This is a series focusing on South Africa’s Africanis, aboriginal dogs thought to have migrated from Egypt and that now inhabit rural South Africa. Naudé first encountered these slender and agile creatures in 2006. And though his images depict remarkable stillness, it takes a photographer with great talent to capture these skittish animals.
Africanis 14. Philippolis, Free State, 12 August 2009
Pack of dogs hunting. Richmond, Northern Cape, 25 January 2009
Africanis 2. Strydenburg, Northern Cape, 1 April 2008
Sheep grazing on Annandale potato farm. Barkly East, Eastern Cape, 22 July 2010
David Tieties with his three-day-old donkey. Verneukpan, Northern Cape, 6 April 2009
Africanis 11. Murraysburg, Western Cape, 4 February 2009
Ben Fyfer, an Nguni cattle farmer, at his desk. Louwna, North West Province, 2 March 2010
Africanis 12. Richmond, Northern Cape, 4 April 2009
Toppie Steenberg’s homing pigeons. Strydenburg, Northern Cape, 21 June 2011
Mario Jacobs with an African clawless otter. Quaggasfontein farm, Graaff-Reinet district, Easter
Niklaas Ockers, an ostrich Jockey. Oudtshoorn, Western Cape, 28 July 2011
Young cow with branch collar. Woodford, KwaZulu-Natal, 25 October 2009
Africanis 23. Richmond, Northern Cape, 28 January 2009
Xhosa cow on the shore. Mgazi, Eastern Cape, 19 May 2010
Sneeuberg Pass. Sneeuberg, Murraysburg district, 2 February 2009
Looking at these images makes me think about how we adapt to survive our surroundings. But when these change take place faster than we can naturally cope with, some rare and special parts of us become extinct rather than evolve.
While the true Africanis are still found today in those parts of South Africa where a traditional lifestyle is maintained, as the country develops it’s hard to say whether this special breed will retain it’s distinctness or soon morph into something more commonplace.
