How Anansi taught us to farm

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ANANSI FARMS
ANANSI GIVES STORIES
ANANSI AND THE TURTLE
ANANSI AND WISDOM

Women hoeing fields (Uganda)

In the beginning, people didn't know how to farm. They had to get their food from the wild, hunting it and gathering it. At that time only Porcupine had a hoe. Only Porcupine knew how to farm. But Anansi and his children went to live with Kotoko, the Porcupine, for a while. Anansi and his children watched Kotoko the Porcupine use his hoe. They saw how Porcupine hoed his field. Now when Porcupine went home to eat his lunch, he hid his hoe. But Anansi found the hoe and took it; he took it away and used it. That is how people got hoes.

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You might want to compare this African story to the Greek story of Demeter or the Mayan story of Maize Mountain.

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