The Ghanaian wood carving is of a hand holding an egg. It is a deeply symbolic piece rooted in the Asante (or Ashanti) cultural tradition. During many of the years she was in Ghana, Cousin Carolyn (1942~2019) lived in Kumasi, the capital of the Asante region, and spoke Twi, the local language.**
On his website (see here), a Ghanaian artist says he carves the hand holding an egg sculptures with a powerful African proverb in mind. That proverb is about the delicate nature of leadership and authority in Ghanaian culture. Here is the English translation of that proverb:
To be a ruler is like holding an egg in the hand; if it is pressed too hard it breaks; but if not held tightly enough it may slip and smash on the ground.
The metaphor shown in the hand-holding-egg
carving stresses that authority is not absolute
or unbreakable, that leadership must be firm enough to maintain control and
effectiveness yet gentle enough not to destroy trust, and that true leadership
requires restraint and careful judgment.
The symbolism of the wood carving is applicable
to various relationships in addition to those of people in places of leadership
and authority. For example, it reminds supervisors and mentors to manage their relationships
with those “under” them in ways that inspire rather than intimidate.
The carving also speaks to the relationship
between friends, speaking of how to offer support and when to step back as well
as how to be present without being intrusive.
In romantic relationships, the image of a hand
holding an egg portrays the delicate balance between intimacy and independence,
between caring deeply and avoiding possessiveness.
The egg metaphor also depicts the challenge of parenting. As I have done previously, I asked Claude, my AI “friend,” if the egg-in-hand carving could be related to the challenge of being a good parent. Here is the first paragraph of the answer I received:
The egg metaphor captures the essential challenge of parenting: how to provide guidance, protection, and structure while allowing space for growth and independence. Parents who grip too tightly may crush their children's spirit, confidence, or natural development. Those who hold too loosely risk their children falling into harm or lacking the security they need.
I thought that was an excellent statement, and I
soon began to think about my own parents and their parenting practices of 75
years ago, which I still remember with appreciation.
My parents never went to college, and I am quite
sure they didn’t read any books about child psychology or self-help books about
how to be good parents. But in thinking back to the summer in 1950 when I turned
12 until I started college in the fall of 1955, I think they were exceptionally
good parents.
As we lived on a farm, probably already by 1950 my
parents had given me baby livestock, which I raised and then sold their
offspring. As I wrote in my book subtitled The Story My Life, my father “was
wise in getting me started at a young age in making money on the farm.”
On the following page, I wrote that my parents “were
skillful in helping me gain a sense of independence from a very early age—and I
have always appreciated that.”
Long before they had seen the wood carving that
my father’s niece gave June and me, to an exemplary degree they put into
practice holding the “egg” with care, not too tightly or too loosely.
I think June and I also did that in rearing our
four children, the youngest of whom is now 53—but I guess you’d have to ask them
if they think we did, in fact, handle the egg with proper care.
_____
** Soon after Carolyn returned to the U.S. in 2010, I posted a blog article titled “In Praise of Cousin Carolyn” (you can access it here). She also lived for many years in Accra, the capital and largest city of Ghana. Kumasi is about 160 miles (by car) northwest of Accra.
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Holding an egg with the fingers is an excellent image of the responsibility one has for the well-being of another: keeping in touch while not holding tightly!
ReplyDeleteMy quip is not nearly as widely useful.
We err when we reduce the genitive to the possessive.
Love is a rose, but you better not pick it.
It only grows when it’s on the vine.
A handful of thorns and you’ll know you’ve missed it.
You lose your love when you say the word ‘mine’.
- Neil Young
Shalom. Dick [Google did not work]
Thanks for sharing the words of Neil Young. I know little about "popular culture" or celebrities, so I basically didn't know anything about Young or his words that you cited, which I learned he first recorded in 1974 (51 years ago!). I think they are, indeed, applicable to the image of the hand holding an egg--but perhaps as you say, not as "widely useful."
