Ananzi was first created it in early 1996, making it the first South African search engine. In June 2000 it was re-engineered to make it one of the fastest search engines on the Internet. Ananzi currently indexes over 300 000 web pages within South Africa, and the number is growing daily. Alongside the search engine, Ananzi's SA Site Directory is a hand-picked category-based list of the best sites South Africa has to offer.

The name and the myth

Ananzi's name comes from a Demi-God of West African mythology. Ananzi is a trickster who delights in duping animals and men: tales of his exploits are widespread in West Africa, the Caribbean and South America.

The Ananzi Search Engine aims to be the best South African search engine on the internet. Ananzi is devoted to South African web sites. (Did you know that more than 10% of South Africa's web sites have a domain that does not end in .za? Many end with .com or .net instead.) On Ananzi, sites are individually checked by us to ensure that we stay South African.

Ananzi was first created it in early 1996, making it the first South African search engine. In June 2000 it was re-engineered to make it one of the fastest search engines on the Internet. Ananzi currently indexes over 2 300 000 web pages related to South Africa, and the number is growing daily. Alongside the search engine, Ananzi's SA Site Directory is a hand-picked category-based list of the best sites South Africa has to offer.

The search engine

The Ananzi Search Engine aims to be the best South African search engine on the internet. Ananzi is devoted to South African web sites. (Did you know that more than 10% of South Africa's web sites have a domain that does not end in .za? Many end with .com or .net instead.) On Ananzi, sites are individually checked by us to ensure that we stay South African.

Ananzi was first created it in early 1996, making it the first South African search engine. In June 2000 it was re-engineered to make it one of the fastest search engines on the Internet. Ananzi currently indexes over 2 300 000 web pages related to South Africa, and the number is growing daily. Alongside the search engine, Ananzi's SA Site Directory is a hand-picked category-based list of the best sites South Africa has to offer.

How to add your site Ananzi?

Should you want to add your website to Ananzi's search engine and directory, you can do so via our submissions page. Listing your site on Ananzi is a completely free service that we offer to all owners on Southern African web sites or web sites related to Southern Africa in some way.

How Ananzi works?

Ananzi consists of two sections: the SA Site Directory and the Search Engine (SA Web). In order however to get your site into the Ananzi search engine, you first have to submit it to the SA Site Directory - from where it would be spidered (indexed) and added to the search engine should it fit our acceptance criteria.