They wore little wooden bells around their necks so they wouldn’t be lost in the tall grass, and when white men first saw these dogs in the Congo region in the 1800s,  they thought they looked like wolf-dogs. The European colonials called them Congo Terriers, and a standard was even written for the dogs under this name dated 1880.

We’re not sure why the name changed for these dogs, but when the dogs were first exhibited in Great Britain in 1895, they were exhibited as “Lagos Bush Dogs,” and in 1905, they were exhibited at the Berlin Zoo as “African Bush Dogs.” Today, we know the breed as the Basenji, but even that name is curious.  The well known judge and author, Maxwell Riddle, once wrote of his travels in the Belgian Congo where he asked to visit tribes with Basenjis. As the story goes, the officials were puzzled by the reference and finally asked if Mr. Riddle was referring to the dogs that don’t bark. When told yes indeed, Riddle was advised not to call them Basenjis because in the native tongue, the word meant “savage,” which might lead to a misunderstanding and a spear in the back. The dogs were called “Saba Dogs,” or “dogs of the Queen of Sheba.”  Poor Mr. Riddle. It’s said he was later chastised by famed anthropologist, Dr. Louis Leakey, for using the word, “Basenji.” The proper name, he said, was “dog of the forest.”

These were by no means the dog’s only name: One native name for the it included,  M’bwa M’kubwa M’bwa Wanwitu, which means “the jumping-up-and-down Dog, but other names included African Barkless Dog, Schensi dogs, Belgian Congo Dog, Congo Bush Dog, Congo Hunting Terrier, the African Dingo,Ango Angari, the Avuvi, the Congo Dog, Egyptian Dingo and the Zande dog.  Whew.

Our reading tells us that the name, “Basenji,” means “small wild thing from the bush,” which in Kiswahili, the language of the Bantu, sounds like “Basenji.”  How that name finally “stuck,” is unknown to us.  In some African tribes, Basenjis are known as, “talking dogs.” Would that it were true so that the dogs, themselves, could tell us what they’d like to be called.

Faraoland Swedish Design (“Julle”) owned by Anna Söderberg and painted by Martial Robin
www.martialrobin.fr
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