Tippi was born in the newly independent Namibia, where her parents worked as freelance wildlife photographers. At 10 months the toddler was exploring the Namibian bush and desert, and befriending animals like Abu, a 28-year-old elephant. Although Abu was perfectly capable of crushing the tiny girl under his foot, he would curl his trunk around her waist and sweep her up onto his back, or lie down and use his trunk to blow away flies as she slept in the shade of his massive body.
As the family wandered the bushland, Tippi picked up other friends. She would splash in rivers with crocodiles and cuddle giant bullfrogs, lion cubs or chameleons; and she developed a knack for persuading giraffes to bend down to her level.

Her best friend, she tells me, was a leopard nicknamed J&B. It had been adopted by a desert farmer after its mother had died in a trap and, Ms Robert says, was "mild as a household cat when Tippi was around, but never lost its killer instinct". When it attacked another child, the little girl marched right up to the animal, gave it a sharp slap on the nose and told it to "Stop that," at which it ran away.

Tippi also befriended the bushmen and Himba tribespeople of the Kalahari, who taught her how to survive on roots and berries and to speak their language.

Life as a bush baby came to an end when her parents moved to Madagascar and then to France.

For her first two years in Paris Tippi attended a local state school, but had little in common with the other children and is now educated at home.

The small flat where Tippi lives with her mother is filled with African souvenirs and pictures, but it is clear that she is caught in a cross-cultural limbo. One minute she says she has ambitions of being an actor or singer; the next she wants to go back to Africa - "my home".









http://www.tippi.org/