Back

Before I get to the song,I should mention that Miriam Makeba was pretty special, herself. Often known as Mama Africa, Makeba was the first artist from Africa to popularize African music around the world. Her songs raised awareness about apartheid, and about the injustices faced by South Africans as listeners learned more about the singer. In response to Miriam’s outspokenness, the South African government revoked her passport in 1960, and then her citizenship in 1963.

It wasn’t until 1990 when the apartheid system collapsed that Makeba was finally able to go home. Eighteen years later in 2008, Miriam Makeba died of a heart attack after performing in a concert in Italy. She was 76.

I hope you listened to the song in the post before this because it's important. Pata Pata is an Afro-pop dance song that popularized African rhythms and melodies by blending traditional Xhosa music with modern pop elements.

Xhosa is the 2nd most common language in South Africa after Zulu, and if you listened carefully to Makeba sing, you heard “clicks.” Like Zulu & 6 other African tongues, clicks are phonetic elements of Xhosa. And it’s harder to do than it looks. Each click in Xhosa is followed without any pause by a vowel sound. When each type of click is paired with one of six vowel sounds, it makes for a total of 18 click sounds in the Xhosa language.

Is the world not an amazing place?

What this has to do with purebred dogs underscores a tenet of National Purebred Dog Day. If we lose a breed because of neglect or war, we lose the legacy of the culture which created or nurtured it.

Several breeds originated in South Africa including the Boerboel, Basenji, and Rhodesian Ridgeback. There is one other breed – the Africanis – that may cause some dog fanciers to ask me why I mention what some consider to be a landrace when I always talk about purebred dog breeds. I have an answer.

My answer is to name the Canaan Dog, Carolina Dog, Korean Jindo, and Basenji.

At one time, the aforementioned breeds were regarded as landraces (and there are more if I include breeds whose ancestors were primitive, aboriginal, or village dogs).

Landraces typically evolve through natural processes, often in isolated areas, which helps maintain their genetic integrity. Over time, a person or people identify certain populations of dogs to be so consistent as to resemble a breed.

Only in the 21st century did the dogs begin to shed the “mutt” image because of 2 dog experts who studied dogs they encountered in rural KwaZulu-Natal kraals and homesteads. One of them gave the breed its name based on the Latin for dog – “canis,” and the dog’s place of origin, Africa.

They concluded that the dogs were not a “stew” of common mutts, but dogs with a distinct and consistent set of characteristics and behaviours. In other words, a breed

A distinct genetic makeup led the Kennel Union of South Africa to recognize the Africanis as an emerging breed, but some objected to the dog being called an emerging breed rather than as a landrace,. In the end, the Union decided unanimously to remove all references to the breed from the KUSA website.

While there’s still a feral population in South Africa, people are recognizing that the playful, friendly, and loyal Africanis is a marvelous family pet.

Though there is no rigid uniformity in appearance, most are medium sized, well muscled, and agile. With a pointed muzzle, drop or prick eared, and a curled tails, most Africanis are brown, but they may come in other colors and markings. Most interesting is that a ridge of hair is sometimes seen on an Africanis’ back leading cynologists to suspect that the Africanis made a genetic contribution to the Rhodesian Ridgeback.

And finally (whew, this was a long one),
I have no proverbial “dog in this fight,” but the Africanis interests me because one day, it may be acknowledged by others as a bona fide breed.

-end-