Kweku Tsin

Overview

Kweku Tsin is Anansi’s eldest son and is explicitly able to take any shape he chooses. During famine, Thunder supplies Anansi with a food-producing pot, but the father hides it and eats privately while his wife and children grow weaker. Suspicious of his increasing weight, the family seeks the secret. Kweku becomes a tiny fly and accompanies Anansi into the closed room, where he observes the command and hiding place without being recognized as a son.

Once Anansi leaves, Kweku brings out the pot and summons the hungry household to eat. His mother subsequently takes it to feed the village, but the overloaded pot overheats and melts. The father then returns to Thunder and receives a stick that beats him rather than a second supply of food. Kweku’s attested contribution is covert transformation and the disclosure that breaks food monopoly; he is not credited with creating either magical object or causing every subsequent punishment.

Origins & earliest records

Barker and Sinclair collected versions from experienced teacher-training students at Accra and selected, arranged and retold them for this 1917 volume.

Records & interpretation

The selected tale attests the represented actions. The introduction explains the collection method; individual speakers and unedited transcripts are not provided here.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

1. 01

   West African Folk-Tales

   W. H. Barker and Cecilia Sinclair, collectors/arrangers · 1917

   Thunder and Anansi

2. 02

   West African Folk-Tales — IV. Thunder and Anansi

   W.H.Barker and Cecilia Sinclair, collectors and arrangers; individual student informant not identified in this tale · 1917

   W.H.Barker and Cecilia Sinclair, West African Folk-Tales, London: George G.Harrap & Company, MCMXVII(1917), CompletePress WestNorwood. Title and selected introduction methodpp14–16 independently read; stories collected through Accra teacher-training students, multiple versions selected and retold, not unmediated transcripts.

Family, evolution & connections

Textual genealogy: Anansi and Kweku Tsin in Thunder and Anansi

One explicitly named parent-child relationship in story IV of the 1917 collection.

Retain the story’s explicit identification of Kweku Tsin as Anansi’s eldest son. Selected textual kinship, not biological evolution. Other children and the wife are present but unnamed here; this is not a complete family tree. The collectors selected and retold contributor versions, and their colonial framing is not treated as a modern account of Akan communities or all diaspora traditions.

Located primary passages

Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

1. Collected and arranged oral taleThunder and AnansiResearch access: 2026-10-05
2. Collector methodologyIntroduction — collection methodResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.