Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/594552
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 1 NOVEMBER 2015 This Week 31 with a story to tell Nanzi is the mischievous hero of the tales, with a sharp tongue and sharper mind, surviving and putting one over the creatures who are bigger and more power- ful than her. In the hands of trained puppet- eers like Sean Briffa and Chan- telle Micallef Grimaud the pup- pets take a life of their own. The puppets are designed by Sean Briffa and myself, and the play is directed by Franco Rizzo. What do you hope kids will get out of the show? I think theatre is first and fore- most about entertainment: I hope anyone who sees Nanzi has a good laugh! Then I hope they get Nanzi's attitude: irreverent and anarchic, challenging her 'superiors' and knocking them down from their high chairs! These folk tales also carry vari- ous layers of meaning: how fear and the unknown can be con- quered by an inner strength and self-belief. And I also hope they enjoy the exquisitely designed puppets. Nanzi will be staged on No- vember 19, 21 (17:00) and 22 (10:00 and 17:00) at St James Cavalier, Valletta. For more information log on to: http://www.ziguzajg.org/ Who is Nanzi? Nanzi, or 'Anansi' is an African folktale character who often takes the shape of a spider and is considered to be the spirit of all knowledge of stories. He is also one of the most important characters of West African and Caribbean folklore. Also known as Ananse, Kwaku Ananse, and Anancy – and in the southern United States he has evolved into Aunt Nancy – he is a spider, but often acts and appears as a man. The Anansi tales originated from the Ashanti people of present-day Ghana. The word Ananse is Akan and means 'spider'. They later spread to other Akan groups and then to the West Indies, Suriname, and the Netherlands Antilles. On Curaçao, Aruba, and Bonaire he is known as Nanzi, and his wife as Shi Maria. Anansi is depicted in many different ways. Sometimes he looks like an ordinary spider, sometimes he is a spider wearing clothes or with a human face and sometimes he looks much more like a human with spider elements, such as eight legs. In the Caribbean Anansi is often celebrated as a symbol of slave resistance and survival. Anansi is able to turn the table on his powerful oppressors using his cunning and trickery, a model of behaviour utilised by slaves to gain the upper-hand within the confines of the plantation power structure. Anansi is also believed to have played a multi-functional role in slaves' lives, as well as inspiring strategies of resistance the tales enabled slaves to establish a sense of continuity with their African past and offered them the means to transform and assert their identity within the boundaries of captivity.