Tonight we had Fufu and goat stew outside with the queen mother of Patakro (the village I currently am in). Papa Attah explained that she is hid point of contact for anything he needs in Patakro or Obuasi, all of which she does voluntarily. After eating and discussing some things, Papa Attah decided to tell us an Anansi story. Anansi is a Spider that is very mischeivious. Anansi stories are usually told to young children to teach morals or lessons. What makes this significant is not only is this a Ghanaian tradition but Anansi stories transcended the Atlantic and are a part of Jamaican culture as well. Although I remember the specifics of the stories, I remember hearing 2 Anansi stories from my aunt when growing up so it was really cool to hear an Anansi story in the place where they began.
In the story Papa Attah told us, Anansi wanted to be the wisest person in the world so he traveled all over the world gathering wisdom and putting it in a gourd. After collecting all the wisdom, he attempted to put the gourd at the top of a tree so nobody else could get it. Anansi was trying to climb up the tree with the gourd in front of him and every time he tried to climb, would fall down. One of his sons saw him and advised him to carry the gourd on his back to climb the tree. Anansi replied by saying “foolish boy! I have all the wisdom with me here and you are here trying to advise me?” After some more failed attempts to climb the tree, Anansi decided to take his son’s advice. When he got to the top of the tree, Anansi said “I have all the wisdom in the world but still my foolish son knew more than me” and out of anger, he threw the gourd to the ground, breaking it. Those who got to the tree early got wisdom and those who didn’t, did not. In conclusion, Papa Attah said that no one person can posses all wisdom, there will always be someone that knows more than you in a different subject. Also everyone’s expertise, whether smart or less intelligent, a doctor or a cook, has value and is needed to function as a society.
Denkyem 