Tintin in the Congo

"In every generation, children's books mirror the society from which they arise." Leonard S. Marcus.

For my whole life, I have been a fan of Herge's wonderful Tintin books. Chronicling the international adventures of a 'boy reporter' from Belgium, they were my first introduction to reading on my own and kindled a love of reading (and adventure stories) that I've enjoyed my entire life.

When I was a boy, I nearly had the entire set of Tintin books, from Tintin in America to his final adventure in Tintin and the Picaros. But one elusive book prevented me from completing my collection. Tintin in the Congo, the first (actually the second) book in the Tintin Library, was unavailable in British shops.

This was because British publishers Methuen felt that Tintin in the Congo was too controversial for a young British audience. Before a translated version of the book finally hit British bookstores in 2005, the only way to see it was by buying an original language copy in France.

Tintin in the Congo, more than any other Tintin adventure, was a product of it's time. The original story was penned by Herge in 1930 and recounted Tintin's voyage to the Belgian colony in West Africa, where he combated a diamond smuggling ring lead by villainous Al Capone.

For modern audiences, the book is shocking. The natives of Congo are portrayed as ignorant and childish, causing accidents and mishaps with their incompetent use of Western technology. Herge draws the Africans as gangly, misshapen creatures with coal black skin and enormous lips. It's all embarrassingly outdated and uncomfortable - an example of the naive misconceptions and stereotypes people made about Africans almost eighty years ago.

However, despite Tintin in the Congo hitting the stands way back in 1930, it's only now that British organisation the Commission for Racial Equality has turned it's attention to what they describe as 'highly offensive material.'

They've demanded British bookshop Borders remove Tintin in the Congo from their shelves, citing that "the only place that it might be acceptable for this [book] to be displayed would be in a museum, with a big sign saying 'old fashioned, racist claptrap'.

Borders responded by moving the offending book off the shelves of the Children's section and into the Adult Graphic Novels department, rebuking the CRE's demands with: "Borders stands by its commitment to let customers make the choice."

I think that's a perfectly acceptable compromise. As an adult Tintin fan, I do want the choice of purchasing a copy of Tintin in the Congo, fully aware of it's controversial nature and equally aware of the historical context in which the book was written. Children who are fans of Tintin can satisfy themselves by reading some of the boy reporter's other adventures. Those remain in the children's section.

The real question is whether the CRE will accept this compromise. Their statement, which you can read here, calls for the book to be removed from the shelves entirely. Personally, I think that's ridiculous. If you start removing one book from shops because of outdated content, why not start removing all of them?

I mean, as offensive as Tintin in the Congo apparently is, the stereotypes and naive racism are surely no more offensive than, say, those contained within Jules Verne's Five Weeks in the Balloon; in which British adventurers shoot native Africans, mistaking them for baboons - or H Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines; which is full of rampant imperialism and racism.

What about Huck Finn's troubled conscience when he helps slave 'Nigger Jim' escape his abusive masters in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn? The book itself was groundbreaking in the way it portrayed Jim as a real human being, rather than property or an object. Yet white-trash Huck Finn is still more worried about the moral implications of liberating somebody else's property than helping his friend escape.

All of these books are products of their time. They were written during a less enlightened period. Reading them is an education into the real core of History. Not what people wore or what people did during life a century or two ago - but how they thought.

These books give us an opportunity to look inside society as it was then - and allow us to compare it to the way we think and live now. In that respect, they are very important and banning them is a ridiculous concept.

Tintin in the Congo

What makes Tintin and the Congo interesting isn't just the historical perspective in which it should be read. Author Hergé had an interesting relationship with the book and expressed embarrassment at the ill informed and prejudiced views within it.

He was constantly reminded of this because the Tintin franchise went through constant regeneration. His original 1930 story was updated in 1946 and turned into the full colour edition we see today (which CRE want banned.) In the sixteen years since he originally wrote it, Herge had undergone quite a bit of personal development and gained an attention to detail and demand for factual accuracy in his writing. He saw his early works as deeply flawed - especially Tintin in the Congo.

These perceived flaws were why Herge didn't allow Tintin's true 'first adventure' - Tintin in the Land of the Soviets - to undergo the same reworking as his other books. In that book, Tintin heads to Moscow and battles against the stereotypical Soviet bad guys. Unlike his later works, which involved extensive research from books, photographs and films to make the localities as accurate as possible, Herge based this entire adventure from a single book, Moscou sans voiles written by a former Belgian diplomat Joseph Douillet.

Similarly, Herge wrote Tintin in the Congo without actually having visited Africa - and his youth and enthusiasm explain why he used stereotypes and cliché in his description of the Africans. The accusations of racism the CRE make could equally be directed to Congo's sequel, Tintin in America, in which he portrayed Americans as gangsters and racketeers.

In fact, it wasn't until The Blue Lotus that Herge developed a real interest in making his stories as accurate and factual as possible. To research Tintin's new adventure, he consulted Chang Ch'ung-jen, a Chinese student, who explained the history, culture and art of his homeland and woke Herge up to just how prejudiced and inaccurate his preconceptions about China had been. From that point on, Herge vowed to painstakingly research his books and even made reference to the ignorance of his countrymen in The Blue Lotus, when Tintin explains to Tchang (a character based on Chang Ch'ung-jen) what misconceptions Europeans held about the Chinese.

From the Blue Lotus until Herge's final book, Tintin and the Picaros, the adventures of Tintin would be hailed for their accuracy. That's a sharp contrast to the contents of Tintin in the Congo; and makes that book so much more interesting and important as a result.

Banning Books

The CRE decided to launch their campaign against Tintin in the Congo after Human Right's lawyer David Enright found the book in a local branch of Borders bookshops. As a Human Rights lawyer, he should be satisfied with Border's response:

"Naturally, some of the thousands of books and music selections we carry could be considered controversial or objectionable depending on individual political views, tastes and interests. However, Borders stands by its commitment to let customers make the choice."

Unless, of course, he's willing to do what many supporters of 'human rights' do and gloss over the rights of freedom of expression and choice (which they hold sacred for their own ends) if the expressions and choices one makes are not 'politically correct.'

The most important questions CRE has to ask themselves is: What will banning Tintin in the Congo achieve?

Will it help reduce racism amongst impressionable young people? Probably not. Impressionable youngsters are sadly not lining up outside Borders to get their mitts on eighty year old comic books.

If David Enright and CRE are really concerned about combating racism amongst young people, they should direct their efforts towards the media: Like modern rap music, which contains widespread use of racial slurs, promotion of gang violence and disrespect towards women. Or what about television personalities? People like Jade Goody, who are millionaires despite being vile racist bullies. These are the people youngsters watch and emulate; not ageless boy reporters adventuring through a world which no longer exists.

Which is more the pity. Throughout his adventures, Tintin promoted respect, sobriety and humanitarianism. He tried never to kill even the most wicked of evil doers. He rescued and befriended drunks and rogues. And apart from in Tintin in the Congo (when he blew up a rhinoceros with dynamite) he was never cruel to animals.