When we say #savethebees we’re actually saying save industrial agriculture and commercial pollination that uses bees as a tool rather than learning from bees as an ally. They Keep Bees pointed out that beekeeping, as we currently know it is a method “founded by colonizers and used to propagate industrial agriculture. Losing land is a contributor to the racial wealth gap in this country.īut is there racism in beekeeping? In 2020, the Facebook page for “They Keep Bees,” a Massachusetts-based farm, posted that “Beekeeping, like most agriculture in the US, is inherently racist.” Black farmers lost an estimated $326 billion worth of acreage during the 20th century.
Not many Black people own farmland in the United States. The North Carolina native also says spending time with his sons outside with the bees is a potential opportunity for multi-generational farm ownership. “It gives you a better understanding of mother nature. “It’s a way for us to heal and mend our relationship to the land,” Bell says. But land ownership and beekeeping in Black communities dwindled over time.įor Kamal Bell, the founder of Sankofa Farms, owning land and working with bees on that land has been a way to heal from racial trauma. It is the longest-running farming conference in the United States. Last year, he found out that his great-grandfather was a beekeeper in Greenville, South Carolina.Īlong with nurturing bees, the Farmer’s Conference also started in Tuskegee in 1892. It turns out Jackson’s family actually has a history of beekeeping. Instructors included prominent Black folks like George Washington Carver, who heavily advocated for beekeeping education for Black farmers. The project goes on to note that “The enslaved peoples of Africa were the force behind most of the agriculture in what would become America” - meaning that “enslaved Africans were beekeepers in North America is self evident.”Īt the turn of the century, Tuskegee University added beekeeping to its curriculum. The project explained that what is referred to as the ‘European’ Honey Bee was actually “brought to this continent by way of the Virginian colony in 1622, shortly after the first enslaved African peoples arrived in Virginia in 1619.” Through Detroit Hives, they also founded National Urban Beekeeping Day in 2019.īlack folk have a long history of beekeeping in the United States.īut the California-based Black Hives Matter Project noted that “It is unsettling that a google search of the history of African American beekeepers turns up almost nothing.”
They founded Detroit Hives to create multi-generational opportunities for Black people and their children through beekeeping. In the winter of 2016, Jackson’s partner Nicole Lindsey suggested that they begin converting vacant lots into beekeeping hubs.
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