ANANSE AND THE WISDOM POT

Ananse prided himself on being clever, but knew that he was not very wise. So one day he came up with a clever idea to become wise easily. He picked up a hallow gourd, and thought to himself: “If I fill this gourd with wisdom, then I can keep it all to myself, and I’ll be wiser than anyone in the world!”

Excited about his new scheme, he went from door to door asking for advice and wisdom. He thought he was being clever by stealing everyone’s wisdom, but everyone he met happily shared advice with him, for they could see that Anansi needed wisdom more than anybody.

Finally when Ananse had filled his gourd with all the advice, ideas and wisdom he could carry, he scuttled back to his home excitedly.

But then he had thought: “What if someone else comes and steal all my wisdom?” He decided that he would hide his wisdom in a safe place. So he saw a tall tree, and figured that it would be a good hiding spot. He clutched the gourd to his body with two of his legs, and tried to use the other six to climb the tree.

But the gourd was too big! Every time he went to try to climb the tree, the gourd got in his way.
Just as he was growing frustrated, his young son came by and said, “Why don’t you just tie the gourd to your back daddy?”

His son’s wise words made Ananse realize that wisdom was best used if shared with others. So he tied the gourd to his back, climbed up to the very top of the tree, and held the gourd up to the sky. All of the wisdom in the gourd spilled out into the wind and flew away, far and wide, and that is how wisdom came to the land.

THE END