The source of the present-day Basenji is Western Africa among the Bantu tribes, particularly those from the Sudan and the Congo areas. The Bantu are a diverse and widespread people. They include such famous tribes as the Zulu, the Swahili and the Matabele, and it seems the name Basenji sprang from the second of these, the Swahili. It is interesting to note in passing that all the Bantu tribes originally came from an area further North, around Egypt. When they moved South, they brought their dogs with them. But before they moved South, the Islamic invaders of the 7th century AD gave them a lasting gift: the Arabic language. Even today, many African tribes use Arabic script even though the language is somewhat different.
Looking at today's Basenji, the last thing one would want to call it would be wild thing, but that is the normal translation of the word. What seems to have happened is that certain words became confused during the history of the name, which probably goes back to before the Old Kingdom of the Egyptians. The part of the word to concentrate on is "senji". (Remember the famous dam, Senji Of The Congo?) The word ba is only a descriptive participle. The modern Swahili word Ba-senji comes from the Swahili word shenzi, which means uncivilised.
The Swahili took this word from what they thought was the Persian name for dog (Persian and Arabic are as close as English and American). The Persian name was 'zenji', or "wild and uncivilised",
but the original Arabic word was not 'zenji', but "shenji", which does not mean uncivilised but is from the Arabic word wrinkles. Wrinkled dog not the uncivilized one !
The change was from 'shenji' to 'zenji' to 'shenzi' to 'senji'. One can see how the Swahili word nearly came back to the original Arabic. Incidentally, each word has only 3 consonants; the sh is a single consonant. Even as script, the name Basenji represents perfectly the gazelle-like speed, grace and vitality of this aristocratic dog.
This stylized Basenji head is the written Arabic word "Khafre", which means "the one who beats them all" and also "protector".The Basenji has also been called "Khufu dogs", and the head (with a small alteration) is also suitable for this name which comes from the verb "to know" and is cognate with the very appropriate word for the dog SILENT !
Written by Peter Wakeham who studied Ancient Egyptian and Arabic languages at Melbourne University.