Tintin 'to be sued' for Congo book

telegraph.co.uk ^ | 01 Sep 2009 | Henry Samuel

[paudio]

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two years ago for symbolic damages of one euro from Tintin's Belgian publishers Moulinsart, and demanded the book be withdrawn from the market.

[Jeff Chandler]

Africans are the most racist going!

I thought the Japanese held that title?

[himno hero]

When was he last time they had a genocide?

[stormer]

The biggest problem in Sub-Saharan Africa today is the almost complete breakdown of the family caused by resource extraction based colonial enterprises; it pulls men off of the farms and crams them into cities where all kinds of trouble can be found. In the meantime, the womenfolk back home are stuck doing all the work without any support from the local (often corrupt) patrons. And comparing Africa to Canada or Australia is foolish; for one thing barely anybody lived in those places when they were colonized, definitely not the case in Africa. The other thing people don't seem to grasp is Africa's shear size - it takes 10 hours to fly from the Mediterranean coast to the Cape - twice the flight time from Seattle to Honolulu.

[stormer]

“When was he last time they had a genocide?”

Ask a Korean.

[Cronos]

you’re right — it’s like attacking Shakespeare for the characterisation of the Jewish Shylock in the Merchant of Venice, or the various anti-Jewish, anti-Irish and anti-Italian stereotypes and cartoons that continued until the 1900s

[Cronos]

HAve you been to the Tintin museum in Brussels? It’s a must-see for any Tintin fan, I loved the entrance with the big statues of Tintin, Haddock and the prof. dressed up like their mission to the Moon! Took loads of pictures.

[Cronos]

Well, the rape of Nanking was definitely a genocide. And they have (or had) eliminated other races from their island, including the Caucasian Ainu and even Koreans (from whom the Japanese are descended)

sub-saharan Africa's problem is that it had iron or stone age cultures that got shocked by an industrial age culture (the Belgians, French, English etc) -- and decayed, just like we would if a culture 2000 years ahead of us came.

You can't compare Africa to Canada or Australia, that's a non-sequitor. you can compare Africa to all of Europe or all of the Americas -- north and south: it is a multitude of cultures, and a long history (written AND unwritten), quite unlike Canada (pre-history only dating back a few thousand years) or Australia (even with the Aborigines, that's still only 5000 years or so).

Furthermore, remember that most of whom we consider "AFricans" are the Bantu people who lived mostly in the jungles of West Africa until 500 odd years ago when they migrated south and pushed the Bushmen (San and Khoi-Khoi) out of their lands. The North Africans are of course Berbers, more related to Europeans or Middle-Easterners, while East AFricans like the Ethiopians are again closely tied to the Middle East and have THEIR culture dating back Millenia -- the Ethiopians were culturally not affected by Europeans since they were only one age behind (they hadn't entered the industrial age), but people like the Bantu (with the exception of the Senegalese or Gambians who had had a long and continued contact with Arabs and Berbers) were millenia behind. And the San are not even copper-age but are hunter-gatherers, they just probably saw everything as magic (I am being patronising, sorry for that)

[Cincinna]

*** FRENCH POLITICS AND CULTURE PING LIST *** FREEPMAIL ME IF YOU WANT TO JOIN ***

Thanks for the post and thank to Armuy Air Corps for the Ping.

TINTIN has been a cultural icon in France and Belgium for more than half a century. Translated into every language, and one of the most popular cartoon characters in the world. Comic strips, or bandes dessinees are considered an art form for adults.

This is political correctness gone amuck. Leave the little explorer alone!

[dljordan]

“I don’t know how many Freepers are familiar with Tintin”

I saw my first Tintin book in a bookshop in Kathmandhu, Nepal. It was “Tintin in Tibet” and I loved the artwork.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Well, we certainly can’t have somebody getting their feelings hurt, now can we.

[AnAmericanMother]

"He's repressin' me! He's repressin' me! Here you see the violence inherent in the system . .. "

[Sparko]

Classic comics.

