Bongani Rhodesian Ridgeback

How it all began...

The first encounter with the Rhodesian Ridgeback breed was around 1990, on the cover of an animal magazine stood this stunning image of a dog, subtitled... 'The Rhodesian Ridgeback, no breed for the masses'.

In 1994 the time had finally come, at the age of eight weeks Bella Kimba made her entrance in my, Michael Schmidt, and my former partners home. She grew into a beauty and together with some friends we joined our first dog show... and won! We kept on showing her regularly and Bella Kimba gained a lot of titles during her showing career, her biggest success being the FCI Weltsiegerin 1996 title that she got in Budapest.

Ch. Bella Kimba successfully made it through the tests required in Germany to breed within the COE of the club. She got her first litter in 1996 and second litter in 1998 both sired by Ch. Rydgeway African Hunter and my Shari (Ch. Heshima Ya Kimba Ashari) was born. She stayed with us and formed an unbeatable team with her mother. They were inseparable, making it even more painful to say good-bye to Bella Kimba due to a tragic accident that she did not survive.

Ashari followed her mother steps in the show ring and she too made it successfully through the required tests. It was clear to us that she should not stay alone and so we kept a puppy from her first litter in 2000 sired by Ch. Bango Leoridge. With Heshima Ya Kimba Chakanyuka around, Ashari blossomed again and she had her second, and last, litter in 2002 sired by the same sire.

It was 2001 when we decided it would be great to import a male puppy from South Africa, original birth land of the Rhodesian Ridgeback, to hopefully contribute to the gene-pool in Germany. So my former partner took a trip to SA to have a look at a litter at the Karoskloof kennel and we picked a beautiful, promising puppy to import to Germany. Ch. Karoskloof TT Simply Red. 'Bongani'.

September 2002 my former partner decided to burn her German bridges and is living in SA ever since with our Chakanyuka. She has been breeding successfully in South Afrika ever since under the FCI kennel name Heshima Ya Kimba that we founded together.

Ashari and Bongani stayed with me. Shortly after that I met Verena (today my wife and partner), who I infected with the RR virus ;) She started showing Bongani all over Europe blossoming into a very successful team gathering a remarkable amount of titles together. It was clear to us that I should continue my old bloodline so we where thrilled when Bongani was mated to Heshima Ya Kimba Chiva, litter sister of my Chakanyuka. Chiva gave birth to a litter of 13 from which we brought Mwenyezi Mtawala Danjuma back home with us.

In 2005 we grounded our own FCI Kennel. In honour of Bongani we named the kennel after him, Bongani's, with Mwenyezi Mtawala Danjuma as our foundation bitCh. She had her first litter in 2007 sired by Ch. Sonstraal Baron Samedi. From this litter we kept Bongani's Amila, and so the story continues...

There is a saying that once didn't mean that much to us, "When a new live is born, another live leaves the earth", and sadly this is just what happened... After a brief period of illness we had to say good-bye to Heshima Ya Kimba Ashari at 28-08-2007. She was the godmother of our pack and we will never, ever forget her!