EXPLORING THE HIDDEN GEM BENEATH BUNDA MOUNTAIN

 Placing a thermometer in a boiling tube with water connected to a heat supply at the top of this physical feature, the boiling point reading on the thermometer would be approximately 97 degrees Celsius or 370 Kelvins. Yes! Your calculations are right. This elevation of the land is about 1,159 meters above sea level. It is located to the south of Lilongwe city. If you are still wondering what this feature is, wonder no more. It is the Bunda mountain.

At the highest peak of the mountain, you can view part of Bunda campus of Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) and Bunda aquaculture dam. When the sky is clear, Kamuzu dam can be viewed to the west side of the Bunda mountain.

Visitors are welcomed by a rock sign written “Mwalandilidwa m’mudzi mwa Yehova”. In English, it means “Welcome to the village of the Lord”. The passages in the mountain are well decorated with rocks spicing the village of the Lord. The man behind the Village of the Lord is Radford Kamwendo popularly known as Mose wa Paphiri.

“Home is where the heart is” and so did Mose decided to follow his heart and make Bunda mountain as his home. In the Bible, Moses was staying on Mount Sinai serving and communicating with God. Mr Radford Kamwendo was inspired by the story of Moses and some prophecies by prophets around Lilongwe stating that he (Mr Kamwendo) shall go up the Bunda mountain to serve God and never return home.

Down the Bunda Mountain, the land is composed of trees of different species up until Bunda college campus constituting what is called Bunda forest. The forest is a centre of learning for students at Bunda college, especially those in faculty of natural resources pursuing forestry, environmental sciences, natural resources management and the like. The forest is also home to both small and large animals like birds of different species, monkey and hyena among others.

Part of Bunda forest

Top of the Bunda mountain

Bunda forest offers an opportunity for apiculture or beekeeping. Beehives can be set in the trees of the forests and being managed by the Bunda forest managers in collaboration with villagers around the Bunda mountain. Bees provide honey which can be sold by the farmer cooperatives to generate income to support their families.

Some of the forests in Malawi which are being used for apiculture are Majete wildlife reserve and Nkhotakota wildlife reserve. In Majete wildlife reserve, African Parks partnered with ‘Honey with a Heart’ project in 2018 where more than 200 local community members were trained in beekeeping and 600 beehives were distributed within Majete wildlife reserve. Bee keeping and honey processing cooperatives were then set up to produce and process honey which is sold to ‘Honey with a Heart’ company.

At Nkhotakota wildlife reserve, African Parks partnered with DNPW Malawi in 2015 to manage the reserve and community development initiatives were launched to help about 100,000 people living on its borders. One of the initiatives was a bee keeping project which provide training and funding to 656 beekeepers. According to African Parks, those 656 beekeepers produced more than 1.72 tons of honey in the 2021 year alone which was double of the previous year, 2020.

Setting up beehive in Majete wildlife reserve (Source: African Parks Facebook page)

Bunda college which manages the Bunda forest can also venture into the beekeeping farming in an attempt to get to its former glory of being the ‘mother of universities’ in Malawi. In addition to the production of various crops at its CAT farms, the university can also be producing honey for processing and industrial use to assist in the development of the country. While African Parks is involving community members in the beekeeping business to uplift the living standards of people around Majete and Nkhotakota reserves; Bunda college can decide to do solo-implementation of beekeeping farming so that all gains from the farm can circulate around the university. However, collaboration with the local community members around Bunda forest can also be an option to bring inclusiveness to people for effective management of the Bunda forest. 

(source: Bee Parks Trust Facebook page)

(source: African Parks Facebook page)

Honey can be used as a supplement of sugar being a sweetener of people’s cookings. Malawians rely on sugar produced from sugarcane for sweet taste in their cookings and drinking tea. However, sugar in Malawi is produced by Illovo and Salima sugar companies only but majority of the areas are using Illovo sugar company. In a monopoly market with no other competitors apart from companies outside Malawi, Illovo is able to set higher selling prices of their products. Recently, sugar has become scarce due to increase in demand that cannot be fulfilled by the available supply.

Honey is important to health of people. According to Dabur Honey, some of the uses of honey include; weight management by burning of fats in the body, strengthening immune system, used as skin moisturizer, boosts memory and has medicinal value as it can heal wounds, cough and gum diseases.

Apart from production of honey which can be an alternative to industrial sugar, apiculture also assist in conserving trees by preventing massive cutting down of trees in the forests. Beehives restrict cutting down of trees as people are afraid that bees in the hives are going to attack them when cutting down the tree. Beekeeping therefore ensures efficient use of forests since the trees are conserved while at the same time, they are used to hold beehives for the production of honey.