Congo Kitabu: An Exciting Autobiographical Account of Twelve Adventure-filled Years in Central Africa
by Jean-Pierre Hallet, Alex Pelle
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Democratic Republic of Congo
Kitabu means 'book' or 'diary' in Swahili...an appropriate word for this exciting autobiographical account covering twelve adventure-filled years of dedicated work among seventeen Central African tribes.
In 1948 Jean-Pierre Hallet, age 21, embarked on a career in the Congo as an agronomist and sociologist for the Belgian Colonial Government. Working in intimate daily contact with the bushland tribes, he delved into the strange traditions and customs of each culture... the vivid background against which the reader relives the author's sometimes staggering adventures.
Early in his career M. Hallet almost succumbed to malaria and blackwater fever, but as in other dangerous situations, his stamina and size (6'5", 240lbs) helped hims survive. Fluency with native tongues and determination to meet the Africans on a man-to-man level led him into a series of remarkable experiences, including his initiation in a Congolese secret society and blood brotherhood with Kenya's warrior Masai.
In October 1955 he lost his right hand while dynamiting fish to feed the famine-stricken Bamosso of Burundi; a year later, one-handed, he attacked and killed a leopard which was mauling one of his porters.
The author's work among the Bambuti Pygmies was described by the Central Congo Government as an 'ethnological revolution': he taught them to cultivate the soil, to build houses and schools, to read and write.
When the Congo's troubled independence came in 1960, Hallet reached the painful conclusion that there was no longer a place for him.
- Rank: #862418 in Books
- Published on: 1966
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Hardcover
- 438 pages
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