Credit: Goethe University
A team of scientists, led by the University of Bristol, with colleagues from Goethe University, Frankfurt, has found the first evidence for ancient honey hunting, locked inside pottery fragments from prehistoric West Africa, dating back some 3,500 years ago.
Honeybees are an iconic species, being the world s most important pollinator of food crops. Honeybee hive products, including beeswax, honey and pollen, used both for food and medicinal purposes, support livelihoods and provide sources of income for local communities across much of Africa, through both beekeeping and wild harvest.
Today, honey is collected from wild bee nests in many African countries. In the West African tropical rain forest, hunting for wild honey, found in natural hollows in tree trunks and on the underside of thick branches, is a common subsistence activity.
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A team of scientists, led by the University of Bristol, with colleagues from Goethe University, Frankfurt, has found the first evidence for ancient honey hunting, locked inside pottery fragments from prehistoric West Africa, dating back some 3,500 years ago.
Honeybees are an iconic species, being the world’s most important pollinator of food crops. Honeybee hive products, including beeswax, honey and pollen, used both for food and medicinal purposes, support livelihoods and provide sources of income for local communities across much of Africa, through both beekeeping and wild harvest.
Today, honey is collected from wild bee nests in many African countries. In the West African tropical rain forest, hunting for wild honey, found in natural hollows in tree trunks and on the underside of thick branches, is a common subsistence activity.
People of Africa didn’t need to describe the continent: they lived there. So almost every book or report up until the 20th century came from European adventurers venturing into a continent that was dark only to themselves. They made notes and sketches that, often without realising it, opened the way for colonial incursions. Ibn Battuta was different. He came from Tangier in Morocco and most fully embodied Lau Tzu’s notion of a good traveller having ‘no fixed plans and not intent on arriving.’ Battuta travelled almost continuously for 30 years. He began his journey as a haj to Mecca in 1325. After that, he just kept going. This is his final trip: across the Sahara to Mali.
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‘We now have a South-South policy in Morocco,’ he said to Bwana Hussein, as Mr Annan nodded. ‘Kenyan chai should be drank by Moroccans who love tea. And we should be selling our phosphate fertilisers to Kenyan farmers, as they are cheaper and with a high yield.’
Dr Mokhtar Ghambou, the Ambassador of Morocco in Kenya (Courtesy)
Ambassador Ghambou has been to the North Eastern province, met governors to talk about dams, and declares that patriotism is the only way a country can develop. ‘His Majesty puts Moroccans first at heart.’ Ali tells us that it is time for dinner, and we leave the garden area for the dining room, where soft Moroccan music pipes us to.