CONGO KITABU

by Jean-Pierre Hallet ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 17, 1965

Hallet, son of a Belgian Congolese artist, returned to his birthplace as a government agronomist and worked among tribes all over that vast colonial nation. Because he was a large and healthy young man--250 lbs., 6'5""--he managed to survive the tropical disease contracted on his first safari; and from then on his adventures grew more exotic. He became an unwitting cannibal; lived with the Masai warriors and learned to spear himself a lion; ""married"" an African male; had his hand blown off while trying to dynamite fish to feed starving tribesmen; drove 200 miles to a hospital after the accident: wrestled an attacking leopard into submission; lived with the Pygmies as one of them and then organized them into an agricultural people in six months after fifty years of failure before him; tamed a lion, and a rhino; herded two elephants across the Congo. And if that is not sufficient, he also lectures on flora, fauna, the history of the land and current African politics. And if that is not sufficient then this is not one of the most exciting, captivating, ethnologically rewarding and fantastic accounts to come out of Africa since Hemingway posited his own death on the slopes of Kilimanjaro. When one man shows such courage in the face of so many dangers, all men grow.

Pub Date: Feb. 17, 1965

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1965

Categories: NONFICTION