Henry Samuel, London Telegraph, September 1, 2009
Bienvenu Mbutu Mondondo, 41, is taking legal action claiming Hergé’s controversial Tintin In The Congo is propaganda for colonialism and amounts to “racism and xenophobia”.
“Tintin’s little (black) helper is seen as stupid and without qualities. It makes people think that blacks have not evolved,” he said.
Mr Mbutu Mondondo launched a case in Belgium two years ago for symbolic damages of one euro from Tintin’s Belgian publishers Moulinsart, and demanded the book be withdrawn from the market.
But since then his lawyer, Claude Ndjakanyi, said there had been no response from Belgian justice. “Our request to access the dossier was judged premature even though the investigation has been running for two years,” he said.
Mr Ndjakanyi claimed the silence was politically motivated: “It’s the symbol of Belgium that is under attack.” The lawyer said he would launch parallel proceedings in France and go “all the way to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary”.
In 2007, British race watchdogs pulled the book from children’s shelves and attacked the Tintin cartoons for making black Africans “look like monkeys and talk like imbeciles”.
Two weeks ago the work was removed from the shelves of Brooklyn’s municipal library following a complaint from a reader that it “had illustrations that were racially offensive and inappropriate for children”.
Tintin and his dog Snowy are a rare unifying symbol in Belgium—a divided nation where postcolonial guilt over Belgian’s record in the Congo still runs high.
The Congo remained a Belgian colony until 1960 and between 1885 and 1908 millions of Congolese are thought to have died under the brutal rule of Belgium’s King Leopold II.
Georges Remi, the Tintin cartoonist who worked under the Hergé pen-name, reworked the book in 1946 to remove references to Congo as Belgian colony.
But it still contained images such as a black woman bowing to Tintin and saying: “White man very great White mister is big juju man!” Moulinsart, Tintin’s publishers, argued that the whole row was “silly” and that book must be seen in its historical context: “To read in the 21st century a Tintin album dating back to 1931 requires a minimum of intellectual honesty,” it said. “If one applied the ‘politically correct’ filter to great artists or writers, we could no longer publish certain novels of Balzac, Jules Verne, or even some Shakespeare plays.”
Mr Ndjakanyi said this argument did not wash. “When the album was written there was no legal disposition incriminating racism. In 2009 there is. This isn’t about history but the law.”
[Editor’s Note: Earlier stories about Tintin are listed here.
Original article
(Posted on September 3, 2009)
Comments
Question! I haven`t been keeping up with my leisure reading…Are Betty and Veronica still dating Archie or have they been updated to pant after some hip-hop character inserted to give Whitebread Riverdale more “flava”?!?
This marks just another stepping stone in Europe’s subservient behavior towards non-Europeans and their wishes.
If Mr. Mondondo finds European literature so disgusting that he needs to forbid it, the easiest solution for him would probably be to go back to Africa, where he could enjoy the great literature supplied to mankind by his ancestors.
Too bad there wasn’t all that colonialism propaganda, and all frontier propaganda written by Jack London, about the Yukon, then whites wouldn’t have gone to those places, and as far as Africa and Asian is concerned, whites would be a lot better off than they are now.
Blacks have evolved. But then, so have oysters.
The “hate laws” throw still more of our history into the memory hole. While I certainly wouldn’t classify Tintin as great literature it is absurd to make it illegal to read what anybody could read in 1940. I’m sure any encyclopedia published prior to 1940 will also get banned as racist.
I read King Leopold’s Ghost. What struck me was not the horrific abuse of the Africans by Leopold, but that Belgian troops were used to do it. How many Belgians had their lives disrupted, their health ruined, their lives ended….because this selfish king wanted more money? And how are things any different, today? There’s still a tiny elite in Europe exploiting real Europeans for gain (this time using immigration as a weapon).
When they have replaced Europeans with brown people, and they find themselves rulers of NOTHING, will they regret what they’ve done? Or will they be murdered along with the last of their European subjects?
“Tintin’s little (black) helper is seen as stupid and without qualities. It makes people think that blacks have not evolved,” he said.
What qualities is the little black helper seen lacking?
“This isn’t about history but the law”
It is about history; the history of blacks as they were seen.
“When they have replaced Europeans with brown people, and they find themselves rulers of NOTHING, will they regret what they’ve done? Or will they be murdered along with the last of their European subjects?”
No. They’ll regret nothing. As refugees, that holiest category of humanity, they will take advantage of the asylum laws that they have implemented around to the world to give them asylum from persecution. And they will offer their services to their new hosts to advise them on their finances and guide them in their their complex political issues and take charge of their economy. It will be deja vu, all over again.
Does anybody know how I can get a copy of the book in question? I’d like to see for myself if the allegations are true.
When are Germans going to sue The Hearst Corporation for $1.00 for publishing The Katzenjammer Kids from 1912 until 1960? Mama Katzenjammer is seen as “stupid and without qualities.” Der Captain “talks like an imbecile.” How dare anyone laugh at parody?
