Read the fairy tale Zummy loves
Anansi and the Wisdom of the World
A clever spider tries to keep all the world’s wisdom to himself — and learns, the hard way, that some things are only truly wise when they’re shared.
Long ago, Anansi the spider decided that he alone should hold all the wisdom in the world. Every clever idea, every clever solution — he wanted it kept safe where no one else could reach it.
So he set to work, gathering every scrap of wisdom he could find, sealing it all inside a great, round gourd. When it was full to bursting, he sealed the top and considered where he might hide something so precious.
Up the tallest tree
Anansi decided the safest place was at the very top of the tallest tree in the forest, far from curious hands. He tied the gourd to a cord around his front, so it hung heavy against his belly, and began to climb.
But the gourd, round and wide, kept knocking against his knees with every step, making the climb slow and awkward. He struggled upward, scraping bark, slipping twice, growing more frustrated with each attempt.
A small voice from below
His young son, watching from the ground, called up to him. “Father, wouldn’t it be easier to tie the gourd to your back instead of your front? Then your knees would be free to climb.”
Anansi looked down, and realized at once that his son was right — it would be far easier that way. But the thought stopped him cold: if he, who was supposed to hold ALL the wisdom in the world, hadn’t thought of something so simple, then clearly the gourd did not contain everything after all. Someone outside it — his own child — still had wisdom of his own.
Letting go
Frustrated and a little ashamed, Anansi threw the gourd down from the treetop in his irritation. It struck the ground and shattered, and all the wisdom inside scattered across the world — into rivers, into forests, into the minds of every creature who happened to be nearby when it broke.
And that, the story says, is why no single person holds all the wisdom in the world — it was Anansi’s own son who proved, without meaning to, that wisdom was always meant to be shared, not hoarded.
Akan Lullaby
Play this softly while you read this tale aloud — a traditional handplayed lullaby from the Akan people of Ghana, the same tradition Anansi comes from.
More stories, more lullabies
This is one tale in a growing collection of traditional stories from around the world — each one paired, where we can, with a real lullaby from the same culture.