3 ideas
In Fulani initiatory teaching each symbol carries two readings: a diurnal, beneficent meaning and a nocturnal, harmful one. The chameleon, for example, can signify wise adaptability to circumstances or two-faced hypocrisy. The initiate is trained to hold both readings at once instead of fixing a single moral value to a sign.
Gold given at the end of an ordeal is bait that sorts initiates. Those who treat the wealth as the goal destroy themselves with it. The one who treats it as a means and gives it up to learn the meaning of what he experienced gains lasting knowledge and legitimate power. Experience without asking what it means yields nothing durable.
In Kaïdara the source of knowledge appears as a repulsive, begging old man whom the proud would ignore or mistreat. Access to teaching depends on the seeker's humility and generosity toward the lowly, not on status or effort alone. Read this way, how a person treats the least impressive figure they meet is the real entrance exam.