The Marriage of Anansewa

Efua Sutherland · Ghana, 1975 · African drama · WAEC set text 2026–2030

Why it is on the list

Ananse the spider-trickster, a daughter used as a prize, and a play that is also a story-telling performance (Anansegoro).

Ghana. Ananse’s house, and the public space where suitors compete.

Ananse is broke and cunning. He has a daughter, Anansewa, of marriageable age. He photographs her and sends the picture to four wealthy chiefs at once, each told that he is the favoured suitor, each asked to send gifts “to help prepare the bride”.
Gifts pour in. Ananse lives on them. The chiefs will eventually arrive in person, and the lie will not hold four ways.
Anansewa is not only an object: she learns the game, objects to being sold, and yet is pulled along by her father’s need.
When exposure is near, Ananse stages Anansewa’s death. Suitors who wanted a live prize fade; the one who still claims her in death is judged the true husband. She “returns” to life for him.
The play is funny until it is not. A girl has been a trap, a livelihood, and only at the end a person who gets a say.

Ananse: Trickster, father, storyteller. Charming and predatory in the same speech.
Anansewa: The daughter whose marriage is the plot. Her growth is from prop to agent.
Aya: Ananse’s mother; the old voice in the house.
The four chiefs: Suitors, wealth on legs, the market Ananse has opened.
Storyteller / players: The Anansegoro frame: songs, asides, the audience is in the room.

Mention Anansegoro — Sutherland’s story-telling theatre, songs, the storyteller. That word shows you read a Ghanaian play, not a generic comedy.
Do not only laugh at Ananse. The question is often who pays for the joke.
The fake death is the set-piece. Describe how it works, then what it reveals about each suitor.