How racist is Tintin in the Congo?
Posted by Richard D North in Imaging the black person, Issues in black history on 20 May 2008.
Africans may understand African caricature better than whites, says RDN
Liberal Europeans agonise about Hergé’s Tintin au Congo (1931). (The Wikipedia article on the theme seems comprehensive, if unimaginative.) It is interesting to read a New Statesman account of the controvsery which comes from Tim Butcher, the (impeccably liberal) author of Blood River - A Journey To Africa’s Broken Heart, who is hot from the Congo and sees things differently. (Hergé fans in the Congo, NS, 26 July 2007).
Indeed, you may notice that the more Mr Butcher quotes the opinions of Africans (rather than his own), the less we seem to have to worry about Hergé’s portrayal of the Congolese.
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