Basenji Africa Dog

Basenji Information worth knowing

Africa Expeditions

Africa Explorers brought the reports about Basenjis to Europe

 

1778 Participants of Napolion`s military expedition to Egypt were researchers too. Under other things the first Drawings from Basenji Type dogs were produced.

 

 

Basenji Type dog

Tafel XVI-XVII Bilderwelten und Weltbilder der Pharaonen   Philipp von Zabern Vlg.

1799 the "stone of Rosetta was discovered. Its multilingual character made it possible to translate hieroglyphics.

 

1822 Jean Francois Champillon and Thomas Young deciphered Hieroglyphs. Now it became possible to decode the documents of the Pharaohs Age

 

Hieroglyphs of a Pharaoh and Hieroglyphs Alphabet

Hieroglyphen Vlg. Battenberg

Discovery of the Basenjis

In charge of an archeological expedition to Egypt 1828/29 was Professor Niccola Ippoloto Rosselini of the University in Pisa, Italy. Among others, drawings of jackals, Basenji Type dogs and other unspecified dog breeds were produced. These drawings may be of something interest for Basenji owners.

 

Basenjis in Egypt?   Bilderwelten und Weltbilder der Pharaonen   Ph. von Zabern Vlg.

The First report about Basenjis

In 1868-71 the Africa explorer Dr. Georg Schweinfurth noticed some unusual dogs in the Bahr-el-Ghasal (Central Africa) area they were used as hunting help by the Azande tribes.

 

He wrote: ”The only domestic animals whom the Niamniam bother to raise are chickens and dogs. The latter belong to a small spitz-like race but with smooth and short fur and with big, always upright ears and a short, thin tail that is always curled up tail similar to piglets. Their color is a light leather yellow with a white collar on their neck. The small, pointed snout is sharply set off from the arched head. Their legs are quite long and straight and prove that this race has nothing to do with the dachshund-like dogs in the ancient Egyptian temple images. These Niamniam dogs also lack, like all other dog families of the Nile area, the rear claw of the hind legs. One hangs wooden bells on their necks, ostensibly to prevent them from getting lost in the prairie grasses. The animals strongly tend to obesity, just like their owners, who intentionally fatten them because the meat of these dogs is one of their preferred delicacies.”

 

Fascinated by these dogs, Dr. Georg Schweinfurth decided to bring a female back to Europe to present her as an unusual species. However, on the return trip to Europe, the dog, due to the Basenji’s love for freedom, jumped to its death when she jumped out of a second floor window of a hotel in Alexandria.  At the end of his travels, he also succeeded in solving an ages old ethnological problem by discovering the Akka pygmies. He was the first to bring, as a believable witness, knowledge of pygmies  in Europe. An interest in Basenji dogs was awakened in Europe.

 

 

1882 Sir Harry Hamilton Johnston found similar dogs that never barked in an expedition from the mouth of the Congo to Bolobo in the Ituri rain forest, which he described as the Basenjis as we know it.

 

 

Africa Expeditions to the Basenjis

Import and Breeding Start

Earlier expeditions had not been very successful, because the imported Basenjis had a lot of survival problems in quarantine. Expeditions in 1959 from England and 1987/1988 from U.S.A. were sent out to improve the gene pool. There is a detailed report from the expeditions in 1987/88 Africa Stock Project basenji.org/african/project.htm  From the 1959 expedition, Miss Veronica Tudor - Williams  imported the worldwide famous Fula of the Congo. Fula became the most successful breeding female. In the book, Fula from the Jungle, Miss Veronica Tudor-Williams describes her story.

 

 

 

In 1986, an expedition took place to the pygmies at the Congo River. In the book I found pictures of Basenjis. But the Basenjis had not been the reason why.

 

 

Expedition zu den Pygmäen am Kongo   W. Uhl  Vlg. Pietsch

W.Uhl  wolfgang-uhl.com/deutsch/personality.html