A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
Rattray translates Mmoatia as little folk or fairies. In the Kwaboaso episode they sit on plantains, descend when she cuts them and seize her while singing about her refusal of prospective husbands. A rejected hunter nevertheless comes to her aid. His shots make the beings fall, but their elder describes the fallen as merely overcome by palm wine. Left alone, the elder offers the hunter his ammunition and the captive woman, warning that the others will awaken and pursue them. Bananas dropped along their escape route repeatedly delay the pursuers; the last fruit diverts them just before the travelers reach home.
Another witness includes a Mmoatia among the Sky-god’s demanded payment for his stories. Ananse places a latex-covered wooden doll and mashed yams beneath an odum tree where these beings play. A fairy asks permission to eat; Ananse makes the doll nod by pulling its string. When it fails to answer her thanks, her sister urges her to strike it. Both hands and then her stomach stick fast. Ananse binds her and presents her with the other demanded beings. The two episodes retain distinct group and individual encounters, including bodily vulnerability, renewed pursuit and capture through an apparently responsive object.
Origins & earliest records
Rattray’s Akan-Ashanti folk-tales prints Akan texts with facing English translations, first published 1930. The publicly readable scanned copy is a later lithographic reprint; its title page credits African artist contributors separately from the collector.
Records & interpretation
Complete Kwaboaso encounter, printed pp 51–54, and Mmoatia capture in the Spider-stories episode, pp 56–58, inspected. Fairies is the translator’s category; wings, precise height and backward feet are not established by these passages.
In the literature
“Then the hunter fired a gun at the fairies”
Every Girl Should Marry Him to Whom She Is Given in Marriage; How the Sky-god’s Stories Became Spider-stories; p. 53; Kwaboaso’s rescue · R. S. Rattray
The rejected hunter rescues Kwaboaso from her captors.
“her hand stuck there.”
Every Girl Should Marry Him to Whom She Is Given in Marriage; How the Sky-god’s Stories Became Spider-stories; p. 59; Ananse’s latex doll · R. S. Rattray
A fairy strikes the baited doll and sticks to it.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Akan-Ashanti folk-tales
Kwaboaso encounter pp 51–54; Spider-stories fairy capture pp 56–58.
- 02
Akan-Ashanti Folk-Tales — Every Girl Should Marry Him to Whom She Is Given in Marriage; How the Sky-god’s Stories Became Spider-stories
Oxford: Clarendon Press, first published 1930. Inspected scan is a later lithographic reprint; its reprint year is not established here. Twi and English occupy facing pages. English quotation page numbers were read visually from the facsimile, rather than inferred from OCR page breaks. Selected witness: English pp. 53–59.
Family & connections
A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.
Located primary passages
Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.
Akan-Ashanti Folk-Tales — Every Girl Should Marry Him to Whom She Is Given in Marriage; How the Sky-god’s Stories Became Spider-stories
Oxford: Clarendon Press, first published 1930. Inspected scan is a later lithographic reprint; its reprint year is not established here. Twi and English occupy facing pages. English quotation page numbers were read visually from the facsimile, rather than inferred from OCR page breaks.
- Kwaboaso rejects proposed husbands, then little folk seize her while she cuts plantains; the rejected hunter hears her and shoots the captors.
- The eldest captor supplies gunpowder and bullets and advises scattering bananas to delay the other fairies; the hunter returns Kwaboaso but later refuses the renewed marriage proposal.
- A fairy accepts food from Ananse’s nodding doll, strikes it for failing to answer her thanks and sticks to the latex coating; Ananse binds and delivers her to the Sky-god.
Complete selected English episodes read. Named individual narrator is not established by the selected heading. The narrative is a located historical witness, not a universal assertion about current Akan belief. No ritual formula or song refrain reproduced.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary collected narrative translationRattray — Mmoatia encountersResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
