Killer Bees

My boyhood African friends would be amused at American panic over Africanized “killer bees” (March 13).

When I was a teen-ager in Northern Togoland, my brother, an African boy and I were trying to climb a baobab tree. I had just climbed up to the first branch when my brother used a slingshot to plunk a stone into a hive of bees in the adjacent tree. We were immediately attacked. When I got to the ground my brother and I started running through the 10-foot-tall grass, hoping that would allow us to escape. We swatted bees on our bodies and in our hair while running for about one-half mile, finally returning back to the house. Only then did we notice that our African friend hadn’t come with us.

He was standing in the yard laughing at the stupid Americans. We noticed he was dust-covered, and asked him about it. He had just sat down and thrown up handfuls of dust until the attack quit.

Maybe we could learn something from people who have lived with these bees.

DENNIS McNUTT

Costa Mesa