NAMIBIA. THE EXTRAORDINARY ENCOUNTER BETWEEN A CHILD AND THE WILD NATURE

Tippi Degrè's childhood in africa is an invitation for man to recover a direct and serene relationship with nature and animals.

A little girl's best friend? The lion. Tippi Degré's was certainly not a conventional childhood. His parents, Alain and Sylvie Degré, are two photographers who settle in Namibia for work. Tippi was born in Windhoek, the Namibian capital on June 4, 1990 and spent his childhood in the savannah. The first ten of her life are spent in the company of her animal friends, the little lion Mufasa, the big elephant Abu and the fast ostrich Linda. His world revolves around his parents and wild animals. Some beasts, however, have a habit with humans because they have been adopted by Namibian farms since they were puppies, which makes them less dangerous for the girl. Some photographs testify to the extraordinary relationship between Tippi and the beasts, a friendship made of looks and gestures that reminds us how fantastic the relationship between children and animals can be. The incredible emotional bond between the little girl and the animals is evidenced by the exceptional photographs, taken by Tippi's parents, who see her playing with a leopard or sitting delicately on the head of an immense elephant.

Tippi's experience shows the great openness of children towards others from themselves, a relational capacity that involves the complete acceptance of the other, the attitude of always putting themselves on the same level as those who are different from us. In her childhood Tippi enjoyed a freedom that a little girl raised in the city can rarely have, constrained as it is within the limits set for her by society. Described by the newspapers as "little Mowgli", the girl at the age of ten had to leave the black continent to move to France, the country of her parents. Tippi lives in Paris where she studied at university and became an important documentary filmmaker. Her memories led her to write the autobiographical novel Tippi - My book of Africa in which she recounts her exceptional experience in Namibia while some documentaries have been made on her childhood including The world according to Tippi (1997) and Around the world with Tippi (2004). Tippi also presented six wilderness documentaries on the Discovery Channel. In an age in which children have rare contact with animals, perhaps thanks to sporadic visits to bio parks or images on a computer or smartphone, Tippi Degré's childhood seems like a fairy tale in which a child can experience a relationship peaceful with unspoiled nature and feeling free in a sort of Eden on earth.