Jean-Pierre Hallet

Jean-Pierre Hallet (1927 – 1 January 2004) was a Belgian (born in DR Congo) ethnologist, naturalist, and humanitarian known best for his extensive work with the Efé (Bambuti) pygmies of the Ituri Rainforest. He wrote the 1964 autobiographical book, Congo Kitabu, the 1973 ethnologic book Pygmy Kitabu (a more detailed description of life with the Efé and neighboring pygmies), and the 1968 book Animal Kitabu, which details his extraordinary collection of animals in the Congo and in Kenya. He initiated the Pygmy Fund for the benefit of the Efé.

Hallet and his family owned one of the largest authentic Central African art shops in the United States—at the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, California, near Los Angeles—until the late 1990s. The shop was managed by Hallet with his wife Liane Hallet, and two of his stepchildren. Some of the profit from these art sales was used to benefit the Efé pygmies.

Hallet appeared in the third episode of this ABC 1989 documentary series of people who go to unexpected extremes in amazing circumstances.

In 1987, Jean-Pierre Hallet won the US Presidential End Hunger Award, and by 1994 the Pygmy Fund had reached 46% of their goal of securing 500 acres (2.0 km) of good farming land for the pygmies in the Congo.

Produced by Jean-Pierre Hallet Productions (Belgium) during 1975 and distributed by the Encyclopædia Britannica Educational Corporation, The Pygmies of the Ituri Forest is the educational counterpart to the movie Pygmies.

During 1973, Hallet filmed a documentary named Pygmies that documents the customs of this disappearing culture. It was released simultaneously with the book Pygmy Kitabu.

Filmed during 1972 on location, the movie was originally titled Pygmies—- An Epic of the Golden Age and previewed at the Academy Award Theater in Los Angeles. However, the movie was rejected by major distributors for lack of commercial appeal and was limited to a small run by a local theater circuit in San Francisco, California (sponsored by the California Academy of Sciences and the San Francisco Zoologic Society).

The collection of art that he collected during the described journeys in the book eventually became a large portion of the UCLA African Art premier exhibit in 1963–1965, when Hallet donated much of it to the university. This collection is now part of the UCLA Fowler Museum.

During 1960, due to the increasing ethnic conflicts in the area, he was forced to take drastic measures on behalf of his beloved animals when he escaped to Kenya. There he faced new challenges and enlisted the aid of sympathetic allies to help care for his extended "family." His amusing observations of animals (such as that of smartest cat—- the leopard) and man in Kenya and Uganda and some serendipitous nature photographs were published in magazines in Central Africa.

During 1948 he returned to Central Africa to work as an agronomist with the Belgian Ministry of Colonies. It was in this capacity that he initially traveled throughout central Africa, interacting with various cultures and tribes.

Congo Kitabu is an auto-biographical book about Hallet's travels through central Africa from 1948 through 1960. In it he documents interactions with multiple isolated cultures throughout the Belgian Congo, Rwanda and Burundi regions. His accounts provide a unique anthropological source of information of the valley of the River Congo during that period.

Pygmy Kitabu is based on the travels of Jean-Pierre Hallet through central Africa from 1948 through 1960 and his extensive interactions with the isolated Efé Pygmies of the Congo. It was first published during 1973, and was cowritten by Alex Pelle. Unlike his prior book, Congo Kitabu, which chronicled his contacts and investigations into multiple groups in the Congo and nearby regions, Pygmy Kitabu is a detailed observational study primarily of the Efe Pygmies. Great detail and scientific observational method was used in the writing of the book.

Hallet's father was André Hallet, a Belgian painter of African scenes. He lived on the shore of Lake Kivu, in modern Rwanda. Jean-Pierre, born in Africa, spent his early childhood there. He was then sent to Belgium with relatives for his "formal" education, which included the study of agronomy and sociology at the University of Brussels (1945–1946) and at the Sorbonne (1947–1948).