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.”
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