Tiki Tiki
Call name: "Tiki"
Sex: Male Color: Red and White
Approximate date of Birth: 1956
Date of importation to U.S.A.: Jan. 24, 1958
Area discovered in Africa: Near Mt. Hoyo in the
Belgian Congo 
Sire: Unknown African
Dam: Unknown African
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Breeder: Unknown |
Importer: Bettina Belmont Ward |
Health testing and history:
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Date of Death: Unknown |
Cause of Death: Unknown |
Comments: Dr. James P. Chapin was an ornithologist for the American Museum of Natural History who has known and admired the Basenji for fifty years. On his first expedition to Africa he helped procure a stuffed Basenji which was put on exhibit at the museum with a group of pygmies. In 1956 while in Africa, he went on a three week trip up to the eastern margin of the upper Congo near Mt. Hoyo and picked up Tiki Tiki (which means Pygmy in the dialect of the Uelle District) in a forest camp of the Mambuti Pygmies. Dr. and Mrs. Chapin kept him for two years at their home in Bukavu. Mrs. Bettina Belmont Ward heard about Tiki and asked if she could have him. She could, and went to Africa to pick him up from Dr. Chapin. After arriving in New York City by air, Tiki was sent directly to her kennel in Middleburg, Virginia in the hopes that he would contribute towards the good of the breed in America. Damara Bolte wrote on Feb. 2000 - "I was on the receiving end when she shipped him in a huge crate with thick wood floor. He came from Bukavu to Stanleyville to Brussels to New York then by rail to Washington, DC. He had not been out of his crate during the trip and the crate was clean! The American Kennel Club wouldn't entertain registering him, so Bettina Belmont Ward gave him to Dr. Chapin's son or nephew who lived on Staten Island. Dr. Chapin was with the Museum of Natural History in NY and obtained Tiki Tiki from the Pygmys. They had him a couple of years there. Didn't teach him lots. He was a big boy, maybe 19 1/2 inches with a loose tail curl, nice hooded ears. ..."
