An elderly man who was stung to death bees at a village near Butterworth at the weekend was probably taking part in a cultural ceremony to remove dangerous African honey bees.
Eastern Cape police said on Monday that Victor Ndoda Nyembezi (73) had been part of a group of about 100 people who were trying to remove a hive from a homestead in Mgomanzi village on Friday.
”The old man had attended a traditional ceremony in one of the homesteads where the bees were to be chased away traditionally,” said police spokesperson Captain Jackson Manatha.
He said the bees attacked and everyone fled, but Nyembezi was unable to run and was stung to death. Police opened a culpable homicide docket.
Professor Peter Mtuze of Rhodes University in Grahamstown said that traditional Xhosa ceremonies to move bees took place in the Eastern Cape.
Mtuze, who is the university’s deputy registrar and has an interest in Xhosa culture as the former head of the university’s African languages department, said such ceremonies were usually to moving bees from homes or buildings where they might be a problem, rather than to take the honey.
He did not think such ceremonies were common and he had not heard of people involved in them being attacked.
”You’ve got to hold a ceremony to appease the ancestors so the bees will go away peacefully,” said Mtuze.
He said the ceremony would be arranged by the head of the household and would involve serving traditional beer and talking to the bees.
”The beer is brewed in order to appease the ancestors. It is meant to be some way of talking to the ancestors. The ancestors, so to speak, drive away the bees.”
Bee expert Professor Randall Hepburn of the Rhodes zoology and entomology department said the bees would have been African honey bees, Apis mellifera, known for their viciousness.
”This bee extends from the Eastern Cape to Ethiopia. And it is a vicious bee, make no mistake,” said Hepburn.
He said North Americans call them killer bees. They have the same sort of venom as European bees but differ considerably in temperament.
”Bees in Europe are like sheep,” said Hepburn. Beekeepers there do not need to take protective measures.
”The bees south of the Sahara have been hunted for millions of years,” said Hepburn, explaining that African bees do not need much provocation to attack.
”Those bees are mean as hell.”
He said African bees from Pretoria had been exported to Brazil in 1956 and were aggressive and invasive. ”In 50 years those bees have moved north 14 000km.”
Hepburn said he had previously been asked for advice on how to remove such bees by someone planning a traditional bee-removing ceremony.
”I said it’s simple: don’t do it. He said: ‘I have to do it’.” – Sapa