Tintin in the Congo, originally published in French in 1930-31 gained extensive media coverage in mid-July 2007 as the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), an equal rights organisation in the UK called on bookshops to stop selling them.

Tintin in the Congo is a comic book which depicts a young, white journalist’s adventures in Congo, Africa while portraying the native population as less than intelligent and monkey-like in nature, who in the end worship Tintin (and his dog, no less), as gods.

However, this has only enhanced its popularity. As on 14th July, its sales had gone up almost 4,000%, the book climbing from 4,343rd to 5th in a mere 4 days on Amazon UK’s bestseller list.

Summary of what is depicted in the book:

• Black person says: “White man, very great… White mister is big juju man.”
• Black people are referred to as “disposed to violence” and that they are capable only of being “led, guided and commanded by white people and even dogs.”

The book is controversial not only for its racist tones, but also on how animal mistreatment is depicted. I am not sure if one of the most infamous scenes in the book, the scene in page 56 is even depicted in the latest edition. That is where Tintin drills a hole into a rhinoceros, sticks dynamite into it, then blows it up.

A screen shot of that page is as follows:

In later editions, this page has been redrawn, where instead of blowing up the rhino, it inadvertently fires Tintin’s gun, gets frightened by that and then runs away.

Some other pages have also been redrawn, including a scene where Tintin gives geography lessons to the locals about Belgium was instead changed to a mathematics class.

Sources

• Daily Telegraph (UK), 15th July

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