Sugar oh Honey, honey

Last year alone, bee keepers with the help of MS Zambia’s Bente were able to earn a record K23million from selling 10 tones of honey, money they were unable to earn in the past because they lacked proper advise on how to grow honey and sell it.

By Anthony Mukwita

Sometimes you get your tongue too buried into the sugar business you forget the test of real honey.

That, however, is one thing Bente has not forgotten as a Development worker for MSZambia working with bee keepers in Mansa, Luapula province.

A few stories of success have been told in rural Zambia and Bentes and the Mansa bee keepers is probably one of the best told so far.

About four years ago when Bente landed in this peri urban area, bee keepers realised little or no money from honey because for a number of reasons ranging from archaic methods of bee keeping to lack of marketing the commodity.

”Now they know that you can actually make lots of money from honey if you produce it well and find proper out lets to buy it,” Bente says.

Last year alone, bee keepers with the help of MS Zambia’s Bente were able to earn a record K23million from selling 10 tones of honey, money they were unable to earn in the past because they lacked proper advise on how to grow honey and sell it.

”The honey that we are producing is being sold locally here but the town is small and can only consume so much so the rest is sold to big business such as Speciality Foods and Forest Fruits who later export it,” Bente says.

But just how possible is it to produce 10 tonnes of honey in rural Zambia without getting stung by the proverbial bees.

“Training goes a long way in this issue and as a DW for MS, I have devoted my time to train these wonderful people on how to get the best honey for good value money” Bente says.

For instance she says the locals used to crash honey combs which as a result gave them only 4 percent of honey as opposed to 80 percent and above if the combs were well treated.

Enterprenuers buy the commodity that has curative substance for K2500 per kilogramme which is just below 1 cent but the finished product fetches about 1 dollar for less than 350mls in the capital Lusaka and more when exported.

But then who exactly is Bente who is now fondly known as the “Honey of Mansa” by the people she works with and has been with for the past four years.

She is a strong Danish woman standing just a bit above five feet and sun tanned skin from the African sun that shines exceptionally bright in Mansa.

A widower from the bright lights of the west, she took to the bush of Africa the way a duck takes to water and she in fact wants to extend her stay in Africa or Zambia in particular where she is in touch with nature, the way God made it.

The common fear among westerners coming to Africa is that they would immediately die from diseases such as malaria, yaws and even HIV AIDS lately the moment they land in Africa.

After all this is the stuff that western televisions news is made off is it not?

But for Bente, her fears had nothing to do with the deadly diseases and the possibility of starving to death in famine ridden Africa.

”I was scared more of the creepy crawlies that can be found in the forests or the bush you know snakes and spiders...the only part I was scared of the disease was probably the possibility of dysentry because everybody shakes hands with everyone without washing their hands after using the bathroom so I got in the habit of carrying a small piece of soap to wash my hands everytime before eating after a dozen handshakes just as a precaution not because I don’t like the people because the truth is I love them a lot,” Bente says.

But was the culture shock only in form of contracting some incurable deadly communicable diseases that have have always found a better incubator in Africa for Bente?

Bente says ”What I found shocking as the kind of superiority men had over women in Zambia, ” Bente says, “not all but most men in rural Zambia that sometimes I told them ”I would never marry a Zambia man” and they would ask, “why” and I would say, there is no equality between men and women here. In Denmark I can tell my husband to do the laundry all dry clothes.”

This revelation shocked most of the people Bente talked to in Mansa until she said they did not actually have to do the actual washing but simply had to throw the clothes in the washing machine and later switch on the dryer.

They would laugh and say “now you are talking because for a moment we thought you would send your husband to actually wash and dry clothes on the line.”

Nevertheless its never always sunny in Mansa for Bente because sometimes for instance, she sits by helplessly watching MSZambia partners such as those she works with at the Forestry department go without logistical support such as transport to monitor those dealing in charcoal trading, illegally.

MSZambia is in a way helping the department with technical and some financial support to the department so that they can conserve nature in the best way possible but the organisation cannot go ahead and assume the role of the policeman and provide transportation for the departments workers to enforce the law as that would be going against the partnership agreement.

Bente, however, says things can improve in future and both MSZambia and its partners can get the best out of the relationship in order to improve the lives of the bee keepers and conserve nature.

In fact Bente has been greatly inspired with the work she is doing with the locals she is hoping MSZambia can extend her contract for a longer period beyond the four years she has already clocked.

She is now working with 36 groups of bee keepers comprising up to 12 people per group from nothing a couple of years ago and projections are bright—It is hoped her team can produce as much as 40 tonnes of honey for both their own consumption and for sell next year.