They say “be like a bee, be busy!” And that’s what he has been; busy like a bee. We are referring to Phoka Kumi, the National University of Lesotho (NUL) trained plant scientist who has learned the secret of making business with bees.
Kumi and his friends, Moiphepi Letsie and Malebo Thejane , will give you honey, which they like to call the “superfood,” not only to satisfy your sugar cravings, but to infuse you with nutrition like no other.
The threesome will then provide you with one of the most moisturising of the skin creams, still made from honey.
Then when you get sick, no worries. Kumi and friends will use a bee venon, apitoxin, to soothe your ailments. Or they will give you a very antimicrobial propolis, also from bees, to make you feel better.
So now you know why the threesome have been awarded a prize to boost their bee production by the Smallholder Agricultural Development Programme (SADP), one of those few local funders who fund brilliant ideas wherever they come from, even if from companies.
They seem to be free from the socialist "WE FUND COMMUNITIES ONLY" mantra that has hindered Lesotho' progress. Kumi's company is called Manganganeng Farming.
Back to the amazing Kumi and Co’s bee work. Did we hear you say you didn’t know that bees could do so much? Wait a minute; you owe your very existence to the presence and survival of bees!
If they did not help pollinate plants, there would be no food for you, Kumi said, and you would not exist!
Listen to this then. Suppose you are suffering from a bit of arthritis and rheumatism. Or, perhaps, you are dealing with stress, headache and a host of other complaints.
What if we tell you that Mr Kumi has a medicine to assist? Yes, from the bees! Here is what he will do. And you will be flabbergasted!
He will give you a good dose of a bee sting!
You got it right!
“They call it a sting,” Kumi said. “We call it an injection like any other injection, for your health.”
Just as a nurse will inject a medicine with a syringe to help you get well, Kumi will bring a bee to you, and kinda sorta like uummm…, let it sting ya! And it’s done! “It sounds crazy for people who are not aware of “bee therapy or apitherapy,”” Kumi said. “But it works."
Of course some of you are already complaining. “But it’s painful!” we can hear you saying. Of course it is, what injection isn’t? But who among you are not familiar with the statement: no pain no gain? And guess what, Kumi has got news for you, “that pain is not long lasting.” You will get through it quite quickly, so don’t complain.
After all it is worth it, that is, according to the NUL educated bee guru.
If you thought that was all, then you probably don’t know much about bees, those little amazing creatures. They look small, but they do big things!
Now think about their propolis. Bees harvest resins (that viscous material from trees, Basotho call it mamina) from plants. They use the resins to make propolis which glues the internal hive surface to prevent microorganisms from attacking the hive and bringing diseases.
The secret is hidden there! “We take the same propolis,dissolve it in right quantities of ethanol, and use it as a mixture that will help you with many maladies,” Kumi said.
Propolis, it is fantastic! They say it kills bacteria, lowers blood pressure, helps treat allergies, protects injured teeth and who knows what else it can’t do?
“It is one of the most popular of our products, people just like it,” Kumi said.
Now ladies, how about your skin… and your hair? You see, most people think of honey as a mouth-watering delicacy, good only for eating. But, Oops! There is more to honey than that, again thanks to the bees.
“We use our honey, not only as food, but also as an ingredient in skin creams,” Kumi revealed. And the results? It’s like listening to a tape from a romantic movie, here we go:
“Our cream moisturises your skin, it exfoliates it, and it leaves it glowing!” He said. Then he added, “If you use a version designed for your hair, it leaves your hair strong, shiny and natural.” Eish! Ladies! who among you wouldn’t want to give it a try? If you don’t want to, then it is your fault.
A bit of history now. Kumi credits his uncle for instilling the love of bee products in him. In time, he had to part ways with his uncle, only to start developing his own products now using his research skills to make sure that they were much safer for human consumption.
As a student at the NUL, where things happen, he had many students and people outside the campus as clients. Thus when he approached SADP for funding, they immediately knew that in him, they had found a hard-worker and a man whose love for bees, was time-tested.
They say, bees are so important that if they didn't exist, we would have to invent them. Kumi, of course, is one of those who knows this truth very, very well.