Is There A Difference Between 'Knowledge' And Wisdom (3)

Now, one strange thing about the hunter was that he had a habit of cutting off the head of each animal he killed, and putting it in a special room in the cottage,

which he called Botire Danmu ("The Room of Skulls”). On the rare occasions thathe received a visitor in the cottage, he madesure he took him to the “Room of Skulls” to let the visitor view his trophies. Thus his reputation grew far and wide as an unsurpassed marksman.

The hunter also taught his little boy the name of each animal he killed, plus its nickname or sobriquet. A duiker (adowa) for instance, was called Kwadwo Abrefi Adowa, while the porcupine(kotoko) was called Kotoko Gyanbibi. Almost every animal had such a nickname, which was a combination of its ordinary name plus a selection of its better known characteristics. How these appellations were crafted by a people who did not know how to read and write is a marvel. The methodology involves such tools of word-play as rhyme, alliteration and assonance. The imagery employed to extol the 'virtues' of each animal us extremely rich and deft: it reminds one of way apostrophe is used in the more memorable poetry of other languages, such as English.

One wonders –again –how can a language that is not written but only spoken, incorporate rhyme, alliteration or assonance as components of its versification? If you can listen to the examples of poetic lines about various animals I am about to give, you will be reminded that the best poetry is to be said -- or spoken aloud. In Akan society, poetry is created by the tongue for the tongue; or for the drum; or the horn. Each medium requires the most melodic of the sounds available to the language. And of such melodic sounds is great poetry. Made.

So we have:

[Lion] Aboa kesie [The Great Beast]

Esrem Sei! [King of the Grasslands!]

[Elephant] Eson [Elephant]

Boninkoro [Mighty Single-cast Bone]

A obu [That can break]

Akuma mu! [The hefty Axe!]

[Leopard] Kurotwiamansa [The great slayer who finishes whole nations]

Aboa fufuo [The white/beautiful beast]

Kurotwiamansa [The Great Slayer]

Nam seseaa ase [Treads beneath the seseaa tree]

Ma seseaa ase woso biribiribiribiri [And makes the seseaa shake uncontrollably]

Na obeforo? [What if it climbed the tree?]

Kurotwiamansa [The great Slayer]

Nam hahan mu [Treads through the bushes]

Rewe sika hwiren[Munching on a flower of solid gold]!

Kurotwiamansa ba [The Great Slayer's offspring

Yemmfre no akodaa! (Must never be deemed a child!]

You see the amount of words devoted to the leopard? This s because it was the most feared beast in the forests of the Akans. It was so fearsome that many kings and chiefs were given attributes borrowed from the leopard – to make their subjects fear and revere them. And, of course, Akan folklore us full of stories about the leopard. Like this one:

The little boy and his father had been living together for several years without any untoward incident, when one day, a big leopard showed up at the cottage without notice, as the boy, left alone as usual, was in the kitchen preparing a dish for his absent father.

The leopard opened the kitchen door with a single blow from his paw – without knocking.

“Hey boy!” the leopard said in a rough voice. “Are you really the son of that stupid hunter who lives here?” the leopard shouted.

“My father is not stupid”! the boy protested.

“You want to challenge me, eh, boy?” the leopard said in a menacing tone. “If he were not stupid, would he have annoyed me by killing so many of the animals I myself want to prey upon? Doesn't he know that animals don't grow on trees?”

The boy immediately realised that the leopard was in a foul mood and that he had to think very carefully before saying anything to it. A quick glance at the leopard indeed showed that it had curled its long tail at the very tip and was shaking the tail to the left and to the right. His father had told him that leopards did that when they were about to strike at an animal. Leopards also sprang from the left side of their body, the father had added. So the boy watched the position of the leopard very carefully and casually kept moving, always away from where the leopard could reach him if it sprang from its left side.

The boy also tried to look the leopard in the eye several times, for his father had told him that no animal could look a human being fully in the eye. And indeed, the leopard turned his fiery eyes downwards whenever the boy looked at him directly. So although the boy's heart was pounding at three times its normal beat, he communicated a state of fearlessness to the leopard.

”Ahah!” the leopard retorted when the boy said his father was “not stupid”. It went on: “You have admitted that you are the hunter's son! And you have the audacity to challenge me when I say he is stupid?”

“Yes, I I am the hunter's son,” the boy answered. ”And I maintain that he's not stupid!”

“He's stupid!”

“He's not stupid!

“He's stupid!”

“He's not stupid!.... Anyway, what do you want?” the boy finally asked.

