Young builder, have you ever had an idea that you knew was good, and the world kept saying “not yet”? This one is for the long, cold nights before your “yes.”
People in Ethiopia tell a story called “The Fire on the Mountain.” Harold Courlander and Wolf Leslau wrote one telling of it down in The Fire on the Mountain and Other Ethiopian Stories (1950). In the city of Addis Ababa, a young man named Arha, who came from the Gurage country, worked as a servant for a rich, bored merchant named Haptom Hasei. One cold night Haptom made a bet: if Arha could stand on the peak of Mount Sululta all night, with no food, no water, no blanket, no clothing and no fire, Haptom would give him ten acres of farmland, a house and cattle.
Arha was afraid of the wind, so he went to a wise old man of the Gurage. The old man said: “Tomorrow night I will build a fire on the high rock across the valley. Watch my fire all night. Think of its warmth, and think of me, your friend, sitting there tending it for you.” Arha stood on the freezing peak until dawn, his eyes on that tiny light shining like a star. He survived.
But Haptom refused to pay. “You watched a fire,” he said, “so the fire saved you.” A judge agreed with the rich man. Then Arha’s friend invited Haptom and the judge to a great feast. Delicious smells filled the house for hours, but no food came. When the guests complained, the host answered: “If Arha was warmed by a fire he only watched from a mountain, then you have been fed by the smells from my kitchen.” Haptom was ashamed, and he kept his word.
This is a folktale, retold in our own words. Ethiopian and Eritrean storytellers tell it in more than one version, and names and details can differ between tellings.
Now fast-forward to Mobile, Alabama. In 1968, during segregation, a high-school student named Lonnie Johnson, nicknamed “The Professor,” built a robot called Linex out of scrap parts. It ran on compressed air from a propane tank and was programmed with a reel-to-reel tape recorder. He took it to a science fair run by the Junior Engineering Technical Society at the University of Alabama, and he won first place. He studied at Tuskegee University (bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, 1973; master’s degree in nuclear engineering, 1975), served in the U.S. Air Force, and in 1979 joined NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a systems engineer on the Galileo mission to Jupiter.
In 1982, while tinkering at home with an idea for a cleaner heat pump, he watched a powerful stream of water shoot from a nozzle he had attached to his bathroom sink. That was the spark for a new kind of water gun. He received U.S. Patent 4,591,071 for it in 1986, but for years no company would build it. It took about eight years, from 1982 until 1990, before the toy company Larami put it on shelves. First it was called the Power Drencher, and then the world knew it as the Super Soaker. It has generated well over $1 billion in sales, and in 2022 Lonnie Johnson was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. He holds more than 100 U.S. patents and now works on batteries and clean energy.
Two stories, one lesson. Arha made it through the night because he kept his eyes on a light and remembered someone believed in him. Lonnie Johnson kept his eyes on his idea through years of “no.” The night is long, but it is not forever. Keep your eyes on the fire.
30-second clip script
Format: vertical for short-video apps or square for feeds; the five stills also work in widescreen on the site.
Tone: calm, warm voiceover with a soft krar (Ethiopian lyre) melody and a light kebero drum. Night-sky violet and gold accents in graphics.
Beat 1, 0–5 seconds: Hook (Still 1)
- Visual: A Black teen at a kitchen table late at night, holding a crumpled sketch of an invention, looking discouraged.
- Voiceover: “Ever had a great idea, and everybody said not yet?”
- On-screen text: Your idea. Their “not yet.”
Beat 2, 5–12 seconds: The old story (Still 2)
- Visual: A young Ethiopian man stands on a cold, windy mountain peak at night, staring at a tiny fire far across the valley.
- Voiceover: “In an Ethiopian tale, Arha must stand all night on a freezing mountain to win land of his own.”
- On-screen text: The Fire on the Mountain · Ethiopian folktale
Beat 3, 12–19 seconds: The friend (Still 3)
- Visual: A wise elder in a white shawl tends a fire on a distant rock, sparks rising like stars.
- Voiceover: “A wise friend lights a fire across the valley. Arha watches it until dawn, and he makes it.”
- On-screen text: Watch the light. Remember who believes in you.
Beat 4, 19–26 seconds: The echo (Still 4)
- Visual: A 1980s home workshop (an homage, not a portrait). A Black engineer tests a homemade water toy, a long stream arcing across the room, rocket sketches on the wall.
- Voiceover: “Engineer Lonnie Johnson got the idea for the Super Soaker in 1982. It took eight years of ‘no’ before it hit the shelves.”
- On-screen text: Lonnie Johnson · Super Soaker inventor · National Inventors Hall of Fame 2022
Beat 5, 26–30 seconds: Closing (Still 5)
- Visual: Black teens laughing together at sunrise around a small homemade robot, notebooks in hand.
- Voiceover: “The night is long, but it’s not forever. Keep your eyes on the fire.”
- On-screen text: Keep your eyes on the fire. Then the end card: the official gold Soul Journey of Life logo and “brought to you by Soul Journey of Life.”
Intellectual encouragement
Our reflection: Notice that Arha did not win alone. He was brave, but he also had the wisdom to ask for help, and an elder who cared enough to sit up all night tending a fire. Notice too that the story has a second test: Arha survived the night, and then a powerful man still tried to cheat him out of his reward. It took a clever friend and a feast of smells to make things right. Lonnie Johnson’s life looks like that too. His was the only Black school at that science fair in segregated Alabama. He won first place, built systems for a spacecraft headed to Jupiter, and still spent years hearing “no” about the Super Soaker. Talent gets you onto the mountain. Patience, community, and protecting your work (he had a patent) get you through the night and help you keep what you earned. So find your fire: a teacher, a parent, an elder, a mentor, a friend who believes in you. And be someone else’s fire when they are standing in the cold.
Tech motivation checklist (this week)
- Keep an idea notebook. Write down one invention idea each day, even silly ones. Lonnie Johnson’s billion-dollar toy started as a side effect of a different experiment.
- Build from what you have. Linex the robot was made from scrap parts. Make one small prototype from cardboard, tape, a bottle, or old electronics.
- Show, don’t just tell. Johnson won over Larami by pumping up his prototype and firing it across the room. Make a quick demo video of your project.
- Learn how ideas are protected. Look up what a patent is on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s kids’ page and talk with an adult about how inventors protect their work.
- Name your fire. Write down one person who believes in you, and thank them this week. Then encourage one younger student in the same way.
Sources and further reading
- Harold Courlander and Wolf Leslau, The Fire on the Mountain and Other Ethiopian Stories (Henry Holt, 1950): scan on Internet Archive
- Core Knowledge: The Fire on the Mountain (an Ethiopian folk tale), classroom excerpt
- Great Books Foundation: How the Right Questions Make a Story Discussable
- National Inventors Hall of Fame: Lonnie Johnson, Super Soaker, inducted 2022
- U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Kids: Lonnie Johnson
- BBC News: Lonnie Johnson: The father of the Super Soaker
- Lonnie Johnson: official timeline
- JFK Library: Imaginative Invention with Dr. Lonnie Johnson
These are starting points for study. Verify with teachers, elders, and primary materials, and treat Ethiopian storytelling traditions with respect, not as decoration.
Write About It is brought to you by Soul Journey of Life.
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