Storytelling "Betrayal of the White Ants"

A termite (white ant) mound in Africa (Source)

 Listen, my son, and I will tell you the story of how the dreadful humans betrayed us and murdered our ancestors.  I will tell you why they are never to be trusted and why we must always work against them, destroying anything they construct.

It all began many moons ago, when there but a few of us on the earth. At this time, there was not hatred between the animals, and all lived happily, trusting one another and never harming another being.

One day, White Ant and his children were on their way to work, when they happened across Wolf and Leopard, where were both tied to and hanging from a great tree.

What are you doing up there? they inquired.

We have been betrayed by that evil trickster spider, Anansi! they cried.   He is the one who tied us up here and left us to be mocked and shamed by all the village and all the animals.

Our kind and trusting ancestors sought a way to untie them, but alas, the knots were tied so cleverly and tightly that none of them could hardly budge the sturdy ropes.  They resolved instead to eat away at the tree that held them fast, until it fell and the two noble animals could be freed.  For the entire day, our strong fathers and mothers toiled diligently, until at last the tree fell, and Wolf and Leopard were freed.

Full of gratitude, they promise magnificent feast the next day to repay us for our kindness towards them.  We readily agreed and set off for bed, while Wolf and Leopard went out to prepare a great feast of gratitude.

The next day, after some trouble, we all began to go to that great feast prepared for us.  As we walked, we talked eagerly about the marvelous foods that must have been prepared for us.  All our tiny mouths were watering with excitement.

Imagine then, my son, the great disappointment that these poor ants must have felt upon arriving and finding nothing but crumbs.  Wolf and Leopard were finishing packing up everything that they had brought and from the scene before White Ant and his family, it was obvious the feast had already taken place.

In anger our ancestors began to protest the unfair treatment at the hands of these two otherwise noble creatures, but Wolf and Lion appeared to become even more enraged, and shouting something about Anansi himself, they poured boiling water on the ground, killing all of the ants present, except for good White Ant.

With tears still choking him, he demanded to know what the ants had done wrong, and why they had just been killed.

Trouble us not with your foolish tricks, Anansi! they replied to him. You fool! The ants already came and went, your shapeshifting cannot fool us!

 With these words, they bounded into the forest, leaving behind White Ant with the bodies of his brothers, sisters, and children.

At first, White Ant was angry with the Wolf and Leopard, but soon realized that they too had been tricked yet again by the evil Anansi.  For Anansi had already come to the feast, disguised as a great many white ants, and had eaten until his cursed stomach was full.  For this reason, the unsuspecting Wolf and Leopard had thought the true ants imposters and had murdered them.

My son, Anansi now lives among the humans, and for this we must burrow into all that they own, trying to root out his evil presence.  We must never give up until we find him, for he must repay this evil that he has done to us.

Author's Note:

This story is based off the tale "Why White Ants Always Harm Men's Property" from West African Folk-Tales, compiled by W. H. Barker and Cecilia Sinclair.  In this tale, Anansi tricks and humiliates Wolf and Leopard after they rob him of an antelope that he has found in the midst of a famine.  Anansi conspires for them to hang themselves in a tree, where they are rescued by the white ants (as a side note, white ants are simply termites).  In gratitude, they prepare a feast for them, but Anansi tricks them again by showing up disguised before the other ants.  When the real ants do show up, they think that they are the trickster and try to kill him.  I wanted to write a story about this episode from the perspective of the termites, as they were mostly innocent bystanders throughout this whole series of events.