I met Jean-Pierre in 1963 on the Island of Tahiti. I was very happy to spend some time with him out in the lagoon doing a little bit of spear fishing. The stories that he told about his life in the Belgian Congo were to me at that time unbelievable. I thought "well this guy can sure tell some tales." We spent a few days until I had to leave for the Island of Bora-Bora and I didn't see him again until 1967 in San Francisco, California. He was to give a speech at the San Francisco Press Club, and then he autographed his book "Congo Kitabu" the same day at a book store. He did me the honor of giving me that book which I cherish proudly even more than 30 years later. I was in my early 20's then and I was proud to have met a truly great man.

The experiences that this man documents in his "Kitabu" (Swahili for book) series (Animal, Congo, & Pygmy) are the sort of things movies are now being made of. I attended school with his family in the late 60s and was fortunate enough to have met him several times. Jean Pierre Hallet is the true hero of his time. He was a giant of a man - both literally and figuratively.

If I had to pick the man who had the most interesting life on this planet, Jean-Pierre Hallet would be at the top of my list. As a field agent for the government of the Belgian Congo, he comes to help them grow crops and gets deeply involved in African society. The things he does are amazing-and it's all true.
At different times he:
lives amongst the field pygmies, (he wrote another book just about that)
loses his hand in an explosion, then swims from crocodiles,
kills a leopard with a knife,
starts an animal hospital,
witnesses a revolution,
goes through the Masai manhood ritual, killing a charging lion with a spear.
Those are just the highlights. A big man with a bushy beard and a mechanical hand , he was making the rounds of talk shows when I was a teen ager.

As a source of information on this group pygmies and their music this book is worth plowing through to almost the end.

While Louis Sarno does not have a captivating style of writing, the book does provide a unique perspective of one man's journey in Central Africa to find the Ba-benjelle pygmies and their music.

The sections on the dances, hunting, bees and duikers, etc. are interesting enough to keep one reading. The section on his love/obsession for Ngbali alternatly leaves you wishing he would succeed,scream exploitation and wondering if he really thought he wasn't being used. It is at this point, one wants to skip the last 40 or so pages.

The bottom line is make the effort to discover his journey and then go buy the music. You will be glad you did.