More than 10,000 years ago, somewhere in the Andean foothills between Argentina and Bolivia, two wild legume species mixed, probably with the help of some pollinating bees. Their offspring was atypical — a freak of nature that couldn’t remix with its wild ancestors and cousins. The freak plant continued to evolve, first on its own, and then by selection as farmers domesticated it for its tasty seeds that grew, not from its branches like most beans and peas, but beneath the soil. Merchants carried it throughout South America and eventually to the Caribbean islands. From there, Spanish clerics and conquistadors took the first peanuts to Europe and then on to Asia and Africa. The world learned to love the humble peanut.
The transplant came to West Africa early, but it’s only been two centuries since farmers began growing it commercially. Since then, Senegal, which is roughly the size of South Dakota, has regularly been one of the top 10 peanut producers in the world. And farmers grow it under untrustworthy rainfalls, with little fertilizer and mostly the pest control that nature provides.
When it does rain, the capital city of Dakar empties out as tailors and taxi drivers, bureaucrats and teachers head to their villages to plant.
For generations, Fatou Binetou Diop and her family have grown these South American transplants on their land in Méckhé (pronounced “may hay”). The town springs up from the dunes after a two-hour drive from Dakar. “People here say that peanuts are gold,” Diop says. “Because with peanuts, you can get a lot of things.”
