Basenji History: Behind the “Barkless” Dog of the Congo By Denise Flaim | Aug 30, 2021
The letter arrived in Molesey, outside of London, in June 1942, during the bleakest days of the war. Food and clothing were rationed, and citizens wore metal identification bands, in case they couldn’t get to their air-raid shelter before deadly Nazi bombs started dropping. The mysterious letter from America also appeared to have been strafed, albeit by a government censor whose black slashes were visible throughout. Still, Veronica Tudor-Williams easily made out its contents. “I spent last winter in the Southern part of the United States where I was born, where the Mississippi is more than a mile wide,” wrote James Street of New York City, whom Tudor-Williams had never met. “One day I stepped into a bar run by a friend and he showed me a picture in a magazine of a charming young lady with some dogs.”
in central Africa. “I had never heard of the breed before,” Street admitted, describing himself as a “Bird Dog, Coonhound, and Foxhound man.” But Street was also a writer, and he was intrigued by Tudor-Williams’ clutch of elegant African canines. Inspired, he wrote a series of stories about a Basenji lost in the swamps of Mississippi that were so popular they were to be published as a novel, titled “Good-bye, My Lady.”
“Good luck,” Street wrote from across the ocean, “and thanks for having your picture in an American magazine.”
Basenji in the Spotlight The story, of course, did not end there. “Good-bye, My Lady” – about a teenager raised by his toothless uncle who finds a mysterious yodeling dog wandering outside their cabin – became a best-seller. Hollywood perked up its own ears, and in 1956 planned to release a movie of the same name. It cast 13-year-old Brandon deWilde of “Shane” fame as the youngster who acquires the dog, only to find she has a rightful owner, and character actor Walter Brennan, who stands to get a new pair of choppers and a shotgun with the reward money. The role of the Basenji, however, was still open. So Tudor-Williams received another communication from across the pond – this time, a 2 a.m. phone call from Hollywood. Tudor-Williams had just the Basenji for the title role – a precocious and photogenic 6-month-old female she named My Lady of the Congo. In truth, the Basenji had already made its cinematic debut, however briefly, in 1951’s “The African Queen” with Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn, appearing on the lap of a native in a church scene at the start of the film. But compared to that eyeblink of a cameo, in “Good-bye, My Lady” the Basenji received top billing, and interest in the breed was piqued.
The young lady in the photo was, and the dogs were her Basenjis – erect-eared, curly-tailed dogs from the rainforests of the Congo
Mirrie Cardew and one of her Basenjis. Cardew purchased the dog as a puppy from fancier and breeder Veronica Tudor-Williams. 3
13-year-old Brandon deWilde and “My Lady of the Congo” starring
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