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Overview
Nana Aberewa first appears in an eerily quiet town, sitting with her head upon her legs while searching it for lice. When visitors approach, she lifts the head and replaces it. Eight sisters seeking husbands are paired with her eight children, while their brother, Child-Kwasi-Gyinamoa, stays beside her. At night her teeth shine red as she prepares to attack the sisters. Protective dokum charms identify her own children, but the boy distracts her with a perforated water vessel and transfers the charms. She consequently kills the wrong sleepers, and the visiting sisters escape the following morning.
Her first attack depends on distinguishing sleepers by touch: the dokum necklaces protect those she recognizes as her own children. While she fetches water with a perforated vessel, the boy moves those markers to his sisters, making her burning teeth destroy the unmarked children. The later recovery of his uncle's eyes reverses another physical separation. He places a calabash beneath his cloth to imitate her pregnant granddaughter and invents a husband whose eyes fell out. She hands over the uncle's two eyes and supplies the words that clear them when replaced. At the final capture, the boy crunches pebbles as though eating tiger-nuts to tempt the granddaughter into lifting his basket prison. He then uses her palm-nut pestle and skin to impersonate her before the grandmother returns.
The old woman next transforms into a beautiful maiden and carries a gourd-rattle, promising marriage to whoever can pierce it with an arrow. The child succeeds but declines; his uncle marries her and loses his eyes. Disguising himself as her pregnant granddaughter, the child recovers both eyes and the words that restore their sight. She later catches him in a stream and confines him beneath a basket. Another deception lets him escape, assume the granddaughter’s appearance and turn the intended feast against its maker. Gold ornaments become his final prize. After he unmasks himself, their chase continues into the tale’s present: a rustle beside the path is explained as Nana Aberewa pursuing him.
Origins & earliest records
Rattray prints Akan text alongside an English translation in Akan-Ashanti Folk-Tales. This profile follows the selected narrative rather than treating its events as a historical encounter.
Records & interpretation
The complete English narrative was read directly, including the detached-head opening, charm exchange, maiden disguise, eye recovery and closing path-rustle explanation. Nana Aberewa is translated as Old-woman-grandmother; this specific antagonist is not merged with every grandmother or other occurrence of the designation.
In the literature
“the old woman lit up her teeth, bright red”
Child-Kwasi-Gyinamoa; p. 223; planned night attack · R. S. Rattray
The old woman prepares to burn the visiting girls with her teeth.
“her head resting upon her legs”
Child-Kwasi-Gyinamoa; p. 223; arrival at the old woman’s dwelling · R. S. Rattray
The visitors find her delousing her detached head before she replaces it.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Akan-Ashanti Folk-Tales
Child-Kwasi-Gyinamoa, printed pp 220–226; accessible OCR of a later lithographic reprint retains the original text.
- 02
Akan-Ashanti Folk-Tales — Child-Kwasi-Gyinamoa
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. 221–227.
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 — Child-Kwasi-Gyinamoa
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.
- The old woman replaces a head she has been delousing on her legs, offers eight husbands to the boy’s sisters and plans to burn the girls with red teeth. Child-Kwasi-Gyinamoa swaps protective charms, causing her to kill her own children.
Child-Kwasi-Gyinamoa; p. 223; detachable head, protective charms and burning teeth
- The old woman becomes a beautiful maiden and marries the boy’s uncle after an archery challenge, then takes his eyes. The boy disguises himself as her pregnant granddaughter to recover and restore them.
Child-Kwasi-Gyinamoa; pp. 223–225; maiden disguise and recovery of the uncle’s eyes
- After the grandmother captures him while bathing, the boy tricks her granddaughter into releasing him, kills the granddaughter, wears her skin and helps prepare a meal that the grandmother eats without recognizing its origin.
Child-Kwasi-Gyinamoa; pp. 225–227; basket escape and granddaughter disguise
- The disguised boy receives gold ornaments, escapes with them and reveals the substitution. The old woman chases him to his village; the closing explanation identifies path-side rustling as her pursuit.
Child-Kwasi-Gyinamoa; p. 227; gold theft and continuing chase
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.
- Collected primary narrative with facing Akan and English textsAkan-Ashanti Folk-Tales — Child-Kwasi-Gyinamoa, printed pp 220–226Research access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
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