong Tia bounched back. Then, Tia tried again and the whole web fell on her. She tried to get out, but she couldn't move herself. Quickly as he could, Ananse grabbed the web holding Tia in it and brought it over where all the other things he had caught were and spun a gigantic web around them.

It was a beautiful, striped patterned web that he spun to take up to Sky God. "O' great Sky God I have brought to you... Clemmy the little monkey who swings so very fast, Mufa the butterfly who flies down by the shortest palm trees and... Tia the Cheetah who is the fastest running cheetah in Africa.

"Here are the stripes for Zebra in the jungle," said Sky God.

"Eeee, eee, eee!" shouted all of the elders.

So Ananse gave Sky God the things he asked for and Sky God gave Ananse the stripes for Zebra. Ananse could not wait to give Zebra the stripes.

When Ananse arrived at the jungle he ran to see Zebra. "Zebra, Zebra!" Look what I have brought you," Ananse shouted. Ananse showed Zebra the stripes he had got from Sky God.

"Thank you so much," said Zebra.
Ananse put the stripes on Zebra, and Zebra was happy from that day on.

Meanwhile, the Sky God was having lots of fun with Clemmy the monkey who swings so very fast, Mufa the butterfly who flies down by the smallest palm trees, and Tia the Cheetah who was the fastest running cheetah in Africa.

The End

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