Bantu, Arandes dog

My name is Bantu and I am a basenji – it is pronounced Ba-sen-je, and I live
together with the Arande people in Africa, were I help the people to hunt wild animals

There’s lot’s of dogs in the village and hunting is a way of living



We dogs are all the same breed and we are a little bit different because we can not bark like other dogs

To hunt is our work and if we don’t hunt we don’t get ay food. Our masters are kind to us, but
they also want us to do our very best

I am the smallest of all of us so I have always to be on guard - For example…

... one night I felt a strange smell from my masters hut…

I knew the smell from before, it came from the Dango-hyena, the worse of all wild animals





Even though the hyena was twice as large as me I knew that it would run away from me but I
also knew that before I would have a chance to attack the beast could rip my masters face apart….

With one single bite a hyena jaws can easily bite an arm or a face of a human being



Because I could not bark I have to be quick and smart…

Without hesitation I jumped and landed on the hyena…



and pushed him away…
The hyena disappeared with a loud noise and I, feeling like a hero, followed him…

But soon I had to stop because there were two of them…

... now they could attack me and their nasty jaws could easily break a water buffalos leg…



I was really in trouble and the hyenas started to circle around me...  I couldn’t bark and call for help so I had to do this on my own…



The only way was to show no fear…



I attacked the hyena blocking my way… It jumped away and I rushed back to the village…

Then suddenly I was face to face with a black panter, a really dangerous enemy who loves well fed dogs…

But at the same moment the two hyenas showed up and they had not noticed the panter and rushed in to the scene… I jumped aside while the panter did the process short with the hyenas…



When I came back the whole village was awake. Maybe I was in trouble now because I ran off…

But to my surprise my master told everybody that I saved his life…I got a big bowl of fried pork while my 
master was brushing my coat…

The morning after I was the hero of the whole village… Everybody talked about how brave I was and now I felt all as good 
as the older and bigger dogs…

The story is from a Tarzan magazine published September 1970 and even though I have the comicbook myself, it is very old 
and fragile so I was grateful when Helen Roos, from Sweden sent all the above photos, published a 
few years ago in the Online Basenji Yodel Magazine  



Here is a cartoon with Basenjis in it

…they show up at about the one minute thirty second mark and then again later…
they even yodel in the background!

04-01-2011