Yes, compe is short for companion, but that's kinda like directly translating tovarische as "comrade" without understand the social and cultural implications.
Notice that it was Lion, Elephant and others of that ilk that referred to Anansi as Compe Anansi. They were claiming him as an equal -- one of their own.
The cultural traditions that refer to or address the God as Compe Anansi feel a very familiar sort of brotherhood and intimacy with the trickster god.
Yes, I know I have a boy's name. I'm still a girl.
Anansi used to be known as (and is still known as on a lot of Carribbean islands) as Baba Nanci; literally Father Spider....this is perhaps why Neil makes a point of always describing him as an old man, used as an honourific for the elderly in africa, as much as it was not so long ago in europe (father i mean)..it'd maybe be Old Man Spider now?
It's that time of year again, folks. Next week Saturday I'll be deleting any Private Messages that have not been responded to after 1/1/2008. Copy/paste any ones you want to keep into your word processing program of choice. Our PM count is up to 10,000, and that's just too high for us to sustain. Remember, email was invented for a reason! Try using that to correspond with your fellow Boardians! It's KEEN!
