Anansi and the Pot of Wisdom

Long, long ago, in West Africa, there lived a clever spider called Anansi. One day he had an idea: "If I collect all the wisdom in the world, everyone will come to me for advice. Then I'll be the most important one of all!"

He found a huge clay pot and began going from village to village. Whatever anyone knew, he put into the pot: when the rain would come, how seeds should be planted, how illnesses could be healed, how stories should be told... The pot filled to the brim with wisdom.

"I must hide this somewhere nobody can find it," thought Anansi. He decided to take it to the top of the tallest tree in the forest. He tied the pot with a rope to the front of his belly and began to climb. But the pot kept getting stuck between his belly and the tree, and with every step Anansi slipped and fell back down. He tried again and fell again. He grew angry, he sweated and he grumbled.

At the foot of the tree his little son, Ntikuma, was watching him. At last he could not keep quiet any longer and called out: "Father, wouldn't it be easier to climb if you tied the pot to your back?"

Anansi froze. His son was right! "I thought I had collected all the wisdom," he thought, "but my little son knows something I didn't." He was so surprised and so annoyed that the pot slipped from his grasp, fell to the ground and smashed to pieces.

At that moment a great wind blew. The wisdom in the pot flew off in every direction; it scattered over the forests, the villages and the rivers, and spread among all the people. And that is why, ever since, wisdom has belonged not to one single person but to everyone. Everyone knows a little, and everyone learns from each other.

This tale tells us: no one can know everything. Even the smallest of us can teach us something. Knowledge grows not when it is hidden, but when it is shared.