Now, the close proximity of the leopard nearly made the boy vomit. He had heard his father say that a leopard always carried its kill up a tree and hid it in the fork made by two adjacent branches, feeding on it little by little. By the time the prey was finished, it would have got badly rotten and would be stinking. And in truth, a huge billow of stench emanated from the leopard's mouth any time it opened its mouth to address a question to the boy..

Finally, the leopard said: “Do you know I usually kill those who challenge what I say? So I could kill you for contradicting my opinion of your father. But – but – I came here with a purpose.”

”Oh!” said the boy, relieved that the leopard had said it was not going to kill him. “And what purpose is that?”

The leopard said: “I've heard that your father keeps a room in which he has collected the skulls of all the animals he has been able to kill. Is that true?”

”Yes!” answered the boy.

”Is there a leopard among them?” the leopard asked.

The boy said: “I don't know what a leopard's skull looks like!”

“You don't know?” the leopard asked. “Okay, I want you to go and bring all the heads of the animals and assemble them on the ground right here. I want you to identify each head to me. Now, I want you to know this: if anyone ever lies to me, King Leopard, death is his punishment.”

With that, the Leopard let out a ferocious roar that reverberated through the forest and made any animal that was nearby run away into the deepest recesses of the forest to seek safe shelter.

The boy did as the leopard had said and brought out all the skulls of the animals his father had killed. He assembled them in a line.

And the leopard said to the boy, “Surely, you must know what skull belongs to which animal?”

The boy replied, “Yes, I do know their names.... up to a point!”

“Up to a point?.... Up to What point?” asked the leopard.

“Well,” the boy said, employing the verbal skills that his father had taught him and which, the father had said, would come to his aid if he was ever in a position to be condemned by the words that came out of his own mouth.... “There are some animals which are a taboo to our clan; totems that must not be killed. But occasionally, especially in the dark, my father shoots such animals without knowing what they are. In such cases, he observes solemn funerary obsequies l for them – as if they were humans. He does not allow me to see these totems in their dead state, as he says that would bring me misfortune!”

“Hmmm? ” said the leopard. “Are leopards a taboo in your clan or not?”

Quick as a flash, the sharp-witted boy said, “My father reveres leopards. He says our Paramount Chief is named Etwie after the leopard!”

The leopard smiled – showing those gory teeth of his. But he did not stay impressed for long. “That may well be so. I have heard it said myself. But you have told me yourself that there are some animals that he shoots in the dark. And one of my own cousins did vanish without trace some time ago. We looked everywhere for him, but never found his body.”

“Oh sorry”, said the boy.

“Sorry, are you?” the leopard remarked sarcastically, “you won't know what sorry means if I happen to find the skull of my cousin among your stupid father's stupid collection of trophies!”

And the leopard let out another ferocious roar. Tree branches shook and thickets rustled – as if even the vegetation was scared stiff.

Then the leopard pointed to one of the skulls and asked: ” To which animal did this skull belong?”

The boy answered: “Oh, I know that one: it is the adowa or duiker. Its human name is Kwadwo Abrefi Adowa.... Yes, it was my father who slew this duiker! When I hear the report of a gun in the bush, I say ''Long life to you, Oh Brave Father!”

“Ah? Human name?” asked the leopard, puzzled.

“Yes,” the boy replied, “as I explained to you, an animal can be the totem of some human clans, so they endow them with human names in order that when they are carrying out a funeral ceremony for the animal when it dies, it may not seem out of place.”

“Ummm?” said the leopard. “You humans are a funny lot, aren't you? You feed on animals and yet you treat some of them as if they were humans like you? ... Okay, to which animal does this skull here belong?”

“Oh that's the bush-buck or onwansane. Its human name is Onwansane Mmomire!”

And so it went on, as the boy identified each skull and recited its “human” appellations.

After he had identified and named about twenty animals, the boy recognised the skull of a leopard. He was going to say Etwie or alternatively, Osebor or the flattering Aboa Fufuo, and add that it was always addressed, not with its bare name, but as “Father Leopard” . But he stopped himself in time and pretended not to know. He said to the leopard, “I can't readily identify that one, and since you do not forgive those who give you false information, I'd much rather you waited until tomorrow, by which time I would have been able to ask my father for the authentic name.”

”You want to wait until tomorrow?” the leopard asked.

”Yes!” the boy nodded.”You deserve the truth and nothing but the truth!”

”All right. You can have until tomorrow! But don't tell your father why you want to know! Or you are already dead! You hear?” the leopard said.

And after shaking its tail several times, the leopard slunk noiselessly off into the bushes and vanished.

The boy heaved a sight of relief. Would his father believe him when he told him what happened? There was nothing to indicate that he had had such a torrid time with a real live leopard that had a grouse against mankind – especially a hunter's son!