World Ark Magazine - January/February 2008 - (Page 26) The Dan West School, founded by Christian Amenya in the Horkope community, draws students of all ages from miles around. Amenya, a Heifer project participant, used the proceeds from selling his honey to found the school. or our actions and the uncertainty of our future; it is the canary in the mineshaft of our increasingly polluted and changing world. In the U.S., hundreds of thousands of hives have simply disappeared. There are many theories as to what has caused this rapid and sudden loss of honeybees, from colony collapse disorder to pesticide use to cell phones. Whatever the cause, the fall has been swift and shows no sign of abating. But here, Amenya’s bees are thriving. They are not the common European honeybees, but African honeybees, a subspecies of Apis mellifera. They are also a progenitor of the Africanized, or “killer” bee found in Central and South America. (The term “Africanized” generally refers to a cross between an African honeybee and a local species, resulting in a more aggressive, more unpredictable bee.) But their bad reputation may be unfair; African bees produce a sweeter honey than their European cousins. Here in Dankyira, honey is more than just a sweetener. It is used as medicine on wounds and burns, to soothe coughing and asthmatic children, even as a hair dressing. And it is used to pay one’s respects. Before we leave Horkope, Amenya produces two gallon-jugs of honey. One he presents, kneeling, to his chief; the other he gives to Heifer Ghana. The syrupy liquid is dark and smoky, redolent of molasses and tropical storms. The rainy season has begun in earnest and low clouds are racing around overhead. I duck into an eatery for one last bowl of fufu before I get on the plane. Back home, there will be no groundnut soup, no pounded cassava. Sitting at long table, I revisit the central question of my trip: How will Accra continue to feed itself as it grows? Urban livestock, I now know, is part of the answer to that question. I pull a small chunk of meat from my bowl and chew it into submission. No, it’s not grasscutter. But I know where I could get some if I wanted it. www.heifer.org 26 January/February 2008 | WORLD ARK PHOTO BY JAMES GROVES http://www.heifer.org
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