Week 9 Story: Anansi the... wise?

My name is Kweku Tsin, and my father is Anansi. People call him Father Anansi because he has all the wisdom in the world. For this very reason, people come to him to ask for help with their problems. I believe my Father is a smart man, but he also lets it get to his head sometimes.

I watched from the side as he talk to some people. I find it fascinating that he always knows what's the best solution. Usually he's always calm and collected, but today he seems troubled. The more I watched him, the more I realized he was getting mad. 

Next thing I knew, Father had gotten up and stormed off from the room. "Oh no. He seems really mad." I followed him to see what was wrong. When I got to his room, I saw him marching around, muttering something to himself. 

"Fools. How dare they talk about me like that. The audacity!" exclaimed Father. 

"Father, what is wrong? What happened?" I asked him. However, instead of answering my question he just walked right back outside. Once again, I followed him. He was walking at a high speed so I had to speed-walk to keep up

"Son, I know how I'm going to punish these people. I'm going to hide the wisdom from them. But first I need to go gather all of the wisdom I have given away so far." So off went Father, collecting the wisdom in one big pot.

Pot of Wisdom. Source: FarFaria.

"Come along son, we need to go hide this now," said Father. "I'm going to hide this in the tallest and most unreachable tree so that no one can get to it besides me." Eventually we made our way into the forest. Father walked to the tallest tree he could find. He hung the pot in front of him and started to climb. I watched as he only made it up a few feet and then he'd stumble back down. 

"Um, Father? Father, I think you-"

"Quiet, son! I am trying to do something."

"Oh... okay," I said. 

Again and again, Father kept climbing the tree and stumbling back down. Finally after watching a few more of his attempts, I finally yelled out to him. "Father, why don't you just hang the pot on your back instead of the front? I think that'll make it easier to climb."

Father turned around and looked at me with this dumbfounded expression. "I thought I had all of the wisdom in the world. I find solutions to everyone's problems. But yet, I couldn't even think of this solution." 

Suddenly, in a fit of anger, Father took the pot from his neck and threw it down. It hit a big rock and shattered. I watched as the wisdom dispersed into the world.

I was so shocked that that just happened. "You realize you just released all of the wisdom that you were trying to hide?" I asked him. However, Father Anansi just sat still and quiet.

And that is how wisdom became the property of the world.

Author's Note: I read the story about Father Anansi and his son, Kweku Tsin earlier this week and thought it was funny and ironic. I personally like stories with more dialogue and I thought the original story didn't have enough, so I wanted to do my own rendition and add more dialogue. I changed up the story by having Kweku Tsin involved from the beginning. In the original story, Kweku Tsin grows suspicious of Anansi so he decides to follow him into the forest and that's when he becomes a part of the story actually. 

How Wisdom Became the Property of the Human Race. William H. Barker and Cecilia Sinclair.