Belgium court asked to ban ‘Tintin in the Congo’

A Congolese man, Bienvenu Mbutu Mondondo, living in Belgium and who argues that the cartoon book Tintin in the Congo, first published in the 1931 is racist, has launched a court action to have the book banned.He has been joined in this venture by the French black associations group CRAN, which wants the book to remain on sake, but with a warning preface.

Tintin in the Congo which tells the story of the boy detective’s trip to what was then the Belgian Congo is controversial because of its depiction of colonialism and racism as well as casual violence to animals.

Laurence Grove, and academic at the University of Glasgow, and a prominent “Tintinologist” agrees that the 1930s albums were blatantly colonialist and racist. Herge redrew much of theoriginal publication in the 1940s, excluding sections which showed Tintin blowing up a rhinoceros with dynamite, dropping references to the “Belgian Congo”. Despite these and other changes, the book remains offensive.

Mondondo says that the books depiction of Africans - including a scene where a black woman bows before Tintn exclaiming “White man very great. White mister is big juju man!” - is ignorant and offensive. Mdondo’s lawyer adds that “the book contains images and dialogues of a manifestly racist and offensive nature not only to blacks but to the whole of humanity’”, adding that it is inadmissible to show the superiority of one race over another. The lawyer for MOULINSART, which owns the rights to the works of the late Tintin author Herge equates banning books with burning them and says “I cannot accept racism but I consider it equally lamentable that we burn books”.

This is not the first occasion on which the book has been subject to censure.

In Britain, a complaint to the Commission for Racial Equality led to the book being sold with a warning that some might find its contents offensive, an over 16s recommendation on some websites, and its removal in some shops from the children’s section to the adult graphic novel shelves. In the United States, the Brooklyn Public Library has placed it in its reserve collection, viewable only by appointment.

For further information see:

The Times, 29 April, 2010 Tintin in the Congo accused of racism and xenophobia in Belgian court

AFP, 31 May 2010.Tintin lawyers denounce ‘book burning’ trial over Congo comic

APA, London. Belgian Court to rule on ‘racist’ ‘Tintin in the Congo’ comic book

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