Among the Gbayas, on the high plateaus of Cameroon, the nighttime honey harvests take on the air of sacrificial ceremonies.
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An antediluvian minibus converted into a bush taxi, trees covered in flowers and a dirt road of red laterite make up a typical scene in the tree-filled savanna on the high plateaus of Adamawa.
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A beekeeper fastens into a tree a traditional cylindrical hive, made of the veins from raffia leaves, after having coated the sides with beeswax prepared in an infusion of citronella to attract a wild swarm of bees.
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A late afternoon in a village on the route to Ngaoundal. It’s the time of day when the trees again begin producing nectar, interrupted during the hours of intense heat.
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His majesty Aboubakar Mohamadou Mbele, traditional chief of Ngaoundal, surrounded by his council members. The power of the traditional chieftainships is today undergoing a renaissance.
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A colony of adansonii bees has been spotted in a tree. Gbayas are sometimes guided by a larva-loving bird, the informer, which leads them right to the nests in exchange for part of the harvest.
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Scaffolding on one of the giants of the gallery forest: 40 to 50 metres high and up to eight metres in diameter. In the foreground, a man holds a yam tuber found along the way.
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The men put on the heavy suit of wood fibres, indispensable for a daytime harvest. The sap from the tree that produces this wood gives off a substance that repels the bees.
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The nest, situated in the hollow of the tree more than fifteen meters off the ground, requires the honey gatherer to make a perilous climb without insurance, exposed to attacks by the bees.
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The gatherer constructs the scaffolding as he climbs it: a rudimentary but effective technique that only requires transporting the raffia, the wood being cut on the spot.
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The honey gatherer extracts the honeycomb with his bare hands, precariously balanced more than fifteen meters above the ground.
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The basket woven of veins from the raffia leaf and now full of the precious nectar is lowered to the ground.
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The basket woven of veins from the raffia leaf and now full of the precious nectar is lowered to the ground.
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The honey gatherers’ hands, exposed to the bees’ stings, are carefully rubbed with the wood fibre to impregnate them with the repelling sap.
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The gatherer enlarges the hole sheltering the nest with a hatchet in order to insert his hand.
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The brood cells are separated from the wax combs holding the stores of honey and carried in the baskets of woven raffia lined with banana leaves.
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After a very poor harvest, the honey gatherers take off the heavy suits that protected them from stings.
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After a very poor harvest, the honey gatherers take off the heavy suits that protected them from stings.
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Honeycomb.
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This type of harvest, taking place during the day and without smoke, is practiced less and less. It comes from a time when, during wars, the fighters took refuge in the forest. Honey and water and some wild yam provided him who knew how to find them several weeks of subsistence.
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The reward following the harvest.
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The reward following the harvest.
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A hive maker brings to the village cylindrical hives that will be covered in palm leaves to enclose them.
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The high plateaus of Adamawa were originally covered in mountain forest. The slash and burn practiced by the Wodaabe or Bororo and the Fulani cattle breeders created the tree-filled savanna.
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The entrance to the mosque on Friday. Adamawa, dominated by the Fulani, is mostly Muslim.
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Conflicts are frequent between Gbayan farmers and Fulani cattle breeders, when the animals destroy the corn and cassava crops.
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A woman in sumptuous Fulani costume takes her laundry to the pond in the heart of the gallery forest.
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The market. The baskets of cassava, corn and rice flour are often visited by bees needing pollen. The more pollen-gathering bees there are, the better the flour is reputed to be.
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In all the villages, the Christian women make mead in the huts, which are also the places where it is drunk.
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No centrifuges in the bush: the honey is extracted by pressing.
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No centrifuges in the bush: the honey is extracted by pressing.
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The market. The baskets of cassava, corn and rice flour are often visited by bees needing pollen. The more pollen-gathering bees there are, the better the flour is reputed to be.
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Nana Saïdou is a honey merchant, getting honey from the bush and villages to sell in the big cities and to Nigerian tradesmen.
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Nana gets beeswax from a village. It’s the preferred material of silver and goldsmiths.
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Joseph and his wife, who live in the bush, get ready to gather the honey from one of their hives set in a tree.
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Joseph and his wife, who live in the bush, get ready to gather the honey from one of their hives set in a tree.
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Joseph harvests the hives at night, chest and legs bare to avoid getting bees caught in his clothing.
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Joseph harvests the hives at night, chest and legs bare to avoid getting bees caught in his clothing.
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Joseph harvests the hives at night, chest and legs bare to avoid getting bees caught in his clothing.
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Joseph harvests the hives at night, chest and legs bare to avoid getting bees caught in his clothing.
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Joseph harvests the hives at night, chest and legs bare to avoid getting bees caught in his clothing.
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The shape of this hive makes the harvest very harmful because it involves the destruction of the colony.
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The African bee is known for its aggressiveness, increased tenfold by certain odours, like that of perspiration. The smoke from a torch of flaming dried grass drives the bees to take refuge in the back of the hive. The honeycombs are quickly put through the fire to kill the attackers.
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Joseph lights an armful of dried grass to smoke out this colony, which has found refuge in an abandoned termites’ nest.
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Joseph lights an armful of dried grass to smoke out this colony, which has found refuge in an abandoned termites’ nest.
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Joseph lights an armful of dried grass to smoke out this colony, which has found refuge in an abandoned termites’ nest.
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Exceptional within the apis melifera family, the African bee often nests in the ground. The nest is destroyed during the harvest, which is carried out at night using a hoe.
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Exceptional within the apis melifera family, the African bee often nests in the ground. The nest is destroyed during the harvest, which is carried out at night using a hoe.
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Children play an important role in finding the colonies. The whole family takes part in the harvest of the honeycombs, which will be transported in banana leaves before extracting the honey.
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Nana Saïdou in negotiations with a Fulani merchant. The honey is packaged in 20 litre jerry cans, or in 50 litre plastic bags for exporting. Approximately two tons of honey are being readied to go to Nigeria.
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The train linking Ngaoundere to Yaounde is the main overland route from North to South. It bypasses the innumerable police roadblocks, customs and other administrative hassles that are as frequent as they are costly.
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The train linking Ngaoundere to Yaounde is the main overland route from North to South. It bypasses the innumerable police roadblocks, customs and other administrative hassles that are as frequent as they are costly.
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Eric in action, fifteen metres above the ground, just before a massive attack that will earn him forty-odd stings…