This is silly! Tintin does not make people think blacks have not evolved. Blacks make people think blacks have not evolved!
“In 2007, British race watchdogs pulled the book from children’s shelves and attacked the Tintin cartoons for making black Africans “look like monkeys and talk like imbeciles”.”
They had better do something about rap videos then, as well.
Seriously, though, how’s Congo doing these days?
So reassuring to know the London Telegraph has it’s finger on the pulse and bringing us the cosmically important news of another black race agitator slash commie tool’s antics.
Good God!,
One point that is never made is that Congo was only colonised by Belgium very late in the day (comparatively speaking) and was not a colony for very long.
I have a copy. Well worth the expense. Amazon UK.
It makes people think that blacks have not evolved,” he said.
Shall we put this Tin-Tin fiasco in context apropos modern-day Congo… From this story.. quote “Two weeks ago the work was removed from the shelves of Brooklyn’s municipal library following a complaint from a reader that it “had illustrations that were racially offensive and inappropriate for children”.
“The people of the far northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo live in constant fear of attacks from a notorious rebel group from neighbouring Uganda” the head of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said today (31st August 2009) after visiting the region. UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman traveled to Dungu, a remote Congolese village near the border with Sudan and Uganda where over 300,000 people have been uprooted by clashes in a region terrorized by the rebels known as the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). “The LRA is notorious for kidnapping children, forcing them to kill and maim innocent victims and enslaving young girls as their concubines,” she said after talking with children who had been abducted by the rebels. Ms. Veneman met with a former child soldier living with a foster family in Dungu whose seriously-infected foot prevented him from keeping up with the daily long-distance treks with the LRA. “The rebels taunted him and then severely beat him and left him behind,” she said, adding that he was stranded for days without food and water before he was found.
The UNICEF head said she has been encouraged by the strength and resilience of the LRA victims. “While I was horrified by the violence inflicted on these children, I was inspired by the sheer will and determination of the community to help.” Five women she met who each had taken in traumatized children, despite having limited resources and large families of their own, exemplify a “true example of humanitarianism,” she said.
At least 200,000 cases of sexual violence have been recorded in eastern DRC since 1996, according to a recent report by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who earlier this month called on the Security Council to set up an independent commission of inquiry into such abuse in the conflicts in the D R Congo, Chad and Sudan. Today’s visit to Dungu took place on the last day of Ms. Veneman’s five-day trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Perhaps the Brooklyn municipal library would care to comment on the realities of life in the Congo instead of playing around with some pathetic politically correct complaint about a children’s book which includes fictional characters from a bygone era, or does that hurt too much since no Whites are committing these evil acts against children.
Again, quoting from the above story… “Tintin’s little (black) helper is seen as stupid and without qualities. It makes people think that blacks have not evolved,” he said.
If they were honest with themselves and they are not honest with themselves or anyone else for that matter they would be down on their kneew kissing the feet of the whiteman. blacks didn’t rise up themselves and revolt to gain their freedom, it was the whiteman who fought and died to set them free and our reward! being told we owe them even more for setting them free. Maybe their black brothers and sisters in the Motherland (Affyka) are smarter than we think since slavery of blacks is still relatively common there?
My father owned an old copy of «Tintin au Congo» (French version), and I read it many times as a child.
I think this whole thing is a bit ridiculous. I mean, Tintin’s boy helper doesn’t seem too bright, but then neither do some other characters who are Tintin’s friends.
One could argue (I guess) that the way black characters in «Congo» are depiected is funny, but then Tintin is kind of strange-looking, I think…
We are talking about a cartoon from the 1930s, after all. And I’m certain there were no bad intentions in there.
As for African Blacks having not evolved… well, we can’t depict them as a super-advanced people, can we? That would’t be any more realistic!
Correct me if I’m wrong, but according to the Out of Africa theory (which I don’t believe, but I hear blacks parrot a lot)wouldn’t the group that stayed behind in Africa be the group of humans that didn’t evolve the intelligence necessary to leave?
Just a thought.
“Tintin’s little (black) helper is seen as stupid and without qualities. It makes people think that blacks have not evolved,” he said.
Well, 1 month ago i saw a report about eastern Congo and the cobalt mines. Groups of blacks were explotiting them in the most basic manner, almost just a tunnel made with some spades and using their hands. They had a shack under a tree were they rested.It was really miserable. I couldnt wonder if after all this time they still couldn figure a better way to mine.
I think this is really over the top, just too much!
My father owned an old copy of «Tintin au Congo» (French version), and I read it many times.
We are talking about a pretty harmless cartoon from a different era, the 1930s. Hergé passed away many years ago.
Maybe Tintin’s black boy helper could seem a bit dumd, yes, but then so do many other characters, in the whole series of Tintin albums. Including some who are Tintin’s close friends.
The physical depiction of Blacks in Tintin cartoon might seem unrealistic, and a bit funny. But it is not the case just for Blacks, but for pretty much all the other characters (including Tintin himself, after all).
