All Caribbean stories are known as Ananse stories even if Ananse does not appear in them. Ananse is the god of joke and trickery from the Ashanti peoples of Ghana. He was the unseen passenger on the slave ships and played a very important function in keeping the dispossed Africans connected to the Motherland. Today he is a symbol of survival and although new Ananase stories are created by Caribbean writers and storytellers many of the original tales which came to the region 500 years ago remain. For many scholars and storytellers, Ananse is a hero, a symbol of the weak and oppressed outwitting the strong and powerful. In his 'anti-social' behaviour, Ananse teaches us how not be.