Ghana's Beekeepers: Duncan Carmichael and Bill Evans

Duncan Carmichael and Bill Evans were unlikely beekeepers because they lived near the centre of Accra, Ghana?s capital and largest city. Yet after attending the First National Workshop on Beekeeping in Kumasi in January 1981 organised by the Technology Consultancy Centre (TCC) of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), they became two of the most active promoters of the new rural industry. They encouraged the formation of a beekeepers? association in Greater Accra Region and Duncan Carmichael served at one time as Chairman of the Accra branch of the Beekeepers Association of Ghana.

Duncan Carmichael was a Scotsman who had made his home in Ghana. He ran a small cosmetics industry in Accra and lived in a modest house with a fairly large garden in a pleasant residential estate not far from Accra International Airport. His close Ghanaian friend, Bill Evans, lived in downtown Accra in a family house, the Evans-Anforms being one of Accra?s old and respected families. Bill?s cousin, Dr Emmanuel Evans-Anfom, was Vice Chancellor of KNUST from 1967 to 1973, and later Commissioner for Education under the Acheampong Regime (1972-1978). With the Evans-Anfoms always on the edge of Ghanaian national politics, Bill Evans was at one time arrested and incarcerated in Jamestown prison in Accra, where Duncan Carmichael tried in vain to visit him until his release a few months later.

A natural inventor and entrepreneur, Duncan Carmichael formulated most of the cosmetic products that his company manufactured. No doubt he saw beekeeping as a source of valuable raw materials for his cosmetic products: honey, beeswax, royal jelly, bee venom, etc. The size of his personal apiary was constrained by the size of his urban garden but he managed to accommodate several hives within its boundaries. Turning his attention to the tropical beekeeping system introduced by the TCC and based on the Kenyan top-bar hive, Duncan made several useful innovations in equipment and technique which he shared with others both by feedback to the TCC and through his involvement with the beekeepers? association.

Bill Evans had no room for even one beehive on his family?s congested plot in Adabraka, an old and crowded district of central Accra. However, this location provided an ideal base for one of Duncan and Bill?s most useful services to the community. Swarms of African bees frequently invaded homes and established colonies in the roofs of houses in the city and it was extremely dangerous to attempt to remove them by using fire in the traditional way of the wild honey tappers. Duncan and Bill used their beekeeper?s protective clothing and smokers to remove the bees unharmed and ready to install in a beehive. Thus, in one operation they eliminated an unwanted hazard and helped to establish a new apiary or expand an old one. Bill sometimes expressed his regret at not having beehives of his own but he was always a welcome helper and advisor at the apiaries he helped to create.

Few, if any, insects interact with human life in such a useful and interesting way as the honeybee. In return, the golden insect, as Stephen Adjare of the TCC always called it, seems to attract some of the most useful and interesting human beings. Duncan Carmichael and Bill Evans certainly belonged to this category and their pioneering services to beekeeping in Accra are worthy of permanent memorial.

John Powell

To learn more about the intriguing story of the grassroots industrial revolution in the turbulent Ghana of the second half of the twentieth century, read John Powell?s novel The Colonial Gentleman?s Son or his non-fictional account The Survival of the Fitter. More details of these books and photographs of the informal sector artisans of Suame Magazine in Kumasi will be found on the following websites.

http://www.ghanabooksjwp.com

http://www.amazon.com/The-Colonial-Gentlemans-John-Powell/dp/184624496X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331919059&sr=1-1

Source: http://toddsblogs.com/referenceandeducation/2012/08/15/ghanas-beekeepers-duncan-carmichael-and-bill-evans/

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