Honey Hunting and Beekeeping in Adamaoua (Cameroon)

Author: Martin Gruber, Mazi Sanda. Edited by: Dorothea Brückner. With a preface by: Richard Jones.

Series: TIAS Topics in Interdisciplinary African Studies Volume 51

This book is the first general overview of beekeeping and the honey trade in Sub-Saharan Africa, based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork in the Adamaoua Region of Central Cameroon.

Dr. Mazi Sanda, a Cameroonian biologist, and Dr. Martin Gruber, a German anthropologist and filmmaker, have interviewed and filmed numerous beekeepers and honey traders in the region. The authors offer a detailed description of honey hunting and beekeeping with Apis mellifera adansonii in traditional hives, they also describe improved traditional hives, honey harvesting and the honey trade. Honey has become a big business and Ngaoundéré, the capital of the Adamaoua Region, is an important trade centre.

In the book you will find a detailed ethnographic account of the manifold connections between humans, bees and honey. The book is aimed at the academic community, as well as at beekeepers and anyone interested in natural resources and their sustainable development in Cameroon and elsewhere in the region.

CONTENTS

Preface / Introduction

1  Research on Beekeeping in the Adamaoua Region

2  Bees and Beekeeping in Africa and the Adamaoua Region

3  Honey Hunting:  3.1 Honey Hunting from Earth Nests  3.2 Honey Hunting from Hollow Trees  3.3 Honey Hunting from Stingless Bees  3.4 Honey Hunting with the Honey Guide Bird (Indicator indicator)  3.5 Honey Hunting in Local Oral History

4  Beekeeping with Conical Beehives:  4.1 The Manufacturing of Hives  4.2 Beekeeping Practice  4.3 Honey Harvesting  4.4 Innovations in Beekeeping

5  Honey Trade:  5.1 Different Categories of Honey Traders  5.2 Places of Trading Honey  5.3 Recent Developments in the Honey Trade  5.4 Adulterated Honey  5.5 The Use of Honey

6  Potentials and Challenges Related to Beekeeping:  6.1 Environmental Degradation and Climate Change  6.2 Security Issues  6.3 Beekeeping and Development

Conclusion / References

Under these links you will find further ethnobotanical / ethnozoological accounts, comprising information on honey production, nutrition and use of resources in Africa:

Accompanying material:

• A Bibliography of the Maa Language and the Maasai People (ISBN 978-3-89645-710-3)
• Expérience végétale bolia (C.35b, République Démocratique du Congo) (ISBN 978-3-89645-037-1)
• Linguistic Salvage – Isubu and Wovea (Bantu A231) (ISBN 978-3-89645-770-7)

Cross-reference:

• A Linguistic Study of Ewe Animal Names among the Ewe of Ghana (ISBN 978-3-89645-474-4)
• Environmental and Cultural Dynamics in the West African Savanna (ISBN 978-3-89645-478-2)
• Konzeptualisierung von Landschaft im Mbukushu (K.333/K.43) Bantusprache in Nord-Namibia) (ISBN 978-3-89645-600-7)
• Living with the Lake (ISBN 978-3-89645-216-0)
• People, Cattle and Land (ISBN 978-3-89645-363-1)
• San and the State (ISBN 978-3-89645-357-0)
• Siedler am Tschadsee (ISBN 978-3-89645-218-4)
• Sprachhistorische Rekonstruktionen zu den Ursprüngen von Getreidenutzung und Gartenbau in Nordostafrika (ISBN 978-3-89645-097-5)
• Swahili Plants (ISBN 978-3-927620-89-6)
• The Akie Language of Tanzania (ISBN 978-3-89645-714-1)
• The Mukogodo Maasai (ISBN 978-3-927620-86-5)
• Tiergeschichten in Afrika (ISBN 978-3-927620-98-8)

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