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two years ago for symbolic damages of one euro from Tintin's Belgian publishers Moulinsart, and demanded the book be withdrawn from the market.

[Cronos]

Is Congo better off today? Is he interested in comparisons?

You're comparing barbarity to barbarity, however you're forgetting one thing -- a civilised nation like Belgium should not have done that. What Hitler did was barbaric, but Timur-e-Lang did worse a few centuries earlier, yet we consider Hitler worse because he did it with a civilised nation. When you adopt civilisation and high culture, you cannot act like the barbarians.

[Cronos]

Congo, about which Mr Hochschild will not write, you can bet your bottom dollar, or if he will, he'll blame the white race

There's no such thing as "the white race", just as there is no such thing as "the black race".

Caucasians, or even specifically Aryans include Blonde, blue-eyed scandanavians, red-headed Celts, brown Iranis, Georgians, Armenians, Indians. The wider Caucasians include the darker skinned Semitics and Dravidians.

[Cronos]

Hey, the cartoonish who did Asterix caracatures ALL ethnicities — even the Gauls with their huge honkers!

[Cronos]

Has there ever been a Tintin movie or cartoon made in France?

Tintin is Belgian, not French (just like "French" fries:)

[Cronos]

himno hero; stormer

Sorry, I never finished off my bit about Egyptians -- by the 7th century BC, they DID have Nubian kings so "black" as in the skin color Pharaohs DID exist, way before there was any civilisation among the Germanics or Nordics or Slovians.

And, then later in the 7th century, the Egyptians were conquered by the GREAT Assyrians and then the majestic Persians (as you can guess I have some Persian blood from my granma :))))

[AnAmericanMother]

Nast was a genius. And he was by all accounts a good, upright man.

I think his anti-Catholicism was a byproduct of being in the middle of the invasion of New York and Boston by the Irish -- who were definitely not genteel by old-line Brahmin or Knickerbocker standards. He was an immigrant himself - but from Germany, as child of six.

[Cronos]

Hey, but it's a fact that the Japanese are Korean-descendents. And that Japan was, for centuries a backwater island compared to mainland China and Korea. You also had Wokou pirates from Japan right until the 1500s or later. What Japan has done since the Meiji era is to be praised (except the war of course), but let's not forget historical facts!

We all need to accept that our ancestors weren't all noble folks -- we may have had cannibals (yes, even the Nordics and Celts and Semites had cannibals millenia ago) and definitely were at one point uncivilised.

[AnAmericanMother]

LOL!

Some of us have doubtful ancestors even more recently than that -- my 5xg grandfather fled Scotland under a cloud. He was a MacGregor (the Mafia of Scotland) but changed his name either after he got to Virginia or before he left (at one point the British outlawed the use of the name, as you can read in R.L. Stevenson's David Balfour).

I used to be into genealogy in a big way, and it's my observation that a hanging six generations ago becomes less a source of shame and more a romantic story.

[denydenydeny]

Somebody write something you disagree with? Want to take it off the market so that no one is ever allowed to read it? Constrained by those icky free-speech laws? Sue!

It makes people think that blacks have not evolved," he said.

No, I think it's just you.

[tanknetter]

Now they want to back censor?

When was the last time anyone saw Disney actually acknowledge that "Song of the South" exists? Let alone raise the possibility of a DVD release?

[investigateworld]

The Japanese I know would be offended to even think there is a drop of Korean blood in their ancestral lineage.

Of course they would be horrified to find a butcher or tanner "back there".

[himno hero]

GREAT summary, great hand.

My point is - in a nutshell - during all those years, with all that real estate and all those people , we can talk of maybe 2 civilizations. Thus it is I believe them to be a naturally uncivilized lot. Its also reflected in their advancements and developments.

I see them today still boughing down to their chiefs in their near feudal systems. I see the chiefs and their agents promoting and practicing PHD a crabs in a bucket. Voo- doo is very much alive.

In comparison and relative to the western europeans, the meditarraneans, mesopetaneans etc etc etc they have never progressed. Their prosepcts for the future? I see regression in Zimbabwe, South Africa and Kenya. Violent regression.

[Revolting cat!]

According to the Communist propagandists like Mr Hochschild entire history of the contemptible Western Civilization consists of barbarity against the noble natives. And that’s the entire point.

[SunkenCiv]

Hey, nice goin’, you’ve just offended all the Gauls with huge honkers. ;’)

[Cronos]

My point is - in a nutshell - during all those years, with all that real estate and all those people , we can talk of maybe 2 civilizations. Thus it is I believe them to be a naturally uncivilized lot. Its also reflected in their advancements and developments.

you misunderstood me -- I meant to say that you can't say "Africans" like it is a generic culture or race. North Africans from Morocco to Egypt were / are Berbers and Semites with some Indo-European blood (Persians, Greeks, Vandals, Romans etc)

Ethiopians too are, I dare say, closer to us genetically than to sub-saharan Africans.

In your statement about 2 civilisations, you need to specify the people you're classifying -- if you mean purely peoples from the Congo southwards, then yes, your statement is correct -- Great Zimbabwe and maybe Zanzibar.

If you mean "Africans" as people from the entire continent, your statement is wrong.

If you mean sub-saharan Africans, that statement is still wrong -- see the history of Gambia and the kingdoms and emirates there.

History, like any science, needs to be exact.

[Cronos]

Hochschild is partially wrong -- remember that the Germanics and Slavs were considered barbarians until the 600s and 700s AD -- only 1300 years ago.

Even 2700 years ago, the Italics, Romans etc. were really barbarians as were the Celts until their conquest by Rome

And 3000 years ago, even the Greeks were no more than pirates attacking the civilised states of the Hittites in Anatolia.

Furthermore, Hochschild is wrong in considering that Europeans were the only ones who conducted barbaric acts -- the Muslims were doing that until barely the last decade or so -- and arguably are still doing that in Darfur and around the world.

[Cronos]

Hey! Many of les francaises have huge honkers too - like Gerard Depardieu: Gad, what a nose!

[Rebelbase]

[pillut48]

He’s a southerner! Bangalore.

[pillut48]

I must say I haven’t heard zippity doo-dah about that subject! ;-)