Jean-Pierre Hallet’s Followers (5)

Jean-Pierre Hallet

Born

in Louvain, Belgium

January 01, 1927

Died

January 01, 2004

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Jean-Pierre Hallet was a man more intimately connected to Africa than perhaps any other westerner. His feats were legendary-what one expects of fiction and adventure movies. About his mission to save the vanishing Bambuti pygmy tribe in the Ituri Forest in Northeast Zaire, the newspapers and magazines of three decades reported it in various ways. He Saves Little People; A Giant Comes To The Rescue; He's The Biggest Of The Little People of Zaire; Humanitarian Sows Seeds of Hope and Pygmies Have A Friend in Hallet.

A friend, indeed. In 1955 he lost his right hand, in an explosion, while dynamiting Lake Tanganyika for fish to feed a Pygmy tribe. In 1957 he was successful in obtaining, from the colonial government, official acceptance of his "De Jean-Pierre Hallet was a man more intimately connected to Africa than perhaps any other westerner. His feats were legendary-what one expects of fiction and adventure movies. About his mission to save the vanishing Bambuti pygmy tribe in the Ituri Forest in Northeast Zaire, the newspapers and magazines of three decades reported it in various ways. He Saves Little People; A Giant Comes To The Rescue; He's The Biggest Of The Little People of Zaire; Humanitarian Sows Seeds of Hope and Pygmies Have A Friend in Hallet.

A friend, indeed. In 1955 he lost his right hand, in an explosion, while dynamiting Lake Tanganyika for fish to feed a Pygmy tribe. In 1957 he was successful in obtaining, from the colonial government, official acceptance of his "Declaration of Emancipation" for the endangered pygmies. He lived with the Bambuti pygmies for eighteen months and learned six aboriginal languages and seventeen dialects.His extensive knowledge of the pygmy language resulted in a dictionary of more than 18,000 terms, which remains unpublished. He founded The Pygmy Fund in 1974, the only organization devoted to the preservation of the lives and culture of surviving forest dwelling Efe pygmies.

Born in 1927 in Louvain, Belgium, Jean-Pierre Hallet was the son of Andre Hallet, the famed Belgian post-impressionist painter, who lived in the Congo. Jean-Pierre played with pygmy children, north of Lake Kivu, in the northeastern part of the former Belgian Congo. At six, he left his playmates to go to school in Europe. He was already the height of an average adult pygmy in the forest. He returned in 1948 with a Sorbonne education. He was now an agronomist and a sociologist. Jean-Pierre was twenty-one. He was six feet five inches tall and 225 pounds. His incredible life was about to unfold and his reputation as "father to the pygmies" and the "Abe Lincoln of the Congo" was just beginning.

Jean-Pierre Hallet would become a heroic figure. He would become an authority on African culture and a blood brother to many tribes. He was an internationally renowned africanist, ethnologist, naturalist, author, lecturer, explorer, cinematographer, artist, African art authority and collector as well as a death-defying adventurer. He delivered more than 500 African babies, pygmy and non-pygmy. It would be difficult to find another man with such a resume.

He would author three books, the Kitabu trilogy. (Kitabu is roughly translated in Swahili as book.) Congo Kitabu, the first of the trilogy was autobiographical. It would be translated into twenty-one languages including Chinese and Russian. His own words say it best. "I grew up among the pygmies, learning everything that is their world,....making my first bow and arrow.....identifying birds and animals." ...more

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Jean-Pierre Hallet’s books

Average rating: 3.99 · 166 ratings · 34 reviews · 11 distinct works • Similar authors

	Congo Kitabu 4.17 avg rating — 107 ratings — published 1964 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Animal Kitabu by Jean-Pierre Hallet, Alex Pelle 3.88 avg rating — 26 ratings — published 1969 — 22 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Pygmy Kitabu: A revealing account of the origin and legends of the African Pygmies by Jean-Pierre Hallet, Alex Pelle (Collaborator) 3.55 avg rating — 22 ratings — published 1973 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Forest Magic: Music of the Central African Pygmies (The Musical Expeditions Series) by Louis Sarno, Jean-Pierre Hallet liked it 3.00 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 1995	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Reader's Digest Condensed Books; Spring 1966, Volume 65: Hall of Mirrors / Avalon / Children of Hope / Congo Kitabu / Power Play by John Rowan Wilson, Anya Seton, Elsie E. Vignec liked it 3.00 avg rating — 3 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Le Congo des magiciens by Jean-Pierre Hallet, Jérôme Desseine (Translator) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	2 volume paperback African Anthropology/Adventure collection. Includes: 1) Congo Kitabu (1968) by Jean-Pierre Hallet and 2) The Forest People by Colin M. Turnbull 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Congo Kitau 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Echoes of the Forest: Music of the Central African Pygmies (The Musical Expeditions Series/Book and Compact Disc T Disc) by Louis Sarno, Jean-Pierre Hallet 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 1995 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by Jean-Pierre Hallet (?)

“Loud talk won't get you across the dangerous valley.”
― Jean-Pierre Hallet, Congo Kitabu

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“Tomorrow morning," I had said; tomorrow morning it would have to be. Now, for the second time, I had committed myself, publicly given my word; I would have to keep it. That was the best possible antidote to the weakening poison of fear.”
― Jean-Pierre Hallet, Congo Kitabu

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“Umushigisha inzoga uyifite, igihango kizakwica- If you have beer and you do not share it, may this pact kill you!”
― Jean-Pierre Hallet, Congo Kitabu

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