Summary of Emily Zobel Marshall’s “and Always, Anancy Changes’: an Exploration of Andrew Salkey’s Anancy Stories

Summary of Emily Zobel Marshall’s “And Always, Anancy Changes’: An Exploration of Andrew Salkey’s Anancy Stories”.

This chapter written by Emily Zobel Marshall explores Andrew Salkey’s journey through time about the historic and infamous character Anansy. Anancy is a mischievous spider that has multiple personalities and manipulates other characters in the story. The Anancy stories are originated from a tribe called Akan from Ghana. Anancy tales were told in a mutual setting and is said to teach and inform people about life’s tribulations. Salkey noted that tales were transported by slaves to the Caribbean, and made the biggest impact in Jamaica. The Jamaican tales describes Anansy as a confusion architect amongst the characters.
Andrew Salkey was educated at the University of London and worked as a freelance broadcaster where he displayed his stories on air. In Salkey’s novels and journals, the prevailing theme focused on the history of the Caribbean and twentieth century political issues facing the region. His stories “Anansy’s Score and Anancy, Traveller are told in Creole but in his broadcasts and written work he fused Standard English and Creole. This shows that he wanted to preserve the Creole english. In these short stories, he experimented with narrative and structure and illuminates fundamental facets of Caribbean History.
There is a difference between Salkey’s collections and the original Anancy tales, this variance is morals and ethics versus cruelty and self indulgence. Andrew Salkey challenges his readers in his stories where he wants his readers to inquire about his depiction and their own world view. He believes that in order to become a storyteller you must become the character that is Anancy and by doing this, the audience will become engrossed.