REFLECT A LITTLE DEEPER – Let’s get down to the gray matter and think.
by Mary Lou KenworthyIn REFLECTIONS the breeds short tenure in civilization is mentioned. And short it is in comparison to the length of time the basenji has existed. History, for many basenji owners, begins when they first learn of the breed and unless they make an effort to learn what went before they think that is all there is to the story. Most written history began in the early 1900s. Basenjis existed in Africa, the cradle of the world, for thousands of years before The Basenji magazine and the Bulletin came along to establish a continuous record of the breed. The earliest history was in hieroglyphics on the Egyptian tombs and in cave drawings. Later, eighteenth century (non-doggie) explorers in Africa mentioned little tan – yellow – barkless hunting dogs as passing remarks in their journals. Forrest Bryant Johnson, who had a passion for Egyptian history, wrote BASENJI –Dog from the Past. His research traced the migration of basenjis in Africa through art and language. He reports this of colors, “In comparing many drawings and carvings, it was determined that the colors of the Egyptian Basenjis were red, red and white, black and gray, and black and white. Of literally hundreds of records examined, these were the only colors mentioned or used for the Basenji-type dog.” (Emphasis mine.)The black and gray is puzzling but could have been an attempt at showing tri colors (black & tan) or more likely ‘Fula tris’. (Now before you complain that Fula hadn’t been born yet that does not mean that the ‘recessive black’ gene wasn’t around previously. This color combination came to light when Fula was doubled on and therefore was named Fula black and/or Fula tri.) There is no way of knowing if the ‘blacks’ referred to in Johnson’s book were dominant blacks or recessive blacks but the latter is most logical since it is carried on the Agouti locus along with the other documented ‘wild’ colors. Most of today’s basenji owners have probably never seen a Fula black or Fula tri since the color was bred away from in this country. Too bad this wasn’t done more carefully since much real basenji type was lost. Reflections refers to the black and white basenji mentioned in Veronica Tudor-Willian’s ‘Blue Book’. Was this a dominant black? Or a recessive black?Reflections refers to this passage from Elspet Ford’s book. “The first time I exhibited a black Basenji in Zambia, I was informed by an onlooker that the dogs she had when she first arrived in Northern Rhodesia in 1902 were exactly the same as mine: they didn’t bark either. This is assuming that ‘exactly the same’ included color. If they were blacks, were they dominant blacks or recessive blacks? The first dominant blacks were bred on the Firestone Plantation in Liberia. They were taken to Northern Rhodesia (neighbor to Zambia) by Roslyn Sadler, a missionary to the Loma tribe. The Coptokin blacks, bred by Mrs. Gwendolyn Stanich of Illinois were descended from these Firestone blacks. Other blacks, from the same roots on the Firestone Plantation, were the ancestors of Ch. Khajah’s Sir Datar Of Horsley and all his black relatives. Barking was reported among the descendants from dogs that came from both routes to the USA. This information from the mouths of the basenji breeders who heard them bark to my ears.There was a basenji breeding programs run by employees of the Firestone Rubber Plantation. These breeders were American and European and some were native workers who liked to cross breed their dogs with the bigger barking dogs brought in from the outside world. This provided the most likely source of the dominant black that infiltrated the native canines. But don’t take my word for it, read it for yourself, it’s on the BCOA web site.During the early ’70 a ‘battle of the blacks’ ensued. An owner of some ‘Fula blacks’ claimed that hers were the ‘only pure Basenji blacks’ and an owner of ‘Liberian blacks’ claimed that hers were the ‘only pure black basenjis’. Apparently both were right. By then it had become apparent that, while the Liberian black was dominant, the Fula factor was inherited recessively. Often tan hairs would appear to various degrees throughout the black of some, but not all, of the Fula blacks and Fula tris. This muddying of the black color made them unpopular causing breeders to breed away from these colors. The two kinds of black in the gene pool caused some confusion at first. To further complicate things, some dominant blacks (the ones with Khajah’s Black Fula Challenge in the pedigree) also carried the recessive black.Reflections further states that, “However, the first recorded brindle basenji was Tiger, brought to England with Fula in 1959, thirty years before the 1987/1988 imports and that amorous whippet.” First of all there was no date given for the fling of the amorous whippet so we don’t know exactly when that was. Second, there was no claim that he was the first or the only brindle dog to introduce stripes. This particular whippet was just one incidence that