Customer Reviews

Pygmy Kitabu

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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.

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.

I really enjoyed the book. It's something that many people already knew, that Garden of Eden is originally an African myth.

In one of the most fascinating books I've ever read, Pygmy Kitabu, Belgian anthropologist Dr. Jean-Pierre Hallet relates numerous detailed legends of these African people of the Ituri Forest in the Congo, including their origin and savior myths.

Hallet, who spent some 30 years living off and on with these Africans, including one 18-month stint completely immersed with the Efé people, relies not only on his own copious firsthand experiences but also the works of other scientists, such as the Jesuit missionary and anthropologist Dr. Paul Schebesta, who likewise lived among and visited the Ituri Forest people for many years from the 1920s to through the 1950s.

As have been others who studied the so-called Pygmies, both scientists were stunned to discover what appeared to be the origins of much biblical and other religious traditions, and both were quite certain that these isolated people were completely uninfluenced by any outside agencies, including Christian missionaries. Indeed, in Pygmy Kitabu, Hallet spends considerable time essentially proving that the African legends are their own homegrown stories, possibly representing the earliest such traditions still extant anywhere in the world.

Acharya S (The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold, Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled, The Origins of Christianity and the Quest for the Historical Jesus Christ, and Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection) she has just put out article on Free Thought Nation regard this book.

I think although written as an autobiaraphy this book should be included in black history teaching.