Gbaya – Beekeeping and Honeyhunting

Original title Gbaya – Beekeeping and Honeyhunting

“Gbaya – Beekeeping and honey hunting” depicts the various activities related to traditional beekeeping and honey hunting as practiced amongst the Gbaya in the area of Ngaoundere, Central Cameroon. The film starts off by showing how a beekeeper constructs the highly sophisticated traditional beehive, and later demonstrates the honey harvest from such a hive in a savannah habitat. The same beekeeper then demonstrates the practise of honey hunting. The film was produced in 2015 by the anthropologist Martin Gruber and the bee biologist Dorothea Brückner, both from the University of Bremen, in collaboration with the members of the University of Ngaoundéré.

Author/s Martin Gruber

Martin Gruber works as a researcher and lecturer at the Department of Anthropology and Cultural Studies at the University of Bremen. Martin studied Visual Anthropology at Goldsmiths College, London and Social Anthropology at Hamburg University. He worked as a freelance filmmaker and researcher before completing a PhD on Participatory Ethnographic Filmmaking” in 2013. Martin’s research interests are audio-visual research, ethnographic film, collaborative research, urban anthropology, political ecology and human-animal relationships with a focus on bees. Martin has conducted long-term ethnographic research in West Africa, Southern Africa and Germany.

Research Dorothea Brückner

Sound Mazi Sanda