The Africanis is a distinct breed endemic to southern Africa. They’ve been dismissed as mongrels, ‘township dogs’ and worse, but as a breed they are smart, tough, athletic, loving and ancient.
You’ll see them in the villages and on the dirt roads of rural South Africa, and in the country’s townships. They’ve been dismissed as mongrels, strays, curs and street dogs.
What makes the Africanis unique is that the dog is mainly a result of natural, not human, selection. The Africanis is the result of natural selection and physical and mental adaptation to environmental conditions.
For years Gallant and Sithole roamed rural KwaZulu-Natal, studying and photographing the dogs they came across in kraals and homesteads. Gallant came up with a name for the breed: “canis” (Latin for dog) and “Africa” - the Africanis.
“The Africanis is the real African dog - shaped in Africa, for Africa,” Gallant and Sithole say in the book.
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Africanis dogs were long valued in precolonial South Africa for their hardiness, intelligence, loyalty and hunting ability.
Genetic evidence has shown that dogs are descended from an ancient species of wolf, the ancestor of both today’s dogs and wolves. Dog evolution was slow and uneven, but generally determined by one thing: their association with people.
Dogs arrived in Africa via a similar route, according to Gallant’s research. The earliest record of domestic dogs - Canis familiaris - on the African continent are fossils found in the Nile estuary and dated to 4 500 BCE. Even before the time of the Egyptian dynasties, domestic dogs spread quickly along the Nile River. Seasonal migrations and trade also took them into the Sahara and Sahel.
Dogs presumably accompanied these Bantu-speaking people in their long migration from West Africa down south to South Africa, an expansion that started in about 3,000 BCE and continued to around 1,000 CE.
An Africanis in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, showing the dog’s typical long snout, elegant medium-sized build, short coat, pointed ears and springy, upturned tail.
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Origins and Characteristics
The Africanis is descended from dogs pictured in ancient cave art and on Egyptian murals. Rock art in Algeria’s Tassili n’Ajjer plateau has been dated at 7,000 to 10,000 years before present. More Africanis-like hunting dogs are shown in the rock art of Algeria’s Tassili n’Ajjer plateau in North Africa, art dated at 7,000 to 10,000 years ago.
The earliest evidence of domestic dogs in South Africa is remains found near the Botswana border and dated at 570 CE.
The evidence that the Africanis is a distinct breed, and not a mongrel of Western types, is increasingly clear.
Physical Attributes
The Africanis is of medium size and well muscled. It is agile and supple and can run at great speed. The coat is generally short, in a range of colours and with or without markings. The head is wedge-shaped, and the face expressive. Its slender build is sometimes wrongly attributed to starvation.
Temperament and Behavior
Africanis are clever and attentive to people, as shown in the face of this dog photographed in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
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Africanis is well disposed without being obtrusive: a friendly dog, showing watchful territorial behaviour. The dog displays unspoiled social canine behaviour with a high level of facial expressions and body language. Africanis are crafty.
While rural dogs roam freely through the community during the day, they always return to a single home for food, care and sleep at night.
Threats and Conservation
Foreign influence on the breed came only with the colonisation of Trankei and Zululand in the 19th century. Particularly favoured was the Greyhound, which migrants would have come across at the dog races popular at the time. Their speed would have made them ideal hunting dogs.
In Zululand, crosses between Greyhound and Africanis are called Ibhanzi.
Today, the true Africanis is mostly found in rural areas.
The Africanis Society was established to conserve this ancient and valuable canine gene pool. It maintains a code of ethics, guidelines for breeding, regulations and a procedure for registration, and a register of inspected and approved Africanis dogs. The society also helps members obtain true Africanis puppies.
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