Telling the story of author’s eighth African expedition — one of thirteen expeditions Gatti led into central Africa between 1922 and 1957 — this one to the Ituri Forest in the Belgian Congo, where he lived alongside the Pygmy tribes and became the first safari leader to capture and export the okapi and the bongo antelope.
Gatti was an explorer, author, linguist — he was fluent in several European and African languages — and filmmaker; his earliest film, ‘Siliva the Zulu’, was a silent era feature with Zulus as actors, making it interesting both as a tale and anthropology. He was, like many mid 20th century explorers, adept at trading PR for supplies and goods. Most of his expeditions included photographic equipment (his photo library had over 53,000 images) and, eventually, a ham radio set. By the 10th expedition, however, he had designed and built in cooperation with International Harvester, a two-caravan apartment suite that allowed him and his wife to live in comfort, and vehicles that served as a radio station, workshop, photo lab and power station.