was known by someone who actually lived in Africa. So, since Tiger was the first recorded brindle, there is no record of stripes on basenjis for thousands of years before the early 1900s. Drawing stripes is “so easy a cave man could do it!” There were a few other brindles seen where Tiger was found but they were a rarity at that time. The number of brindles increased over the following years as would be expected of a dominant. “Tiger-striped Basenjis have been seen by experts in the Southern Sudan and the Belgian Congo, and are possibly the purest color there is in basenjis, - - -” is another quote from REFLECTIONS. Now I’ve heard that English is a most difficult language but still it should be taken literally. Doesn’t purest color mean purest color? It doesn’t translate to purest basenji.VTW says the following about color in her FULA – Basenji from the Jungle: “The puppy, later named the obviously ‘Tiger’, was offered to me, and though I was dying to have him – I’ve seldom wanted a puppy so much – I had to refuse him as the rules of the Basenji Club of Great Britain state that members of the club must not breed cream or brindle Basenjis. We meant the ugly mixed red and black hairs one sometimes sees in Basenjis. We never meant anything as lovely as this, as no-one had seen any before.” “The ugly mixed red and black hairs one sometimes sees in Basenjis” – does this sound like anything we’ve seen lately?The barking brindles appeared in the first generations down from 1987/1988 imports. The defense that arose was that the other colors (domestics) barked too. Was this supposed to be a justification to make barking right in a ‘barkless breed’?The barking brindle defenders pointed out that all colors of basenjis bark; this begs for a clarification of barking. Yes, any basenji can bark if stressed enough but, it is a little short ‘fox’ bark that is difficult for the basenji to make and is usually limited to being repeated only once or twice. A basenji barking is like shooting a single shot gun, you have to stop and reload between each shot.A regular dog’s bark is like firing an automatic revolver – rapid shots just keep coming! This is what I heard at the 1991 National Specialty as people were packing up to go home. A friend of mine had her German Shepherd Dog at the National with her and when I heard this barking I assumed it was her Shepherd. I started across the building in the direction of the sound to say ‘Good-bye’ but was surprised to not see the Shepherd. The sound was coming from a group of crates containing basenjis and it was a brindle that was barking (dog barking – not basenji barking).I froze in amazement and stared at the barker. Two other basenji people were coming down the isle and I turned to them to ask if they heard this. They both scurried off in separate directions – - looking for a place to hide their heads in sand no doubt. I was shocked but thought the basenji community should know the truth so I wrote, HARK! HARK! THE DOGS DO BARK. After this incident I received reports of brindles barking all over – in their homes, at shows, etc. The one I heard was not an isolated incident. It seems that the brindle I heard at the National barked all the way through the airport on his way home. Of course the owner denied it and others tried to justify it – but the brindle barked just the same!As to the health issue – there are many healthy American basenjis and lines in this country that are rarely used because they are not recognized as big conformation winners owned by prominent people. Wouldn’t it have been better to investigate some of these domestic basenjis than to go to unknown, untested dogs of questionable origin? Or was the call of the ‘greener grass’ on the other side more important to profits and fame? Of course Nature’s Masterpiece was not started in an English whelping box! Nor did it start when black and brindle dogs were first discovered in Africa. Basenjis started thousands of years ago as the descendants of wolves. Shaped by nature and culled by the environment, these sturdy, little prick-eared, barkless hunting dogs evolved in African isolation into what became known as the Basenji. There they bred true until civilization moved in introducing dogs that evolved in other parts of the world through human selection. The more time that went by, the more other breeds that got mixed in. Today there are land race dogs in Africa called Africanis that are recognized by the Kennel Union of Southern Africa (KUSA) as an emerging breed. They are described as short coated, medium size dogs that can come in any color as well as occasionally having a ridgeback. They are said to be the result of years of ‘tribal hunting dogs’ crossing with the ‘town dogs’. This is what is commonly found in Africa today. Let’s not mistake them for basenjis. You can check out their standard at: It is our responsibility to the basenji breed to keep it as pure as possible. If you are interested in African (mixed) dogs of various colors perhaps you should start an Africanis breeding program and registry. 