A man has been stung to death after trying to talk to a swam of bees he believed were reincarnations of his ancestors in South Africa.
Nkosentsha Njimbana, 58, died at his Zalara home outside Qonce on November 5 after speaking to the bees during a traditional ceremony.
In some African cultures, it is believed that ancestors visit their living relatives in the form of bees or lizards, often to warn the family to perform the correct traditional rituals.
Bees had nested in Nkosentsha’s property in Eastern Cape, which his brother said he took as a sign that his ancestors had come to visit him.
In some African cultures, it is believed that ancestors visit their living relatives in the form of bees, often to warn the family to perform traditional rituals
Traditional spokesperson Loyiso Nqevu, speaking to News24, said the incident reveals the wrath of the ancestors.
After consulting a sangoma, a traditional healer among the Zulu peoples, Nkosentsha returned to perform the ‘ukugxotha iinyosi’ ritual — known as the dispersing of the bees — to try and interpret their message.
Nqevu said failing to decode the ancestors’ message may have caused the bees to turn on him.
‘This is the most painful thing ever to befall our family,’ the man’s brother Mandla said. ‘We don’t understand why they were so angry with him, yet he had welcomed them to his home. He never tried to violently chase them away.’
The spirits of ancestors can also be reincarnated into water monitor lizards, according to the traditional healers.
Nqevu said once a water monitor lizard or bees enter a home, the family must consult traditional healers to understand what ceremony needs to be performed.
One method is for the family leader to go to the swarm of bees with a glass of soda drink, sugar in a saucer and a glass of brandy, and place them in front of the bees, he said.
Many of the ceremonies are expensive, with families having to save up for months to afford them.
Xhosa communities, which include former South African leader Nelson Mandela, practice traditional medicine as well as a number of rituals, such as circumcision.
Nkosentsha Njimbana, 58, died at his Zalara home outside Qonce on November 5 after talking to the bees during a traditional ceremony. His home in Eastern Cape, South Africa, is pictured
‘This is the welcoming ceremony. If you are a Xhosa person, you don’t run away and call municipal workers to remove the bees because bees are your visitors,’ Nqevu said.
The family then make umqombothi — a type of traditional beer — which takes around four days to get ready, before offering it to the bees, he said.
The bees were supposed to fly away at this point in the ceremony, but instead they attacked Njimbana.
Nqevu said this is likely because the family may have been too hasty to get rid of the bees without trying to fully understand the ancestor’s message.
Eastern Cape police spokesperson Brigadier Thembinkosi Kinana said Tamara police have launched an inquiry.
The Buffalo City Metro municipality has urged people to call its marine and zoo unit to remove bees from their homes.
Bee strings often have phosphate venom which can cause blood clotting and eventually. Multiple stings can be fatal within half an hour without medical treatment
Siani Tinley, the metro’s general manager for marine and zoo amenities, said hiring professional bee removers or beekeepers was the only way to safely get rid of the bees.
‘Both animals and people get killed from too many bee stings, and bees get quite aggressive very fast when an inexperienced person uses poison or other substance to remove them,’ said Tinley.
‘The beekeepers know how to read the bees and how to relocate them in an environmentally friendly way.’
Bee strings often have phospholipase venom which can cause blood clotting.
Multiple stings can be fatal within half an hour without medical treatment, with the venom leading to difficulty in breathing, tongue swelling, nausea, unconsciousness, and eventfully death.
