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Tintin in trouble over racism claims

12/07/2007

One of comic book hero Tintin's earliest adventures has come under attack from the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) as being "racist claptrap".

Tintin in the Congo, originally published in 1931, contains scenes in which the intrepid reporter kills wildlife indiscriminately, patronises Africans and educates them about the colonial relationship between the Congo and Belgium.

The CRE has called for it to be removed from the shelves of high street retailer Borders, condemning it as containing "imagery and words of hideous racial prejudice".

But Borders has responded by saying it believes customers should decide on whether they plan on buying the book. Its publishers, Egmont, point out that all copies of the book are covered by a red ribbon disclaimer, warning readers of its potentially offensive content.

Later books in the Tintin series make clear the author Herge's commitment to democratic, pluralistic values which reject outdated racist attitudes.

Herge himself later revised Tintin in the Congo, replacing a lesson in which Tintin points to a map of Belgium to explain the principles of colonialism with a less offensive mathematics scene.

In The Blue Lotus he shows Tintin dismissing Chinese prejudices about Europeans, while the hero also stands up for the downtrodden Chinese against the imperious British.

Marcel Wilmet of the Herge Foundation told the Reuters news agency that "the context is outdated… what's left is the jokes".

But Tintin in the Congo remains the most controversial of Herge's books. Other early examples of his work reflect similar naïve values: Tintin in the Land of the Soviets portrays communist Russia as a brutal dictatorship, while Tintin in America's treatment of 'Red Indians' is similarly uncompromising.

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