Hey, Bienvenu Mbutu Mondondo: KMA

[AnAmericanMother]

Sambo was an Indian. But of course they miss that.

And yes, Sambo did manage to escape the tigers with his clothes AND bring the butter back to his mama, so they all had pancakes.

Apropos of that, the Sambo book was reissued with charming illustrations of a ca. 1920 Indian family (complete with Mamaji running her sewing machine like a race car driver). I don't approve of the original reason the book was revised, but this is a good book in its own right.

And I'll read anything that Fred Marcellino illustrates.

[AnAmericanMother]

. . . the various anti-Jewish, anti-Irish and anti-Italian stereotypes and cartoons that continued until the 1900s . ..

My personal favorite. Nast was a genius, but he had a thing about the Irish.

[Little Ray]

You should read Tintin goes to America...
All Americans are cowboys, gangsters, or top-hatted businessmen. And the things they wrote about Indians, er, “Native Americans...”

[super7man]

No, I have not been there, I am sure I would enjoy it. I will have to put it on my bucket list.

[pillut48]

My husband (from India) is the HUGH Asterix fan here...has been since he was a wee child, according to his parents. Every night before going to sleep he’ll read his comics over and over, and he actually guffaws out loud at them—in fact, when his parents hear him on the other side of the house, they comment, “He’s reading Asterix again!” :-)

[himno hero]

“The biggest problem in Sub-Saharan Africa today is the almost complete breakdown of the family caused by resource extraction based colonial enterprises; it pulls men off of the farms and crams them into cities where all kinds of trouble can be found. In the meantime, the womenfolk back home are stuck doing all the work without any support from the local (often corrupt) patrons. And comparing Africa to Canada or Australia is foolish; for one thing barely anybody lived in those places when they were colonized, definitely not the case in Africa. The other thing people don’t seem to grasp is Africa’s shear size - it takes 10 hours to fly from the Mediterranean coast to the Cape - twice the flight time from Seattle to Honolulu.”

Now the whiteman/ modern man is responsible for marital failure in Africa? Gimme a break. Back to the blame game.

A couple of things, 1) yes you are correct Africa is huge. I think it is roughly the size of North America, central America and a piece of South America.
2)Comparing Canada or Australia is foolish? Canada and Australia was/ and are about resource extraction and will continue to be.And there are loads of men employed in these industries without marital failure. Colonialism was largely about resources including Australia.
3) Africa? The influence of Islam has allowed many to have multiple wives. Chiefs and leaders have multiple wives all across Africa and thats the way it has been. Leaders there even had their “harems”. The bulk of the common men are like lost gophers and wanting to be like chiefs. Actually for the lack of proper belief structures like creatures of the field wandering through a meaningless unstructured life and will continue like that. They are high on excuses excepting Robert Mugabe. There is a man of action. South Africa is following their footsteps. Actually, Kenya too. All the places of the greatest potential are falling for their beliefs, corruption and lifestyle.

The corruption is easy to understand... everything is for the chief and no one can be more powerful than the feudal chiefs. Thats why the concepts of pull him down , and crabs in a bucket seek to explain what is really going on. All throughout africa, a man starts getting ahead and the societies pull him down, destroy his efforts, maybe his life or a family members. There no one can get ahead of the chiefs; chiefs by day and chiefs by night... uncle Zoie. They understand raiding, corruption and thievery. I think with the millions of years advantage they have over others that it is ingrained.

Kinda like you can take the boy off the farm but not the farm outa the boy.
Thats why we have it here in America, innocently imported by immigration in todays terms, (not so innocently by slavery importation). We the borders are opened up , yes the immigrants bring their behaviors with them from wherever they may come and corrupt what exists bringing their cultural values, crime and poverty.... and perceptions of societal structure. But with a few years they integrate fairly well.
Basically they are a backwards and corrupt people and will continue as that.

[investigateworld]

"...even Koreans (from whom the Japanese are descended)..."

LOL!, that will stir up the Japanese for a while.