Tapestry

Abaeze was a cloth-trader, so knew everything.

“See this?” Abaeze said. “The weave. Chinese silk making Yoruba patterns. And there, the way that red thread gives life to the design… that’s a San trick.”

“Why’d people steal ideas?” I asked. “Why can’t they have their own?”

“It’s what ideas are for, cub. Take the best of both, you make a far richer tapestry.”

“That’s not what most people say,” I said. “They say not to mix. They threw stones at Ilukwe for speaking to a man from another village.”

His face tightened.

“Most people,” he said “do not understand weaving.”