Besides… whether Blacks in Africa have evolved a lot, I do not know about that. But would it be any more realistic to depict them as super-advanced technologically?
Anyway, I think that Mondondo guy needs to lighten up, a bit.
Are Betty and Veronica still dating Archie or have they been updated to pant after some hip-hop character inserted to give Whitebread Riverdale more “flava”?!?
I believe that Betty and Veronica got married and now are running a radical feminist collective at taxpayer expense.
Tin Tins publishers are right. If political correctness is allowed to hold sway, we couldn’t be able to publish great literary works. I wonder how the Bantu Mondondo feels about Joseph Conrad’s book, “The N****r of the Narcissus”? His lawyer is silent about laws prohibiting slavery, but demands Tin Tin books are racist, and “against the law”.
No wonder a continent of some 600 million people has produced only ONE black writer who merits international acclaim, Wole Soyinka.
“Tintin’s little (black) helper …makes people think that blacks have not evolved,” he said.
No, actually, the Rodney King riots make us think blacks have not evolved. Willie Horton made us think blacks have not evolved. O.J. Simpson (and the joy at his acquittal) makes us think blacks have not evolved. The panic in the streets of NOLA after Hurricane Katrina makes us think blacks have not evolved. The Wichita Massacre — http://tinyurl.com/lkzbyx —makes us think blacks have not evolved. The ongoing campaign of terror and murder against the Afrikaner farmers makes us think that blacks have not evolved —
“…. wouldn’t the group that stayed behind in Africa be the group of humans that didn’t evolve the intelligence necessary to leave?”
Mike, I think it would be more a matter of natural selection in the sense that those with the motivation to move on, did so (Green, green, it’s green they say, on the far side of the hill), and in so doing took their more progressive genes with them - and thus, on and on throughout the evolutionary time scale, to Europe.
8 — Lapdog Liberator wrote at 10:17 PM on September 3: Does anybody know how I can get a copy of the book in question? I’d like to see for myself if the allegations are true.
——————————————————http://www.alibris.com/booksearch?binding=&mtype=&keyword=tintin&hs.x=14&hs.y=15
26 — Geraldo wrote
Mike, I think it would be more a matter of natural selection in the sense that those with the motivation to move on, did so .
I wouldn’t waste time pushing that line of reasoning because, in fact, it can just as easily be argued both ways. Anyone could just as well say that the least strong, intelligent, or capable were driven out by the stronger and smarter and in defeat were forced to go find homes elsewhere, while the successful and dominant specimens remained behind in possession of the homeland.
After all, no one leaves home and emigrates into the unknown …. unless they HAVE to. No one leaves a warm, abundant tropical climate with a 12 month growing season and migrates into the freezing temperate zones unless they HAVE to. Obviously, they were DRIVEN out. They didn’t leave voluntarily. Further evolution, though, would have come later in facing the necessity of surving in that precarious, inhospitable northern climate. That would have weeded out many.
Humans are, and remain, a tropical animal, after all. We have no fur and no natural defenses to protect us from the cold — except by using our wits against nature. But, again, we did it only because we HAD to. Today, in places like Finland and Sasketchewan, people still dream of an idyllic tropical island. Where do they go when they get a vacation? Back to the tropics, where we all began!
A book that I loved as a child was The Story of Little Black Sambo.
Mike, I think it would be more a matter of natural selection in the sense that those with the motivation to move on, did so (Green, green, it’s green they say, on the far side of the hill), and in so doing took their more progressive genes with them - and thus, on and on throughout the evolutionary time scale, to Europe.
I was under the impression that most human migrations during that time took place due to population pressure — scarcity of game animals + increasing population leads to human conflict over territory, with one group staying and one leaving. People did not up and move to unknown land without good reason. The ones that were forced to leave would move to less desirable land, with the winner staying put.
I had always thought that the short term “loser” benefited in the long run, since the newer, more marginal environment was actually more selective for intelligence. The homo sapiens who arrived in ice age Europe among woolly mammoths, neanderthals and deadly winters surely had more selective pressure than those who remained in the climatically ideal African highlands, with temperatures in the 70s year-round. And this situation prevailed for at least 30,000 years.
Browser, I guess it has much to do with the mother-in-law you find yourself with!
“I had always thought that the short term “loser” benefited in the long run, since the newer, more marginal environment was actually more selective for intelligence.”
Dave, however we explain the motivation to move (rather like ‘westering’ in the frontier days of the USA), there remains today a distinct gradation of average IQ running from low to high on a south/north basis in Africa, with an overall average IQ of 67-70 in sub-Saharan Africa.
Indeed, if the new hypothesis is accepted - to the effect that man took his major evolutionary steps in the south western areas of Africa - then the direct descendants are still there in the form of the bushmen tribes living in the Namib Desert (the bushmen now being described as Koi). They talk in clicks, forge iron, forage for roots, and over the last 30,000 years have developed a miniature bow capable of delivering a poisoned arrow to bring down an antelope. As for the wheel, well, not yet.