DeleteLocal Thinking Friend Bill Ryan sent an email with the following comments about 7:30 this morning (and I should have posted them here much earlier):
ReplyDelete"Thanks, Leroy. In 1960 I was in Ghana, as well as Senegal and Sierra Leone, with a group studying how these once colonial nations were making their transition to independence. Ghana was the first African nation south of the Sahara to gain independence, so we spent most of our time there listing to the men and women who had fought for that cause. I was in Kumasi and Accra, as well as other locations, and brought home a New Testament written in Twi.
"Although it's not really possible to refer to 'African' wisdom, because there are hundreds of ethnic traditions on that continent, I'll generalize anyway and say that Africa has much wisdom worth sharing with the rest of the world!"
Thanks for reading the blog post and responding early this morning, Bill. You visited Ghana long before my cousin went to live there for nearly 34 years. As I have never been to Africa at all, I regret not visiting her after our retirement from Japan in 2004 and before her retirement from Ghana in 2010.
DeleteI appreciate your pointing out that there is great diversity in Africa, a fact that is often unrecognized by people in this country. But I thought it was interesting that the Ghanaian man who is carving and seeking to sell hand-holding-egg wood carvings (for $87) introduces than as expressing the wisdom of "a powerful African proverb."
Excellent post! Your parenting obviously goes back either directly or indirectly to your grandparents that you share with Carolyn. Reflecting on the parenting Patricia and I have done, I think we probably would get at least a B+. The same for the parenting I received. My mother told me she gave me to God for ministry the night I was born. Thanks a lot, Mother!? Seriously, she never pushed me, and I was quite late entering the ministry--didn't go to college until 9 yrs. after HS graduation. Someone asked me, "What right did your mother have to do that?" I don't remember how I answered that, or even whether I did. But I could have answered, "The same right that Hannah had to send Samuel to Eli." When I was a senior in HS, Daddy said to me, "Now son, if you want to make a preacher I'll send you down to McMurray College." He never made that offer to any of my siblings! I responded, "Thanks Daddy, but I think I'd rather stay here and help you and Jim (my older brother) on the farm. Daddy was in his mid-eighties when I finished HS. He never said any more about it, and he didn't live long enough to see me starting educational preparation for ministry. My parents were good parents. They neither dropped the egg nor crushed it.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Charles, for sharing your person reflections about parenting, similar to what I did in the blog article. Your career and my career have many similarities, but there are also some distinct differences. For example, I started to college shortly after my 17th birthday in the fall following my high school graduation in 1955, and my first pastorate (of a very small "mission church") began less than three months after my 18th birthday.
DeleteAlso, our fathers were greatly different in age (as I think we have talked about before). When I finished high school, it was only about two months after my father's 40th birthday.
I was happy that your evaluation of your parents matches well with how I view my parents: they were "good parents" who "neither dropped the egg nor crushed it"!
Hmmm. Google made my do two-step verification involving my phone, so that may be why Dick could not post directly.
ReplyDeleteToday's metaphor reminds me of another African proverb, made popular in America by Hillary Clinton: It takes a village to raise a child. In today's soul-crushing world it is easy to forget the importance of the little things. As for my own parenting, I always tried to prepare my children to flourish in their own ways, not to try to be clones of me. Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov's Foundation has been made into a series on Prime, and it involves a royal cloning program that keeps the same emperor on the throne for 500 years. The story starts up as the program begins to fail. Giving children a foundation of love and wisdom is the best gift we can offer, because the details of life keep changing. Fortunately for me, they have enough grace to help me keep my electronics working!
Thanks, Craig, for reminding us of the African proverb that, as you noted, Hillary Clinton made popular. It is also from West Africa, mainly from the Igbo and Yoruba tribes of Nigeria.
DeleteI was interested in what you said about clones/cloning, and I certainly agree about allowing children to flourish in their own ways. I have often had questions about pastors who retire and their position is filled by a son or, now, a daughter.