C. Roy ReynoldsIT SEEMS that the Hedonism III nude wedding has set off a banning frenzy in this country. And after making alleged obscenity an offence that only rich people can afford a movement is under way to ban poor Bredda Anancy.
That's gratitude for you. Poor old Anancy had to bear all the rigours of the Middle Passage along with our forefathers, work with them in the fields and make life a little easier by showing them how to put 'wan an wan' over buckra. And now that he has seen us through to the four-wheel-drives and cellular phones we want to just "dash him whe soh!" And come to think of it if the truth be told a whole heap of these things" is Anancy ghi dem."
The idea to ban poor 'nancy must, I think, owe part of its impetus to a less than full appreciation of this cultural-economic icon. Poor Anancy has had to suffer reverses as well. Ask many of those who have been FINSACed and they will tell you that not only the best laid plans of mice and men can go wrong, but of Anancy we well...
And as far as Brer Anancy is concerned, he has had to pay. Consider the time Anancy came upon "Wheeler". For those who don't know let me tell you of that day.
It came to pass that on that day Anancy, poor and hungry, if not wifish, was poking around in a hole in a stump when something grabbed him and held him fast. In response to his question: "ah oo ole mi," he got the reply "ah mi wheeler!" To get out of his fix he was instructed to say: "Wield an fling mi mile an distance." The "wielding and flinging" over, Anancy reasoned that he could make a good living from inducing other animals to undergo the same experience, only they would be impaled on a stake he had put in at the "mile an distance point."
Anancy did have some success but he failed to observe that Bra Dawg had been watching the proceedings. So when his turn came, to cut a longish story short, he tricked Anancy into putting his hand in the hole again. And of course Wheeler caught him again. Knowing the fate waiting for him at the end of the mile an distance he implored bra Dawg to remove the stake. But bra Dawg tricked him and when Wheeler did his thing poor Anancy was caught in his own trap and ended up in Dawg's progging bag.
Then there was the time with the Christmas pudding when poor Anancy belly swell up like "pampas." And so I say to those righteous moralists just as the famed New York lawyer Barry Scheck said to the FBI crime processor: "What about that, Mr. Fung? I say, "what about that Mr. Moralist?"
If we are after villains, then Anancy should be far down on the list. What about those who daily appear on our television screens? It seems that Anancy is being sacrificed for the imports. I have seen some pretty nasty ones.
Take that mean critter called "Ming the Merciless!" Then there is that menace whose name escapes me now.
But I remember well some of his sidekicks. Like the evil inventive Hardware, who is always making all sorts of weird things to trap and eliminate the Silver Hawks and even poor galaxy taxi operator Zeke and beak. "Yes Man", a degenerate snake hisses his agreement with everything the vile villain does or proposes. Though I must admit that Melodia is one sexy broad.
Then there are the menaces such as Prime Evil and Momrah. Some of the meanest customers ever to menace the earth.
So there is no shortage of vile characters in our midst which the moralists could get exercised about. Poor Anancy must be at the bottom of the list. And it would be tragic if we are prepared to welcome the imports and kill off our own, yet again. Furthermore, if you don't leave 'nancy alone I promise you the mother of all demonstrations in protest. Ah wudda bun tiah an block road till onno fenneh!
C. Roy Reynolds is a freelance journalist.
