Ananse Stories And Folktales From Ghana (short Stories).

The Pineapple Child.

"Anansesɛm se sa oo"
Long time ago in a village called Asɛmpa. There lived a couple the wife Maame Ama was a farmer and the husband Agya Koo was a hunter. They lived near the forest at the end of the village.

Since the couple were married they never had a child.
The lady was said to be barren and could not have children .
They went from healers to healers
Drinking and bathing concocted herbs but the lady couldn't have kids.
Five years later and the  name of the wife was at the tip of the tongue of everyone in the village.

Mothers told their daughters not to go near the lady for fear they would contract some of the lady's misfortune and become barren.
Some said it was witchcraft reasoning  that she must have eaten her children in the womb.

In those days the younger generation, were made to pass through puberty rites as the initiation to adulthood.
Maame Ama the wife was banned  from attending those celebration, For fear the girls to be initiated to adulthood would be barren.
As said the rites needed someone who is not  barren, and have given birth to ten children without one of the children dead to bless those girls to be fruitful.

The lady couldn't even go to the stream to fetch water for she would be sent away by the other ladies from the river.
The lady spent day and night crying and praying to the gods for a child. She became sick for crying day and night. The villagers started commenting that the woman must have been wicked. Some said  the Maame Ama bad deeds must have been exposed, before the gods and were punishing her for making the husband childless.

One day an old lady came to her door  and asked for food. Ama gave the old lady food and shelter. A week later when the old lady was leaving she told the couple that. Their prayers have been answered, Maame Ama should walk barefoot to the forest. In the middle of the forest there is a pineapple she should pluck it and carry it at her back like a baby for six days on the seven day she should put the Pineapple in a new basket and cover it with expensive fabric. The couple were warned to never tell the child that it was a pineapple.

After the old lady left Maame Ama went to the forest to pluck the Pineapple.
Sometime people started saying she has gone mad because she is seen carrying the fruit around the village.

A week later Maame Ama heard the cry of a baby from the basket.
The named the child from the Pineapple Akuaba.
Sometime later the hunter and his wife were busy during the planting season. The couple hired a maid to take care of Akuaba. 

One day after the couple left Akuaba told the maid she was hungry the maid scolded her calling her pineapple child.
Akuaba started running to the Pineapple forest. On the way the couple met Akuaba. They asked her where she was going. She he told them she is going to the Pineapple Forest to find her parents.

The hunter's wife started running after her but  before she could catch her,Akuaba had turn into a pineapple and could only get hold  of her hair. Because she had long hair she turned into a pineapple with a crown.
And that why a pineapple has a crown

The End.