Anchote (Coccinia abyssinica): A Tuber Viewed as a Relative of Women in the Wallaga Region of Southwestern Ethiopia

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper discusses the cultivation, harvesting and consumption of anchote and examines the social and environmental factors that frame the practice. Anchote, an indigenous tuber crop propagated by seed, is primarily cultivated for its edible tubers. In addition to forming part of the dietary staple of the Wallaga Oromo, the tuber is central to the culture and identity of the people. The tuber is anthropomorphized and often referred to as a relative of fertile women. Indeed, the tuber, women and pottery form a nexus of metaphorical meaning integral to Oromo cosmology. Moreover, cultivation of the tuber is framed by the daily interaction between farmers. The perceived agency of farmland is key to understanding how the Wallaga Oromo struggle to retain, modify or alter anchote culture in a swiftly changing world. Anchote is steamed in a clay pot and its processing results in formation of diagnostic use-alteration. This use-alteration may help to envisage antiquity of tuber production and consumption in the Wallaga region of the southwestern Ethiopian highlands.