Have you ever been in a tight spot where panicking felt like the only option? A test you did not study for, a problem at home, a project that broke the night before it was due? The people of the Swahili coast of East Africa tell a story about a monkey who found himself in the tightest spot of all, far out at sea on a shark’s back, and got out of it with nothing but a calm mind.
That calm, clever mind is the same kind of thinking that helped a Black engineer named Dr. Marian Croak turn ordinary text messages into a way to help millions of people.
Comic panels: a Swahili folktale, retold
This is a folktale from Zanzibar and the Swahili coast, retold in our own words. Versions vary by teller.
Panel 1: Friends at the fruit tree
Narration: “On the coast near Zanzibar, a monkey and a shark became friends. Every morning the monkey shared the sweet fruit of his tree, and the shark loved every bite.”
Panel 2: Trouble in deep water
Shark: “I am sorry, friend. Our sultan is sick, and the healers say only a monkey’s heart can cure him.”
Narration: “There was no tree to climb and no shore in sight.”
Panel 3: Think, don’t panic
Monkey: “Why didn’t you tell me before? We monkeys leave our hearts hanging in the tree when we travel. Take me back and I’ll fetch it.”
Narration: “The shark believed him and turned around.”
Panel 4: Safe, and wiser
Monkey: “Only someone with no heart and no ears would be fooled twice. I am staying right here!”
Callout: “Keep your head. Use your heart.”
The real-life echo: Dr. Marian Croak
Dr. Marian Croak joined AT&T’s Bell Laboratories in 1982. She went on to lead the development of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), the technology that carries voice calls over the internet instead of old telephone lines. It is a big part of why video calls, online classes and remote work are possible today. In 2022 she was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and she holds more than 200 patents.
When Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, Croak watched people who badly wanted to help but did not know how. She already knew phone networks could handle huge floods of text-message votes for TV shows. So she asked a calm, clever question: why not let people give by text? She came up with a text-to-donate system and patented it (U.S. Patent 7,715,368). It raised $130,000 after Katrina, and after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti the technology helped raise $43 million.
Like the monkey, she did not freeze when things looked bad. She stopped, thought about what she already knew, and found a way out, and her way out helped other people too. She later joined Google, where she became a vice president of engineering. In her own words to the National Inventors Hall of Fame: “Inventors are usually people like you.”
Intellectual encouragement (our view)
- Calm is a skill. The monkey was not stronger than the shark. He was steadier. You can practise steadiness the same way you practise a sport.
- Use what you already know. The monkey knew the shark. Croak knew texting networks. Your knowledge is a toolbox, so open it before you panic.
- Choose your friends with your heart and your head. Kindness is good; trust that ignores warning signs is not.
- Smart plus kind is powerful. The best ideas get you out of trouble and help others out of theirs.
Tech motivation checklist
- Learn how a call travels. Look up “how VoIP works” and explain it to a friend in three sentences.
- Map a text message. Draw how a text goes from your phone to someone else’s: phone, tower, network, phone.
- Solve one small problem. Pick something that frustrates your family or school and sketch a simple app or text-based fix.
- Practise a calm reset. Next time something breaks, take three slow breaths, write down what you know, then pick one next step.
- Keep a builders’ journal. Add Dr. Marian Croak to your list of Black inventors this week.
Sources and further reading
- Edward Steere, ed. and trans., Swahili Tales, as Told by Natives of Zanzibar (London: Bell & Daldy, 1870): scan on Internet Archive and the monkey and shark story on Wikisource
- Andrew Lang, ed., The Heart of a Monkey, in The Lilac Fairy Book (1910)
- National Inventors Hall of Fame: Marian Croak, VoIP Technology, inducted 2022
- National Inventors Hall of Fame blog: Marian Croak: The Problem-Solving Engineer
- USPTO: Positively connected (interview with Marian Croak)
- Google Patents: US 7,715,368, Method and apparatus for dynamically debiting a donation amount
Write About It is brought to you by Soul Journey of Life.
You must be logged in to post a comment.