Degré Alain - Tippi : my book of Africa

Struik Lifestyle
(an imprint of Random House Struik (Pty) Ltd)
Company Reg. No. 1966/003153/07
Wembley Square, Solan Road, Gardens 8001
PO Box 1144, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa

First published in South Africa by Struik Publishers in 2005
Reprinted in 2006, 2007 (twice), 2008
Reprinted by Struik Lifestyle in 2009, 2010, 2012

Copyright in published edition: Random House Struik (Pty) Ltd 2005
Copyright in text and illustrations: Sylvie Robert 2005
Copyright in photographs: Sylvie Robert and Alain Degr 2005

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers and the copyright holders.

PUBLISHER: Linda de Villiers
MANAGING EDITOR: Cecilia Barfield
EDITOR: Irma van Wyk
DESIGNEr: Helen Henn
PHOTOGRAPHERS: Sylvie Robert and Alain Degr
PROOFREADER: Helen de Villiers

ISBN 978-1-77007-029-5 (Print)
ISBN 978-1-43230-171-2 (ePub)
ISBN 978-1-43230-172-9 (PDF)

T ippi is my name. I am African, and I was born ten years ago in Namibia. Lots of people ask me if I spell my name like teepee as in Indian teepee. My parents named me after Tippi Hedren, the actress who starred in The Birds, a scary movie by Alfred Hitchcock.

Im happy my parents named me Tippi for many reasons: first of all, there are not many other girls named Tippi, which is okay with me because there are also not a lot of other girls who have lived like me. This name also reminds us of the Indians who lived in the wild, just like me. And finally, Mr Hitchcocks movie is called The Birds, and I love animals enormously. Im not exaggerating when I say enormously.

The animals are like brothers to me. Its normal. I was born and raised with them. These wild animals of Africa were my first playmates, and thats why I know them so well.

Tippi is my first name but my whole name is Tippi Benjamine Okanti Degr. My last name, Degr, comes from my parents, Alain and Sylvie. They are wildlife photographers who came to live and work in Africa. Its because of their work that I was born in Africa. My first middle name, Benjamine, was given to me to thank Benjamin, a friend of my moms who gave her accommodation for several weeks when I was born. My parents lived in the bush and giving birth to a baby in the wilds of Africa is not always possible. So when I was ready to be born it was Benjamin who helped my mom in Windhoek, a city in Namibia where there is a hospital.

My other middle name, Okanti, means mongoose in the Ovambos language. Ovambos are one of the peoples of Namibia. It may seem funny to call your daughter mongoose, even if the word Okanti sounds lovely! Its here where my story begins

Before I was born, my parents spent seven years living and working in the Kalahari Desert. The Kalahari Desert is located in southern Botswana and borders on South Africa and Namibia. For all these years, they observed, photographed and filmed meerkats, which are adorable little mongooses. You wont find meerkats anywhere else in the world.

The meerkats soon became family to my mom and Dadou (thats what I call my Dad). Even though the meerkats are wild, it was they who adopted my parents. I know that this was a really great time for my mom and Dadou, a time without any worries. They were so happy living in the Kalahari Desert with the meerkats, Im sure they would have liked to spend their entire lives there if they could have. If my mom had had the choice, she would have given birth there, so I would have become a little meerkat girl, to be like a sister to the meerkat family. But it never happened.

One day, my parents got into an argument with some men who had different ideas and who didnt believe in my parents work. And because they were in command, they chased Mom and Dadou out of the Kalahari. Sometimes humans are so stupid

I was born a few months after my mom and Dadou left the Kalahari. I never got to see the world of the meerkats, except in the photographs and films taken by my parents. But I still feel that I am part of the meerkats family because my name is Tippi Benjamine Okanti and I know how to talk with animals.

Everyone is intrigued when they find out that I can talk with animals.

Tortoises always look grumpy.

E veryone but the animals! I am always being asked again and again how I learned to talk to animals. Its boring! I dont have much to say I dont want to explain how I talk to them, because its useless. Its a secret. You must be gifted to understand. Everyone has a gift whether its to write, to sing, to paint, to learn other languages, to do sport. All gifts have some kind of mystery.

Understanding animals, this is my gift. Not any kind of animals: only wild animals from Africa. I speak to them with my mind, or through my eyes, my heart or my soul, and I see that they understand and answer me. They move, or they look at me and it seems that letters appear in their eyes. Then I know it may sound weird Im sure I can talk to them. This is how we become acquainted and sometimes we even build a friendship.

Well, thats life. We have all been given gifts and mine is a little bit special. I know it is a great treasure and deep in my heart I hope that Im the only one to have this gift. Because, like all treasures, we would rather keep them for ourselves.

M y Nono is nice and soft, he smells good and he is an inseparable friend. Every time I go and live somewhere I leave my friends behind, and its the same with the animals. We meet, we become friends and then I leave. With my Nono its not like that; every night he is here with me.

And sometimes my Nono has accidents. One day, a caracal (which is a kind of lynx), cut my Nonos head open. Luckily I wasnt there to see it. I dont know who sewed it all back together. In his life, he has had plenty of holes as well. But we have always been able to fix him. Right now he has a white tummy, but his heart and one of his legs are made out of panthers skin. It looks good!