It was that time of year again, time for the village’s annual wine festival. The wine festival is always a very anticipated event in the village of Anahg, as well as the surrounding villages. People from all over made the journey to participate in the festival. Known for its rolling hills of endless vineyards, the warm, mild climate and fertile, sweet soil in Anahg makes it the perfect place for things to grow. The festival is strategically planned for the end of each grape picking season, to allow for the harvesters to sell off their wines, and make room for the new batches.
Isnana particularly loved the wine festival, as she found it amusing how silly all the elders would behave after drinking all the juices. She observed how they would bounce around, stomping their feet in dance, and loudly trumpeting as they sang. This year, Isnana decided she wanted to join in on all of the fun. It was forbidden that children may have their own glasses of the juice, and they were only given small sips from their parents' cups. Isnana, however, decided that this was not going to stop her from missing out on all the fun. She was determined to find a way to drink the juice, so she could dance and sing all night long with the elders. It was mid-morning on the first day of the wine festival, and Isnana was wandering the streets, looking at the different wine shops, trying to devise a plan. As she passed one of the most famous shops in the village, Tiger Wine, who were famous for their palm wine. She could see the owners in the back stomping the grapes. She had seen this process many times before. They would put all of the delicious picked grapes in big wooden bins, then use their feet to squash them down into juice. In an instant, Isnana knew what she was going to do! Why wait for the juice to be made, if you can just eat the grapes! That was it: her plan was to sneak into Elder Tiger’s vineyard, and eat all of his grapes so that she could dance and sing later in the festival. Isnana bounced all the way home with so much excitement she could hardly wait.
Later that day, it was time for her family to leave for the festival. The streets were already crowded with members of the village, occupied with all the sights and sounds of the festival. Isnana knew this was her chance to slip away from her parents. She quickly ran to Elder Tigers’s vineyard, but she ended up running square into Rudy, the watchdog of the vineyard. He demanded to know what she was up to... she had to think quick!
"Elder Tiger ran out of grapes to stomp, so he sent me for more!" she quickly exclaimed.
"And why would he send you, a child, instead of one of our workers??" Rudy retorted back.
"Well, they are all dancing and singing and drinking the palm wine, and did not want to stop, so they sent me!" Isnana answered, proud of her quick thinking.
Hesitant, Rudy pondered her words, but soon gave in, and allowed Isnana to pass through. She quickly moved out of his sight, running down the never ending fields of vines. She reached a patch that looked appetizing, and began stuffing herself silly with grapes. She began to feel giggly, like she wanted to dance and sing, or at least that is what she thought.. In her mind, however, she thought this meant she was ready. So Isnana headed back to the festival, giggling and stumbling through the streets as she made her way to where she left her parents. When she found them, her mother ran up to her, demanding to know where she had been, and why she was acting so silly. “Mother,” she responded, unable to contain her fits of giggles, “I ate some grapes, so I could dance and sing with the rest of the adults!” By now, friends of the family had stopped what they were doing to inquire what had gotten into Isnana. Upon hearing this, they all burst into laughter. “Isnana thinks she has drunk herself silly from eating grapes!” they all exclaimed. Not even her parents could keep a straight face. Isnana at this point could sense that something was wrong, so she stopped her antics and looked to her mother. Sweetly, her mother said to her “Isnana, grapes are nothing but sweet fruit. They cannot be compared to the wine which us adults drink.” Feeling quite embarrassed, Isnana apologized to everyone for her actions. However, she found that no one was upset at her; instead everyone had found the whole event quite entertaining. Soon, she was laughing and playing again.
Elder Tiger even forgave her for eating his grapes!
Author's Note:
I very much like to draw on my experiences throughout the past week, or even that same day when I write my stories. If you read the introduction, you learned that the young Isnana is quite the little stunt puller. Always cooking up a plan to have some fun, she lands in some very interesting, but usually very comedic situations. This past weekend for me was spent at a festival, with lots of singing and dancing, and plenty of the 'juice' we talked about in the story. In the original Anansi story from which I drew inspiration- Tying Tiger, from the Jamaican Stories Unit, Anansi the spider devises a plan to steal mangoes from the mango trees of Brer Tiger. Anansi convinces Brer Tiger to climb up to the top of the tree, where he claims are the ripest mangoes. Upon climbing to the top, Anansi ties Brer Tiger to the tree, shakes off all the mangoes to the floor, and leaves Brer Tiger hanging. As a character, Anansi has a reputation of quick thinking and fast talking his way into and out of situations. I wanted to exhbit this through Isnana, but without the tying to a tree stunt, which a child would not be able to pull off. The stunts of Anansi tend to be more dangerous and fierce than I like to write for Isnana. I enjoy having her devise plans and pulling little stunts, but with a 'no harm no foul' mindset. My goal is to take these experiences, and turn them into silly stories that can be applied with child-like characteristics. Putting oneself in the mindset of a child, but with the subtle hints of being grown, calls for a very fun time writing stories. I also referenced Palm Wine in my story. In West Africa, palm wine is an alcoholic beverage created from the sap of palm trees. So while grapes growing in this particular climate might not be the most logical thing, for the purpose of my story, I kept the grape included. As a reader, you might also be questioning how we jumped from Jamaica to Ghana... while the Anansi Stories originated from Ghana, the slave trade brought several Ghana natives to Jamaica, which began the history of Anansi stories from Jamaica. One note that I would like to make, is the technicality of my stories. I know in the introduction I place Isnana's home in West Africa, so when you read things like "mild, warm climate and sweet, fertile soil," if you have any prior experience, this might raise a few questions. My goal is to write descriptive stories that help the readers visualize the story and (hopefully) make it more enjoyable. So small details like that are there to help and support the bigger picture. If you have any questions, comments, concerns, PLEASE feel free to drop them on the comment wall! Happy Reading!
-A
Bibliography: Martha Warren Beckwith, Jamaica Anansi Stories- Tying Tiger
Jamaican Stories Unit- Tying Tiger
More information about Palm Wine: Palm Wine