Demigod and traveler of African folklore, renowned for his wit and trickery.

Agile: Ignores Movement penalties in Woods and Rainforest terrain.
Anansi's Tricks: Use when located on a Bonus or Luxury Resource. Anansi consumes the resource and generates 60 Science and 50 Culture. Any improvement present is destroyed. Costs 1 Charge and ends turn.

Anansi has traveled far, for a spider. The sometimes-human, sometimes-spider, sometimes-both trickster protagonist of a number of tales from the Akan people in present-day Ghana, Anansi is the hero of stories that have travelled with West African people wherever they have gone, especially amongst enslaved African people in the New World. Here, Anansi, sometimes re-named "Kompa Nanzi" or even "Aunt Nancy" (though Anansi is normally depicted as a man), remains a source of inspiration for those in less powerful positions seeking to use their wit and cunning to turn the tables on their oppressors. Whereas other heroes and deities might have mighty weapons, Anansi has stories.

Before, the sky-god Nyame kept all the stories for himself. Anansi went and asked for them, but Nyame posed to him a series of seemingly impossible tasks that involved gathering up the world’s most dangerous creatures. Anansi went about this not directly, but using the vanity and pride of the great beasts against them. For instance, he let the great python "accidentally" overhear Anansi speculating that the snake wasn’t nearly as long as a nearby branch, and when the python laid down next to the tree to show Anansi his length, Anansi bound him to the branch and captured him. After Nyame saw Anansi’s cleverness, he agreed that from that point on, all stories should belong to the spider, and this is why West Africans tell Anansi stories, and not Nyame stories.

Anansi is not always a virtuous hero. Like many other tricksters he can often be selfish, and at these times especially his plans often go awry. But he is a fitting hero for those who have had to rely upon quick thinking in order to get by.