Why the Crab Has No Head

Why the Crab Has No Head

Crab was a boaster. He was, in his own opinion, the handsomest creature on the shore, and he had a head he was very proud of, and he wore it high.

The versions diverge on what he did with it. In one, he insults Nyame directly. In one, he mocks a god at a feast. In the most-told, he is trusted with a secret and cannot keep it — he goes up and down the beach with it, telling everyone, because a secret in the mouth of a boaster is not a secret but an occasion.

So the punishment fit the crime exactly. Take away the head that could not keep its mouth shut. Set the eyes on stalks, so he can see everything and say nothing. Give him a shell for a face.

And now the crab runs sideways, which is the walk of someone who does not want to be looked at directly, and he goes into a hole in the sand whenever a person comes near.

If you visit Ghana. Any beach at Cape Coast or Elmina at low tide.