The Benella Ankole Story
A story of interest turned to passion, with the discovery of the majestic Ankole cattle breed and the establishment of Benella Ankole Stud in Stellenbosch.
A journey begins
While travelling in this country, running between large herds with my Hasselblad film camera, I was introduced to words such as bihongo and bogondo – the words that serve to capture the qualities of these majestic African longhorns.
These powerful words ignited a passion in me which has stayed with me ever since.
During my field studies and professional documentation, I gathered numerous pieces of information. I saw first-hand the many varieties of Ankole and became acquainted with the true majesty of this African cattle breed.
I went onto exhibit large-scale portraits of Ankole cattle and published my second book called “Sightings of the Sacred” through Prestel publishers. I was delighted with the reception that this book and exhibition received. To my surprise, I received an email from President Cyril Ramaphosa, who showed an interest in my work.
Passion turns to action
What followed was a wonderful opportunity that saw a partnership grow between myself and President Ramaphosa. Over a period of 8 months, I spent time on his farm Ntaba Nyoni, where I photographed the first Ankole cattle in history to come to South Africa. This became the subject of a third book, which we published together called “Cattle of the Ages”.
And so, from working together with the President I had the opportunity to buy Ankole cattle from his farm. That is how the first Ankole cattle arrived in the Western Cape on the 12th of May 2017 at Benella Ankole stud in Stellenbosch, situated on Yonder Hill wine farm.
The name Benella derives from the names of my children, Benjamin and Ella Naudé.
The Benella
Ankole Mission
Today Ankole Cattle are a growing and registered cattle breed in South Africa. At Benella we aim to breed a line which combines unique genetics, horn shapes and sizes, finer white spots and deep purple bighogo browns. Our zest and passion behind our breeding stud originated back in 2012 from the beautiful plains of Uganda. The never-ending energy and love for these longhorns is why our slogan is Dedication and Passion.