"Once upon a time", so goes the old Ghana folk tale, "Ananse Kokrofu, the great spider of venerable memory, grew bothered about the state of wisdom in the world: People were not looking after it properly. So far as Ananse could tell from his experience of mankind, which was not small, a great deal of wisdom was getting lost. Yet even if living people lacked the wit to respect wisdom as thy should there would be future generations, Ananse argued, who would be glad to use every bit they could. So he made up his mind to collect all the wisdom in the world, and store it for safe keeping at the top of a tree.

"In due course, the elders say, Ananse did indeed finish collecting the world's wisdom. He packed all this in a gourd and began to climb a tall palm. Halfway to the top he got into difficulties: he had tied the gourd in front of him and it hampered his climbing. At this point his son Ntikuma, who was looking up from below, called in a shrill young voice: 'Father, if you really had all the wisdom in the world up there with you, you would have tied that gourd on your back.' This was too much for Ananse, who was tired from long labour. He untied the gourd in a fit of temper and threw it down. It broke and wisdom was scattered far and wide. After a while people who had learned their lesson came and gathered in their own gourds whatever each could find; it is this that explains why a few people have much wisdom, some have a little, but many have none at all ..."

REFLECTIONS
ON
WISDOM

"Gourd" it
or lose it?

Proverbial insights from
the Baganda

ESSAY