Congo Kitabu is an auto-biographical book about the travels of Jean-Pierre Hallet through central Africa from 1947 through 1960. In it he documents interactions with multiple isolated cultures throughout the Congo, Rwanda and Burundi regions. His accounts provide a unique anthropological source of information of the Congo basin during that period.
Dr. Hallet's accounts include those of extensive personal participation in cultural activities of the region, including secretive and forbidden (by the Belgian colonial government) practices. Jean-Pierre was an avid collector of art and lover of animals as well, and the book is liberally documented with photographs from the period.
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 Dr. Hallet donated much of it to the university. This collection is now part of the UCLA Fowler museum.
Dr. Hallet also sold additional artifacts that he collected on the travels described in the book (and during many subsequent return visits to the Congo) and used the proceeds to help protect an indigenous people of the Congo, the Efé pygmies. In several chapters of the book are described some of his first encounters with the Efe pygmies of the Ituri forest.
A movie version based on events from the book is in pre-production and is tentatively scheduled for release in 2009.