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Bid to ban Tintin book in Belgium Bid to ban 'racist' Tintin book
(about 3 hours later)
A Congolese man is trying to get a controversial Tintin book banned in the cartoon star's home country of Belgium.A Congolese man is trying to get a controversial Tintin book banned in the cartoon star's home country of Belgium.
A court is due to rule later on whether Tintin in the Congo can be sold in Belgian shops and, if it can be, if it must display a warning it is racist. The ginger sleuth's "little (black) helper" in Tintin in the Congo is seen as "stupid and without qualities", Bienvenu Mbutu is quoted as saying.
"It makes people think that blacks have not evolved," said Mr Mbutu, who lives in Belgium.
A court is to rule on whether the book can be sold in Belgium and, if so, whether it should carry a warning.
It has already attracted much criticism for its crude racial stereotypes.It has already attracted much criticism for its crude racial stereotypes.
Three years ago the UK's Commission for Racial Equality called for the book to be banned, saying it contained imagery and words of hideous racial prejudice. Second adventure
Written in the late 1920s it was the second Tintin adventure created by Herge, who later said it was a youthful sin which reflected the prejudices of the time. Three years ago, the UK's Commission for Racial Equality called for the book to be banned, saying it contained imagery and words of hideous racial prejudice.
A black woman is featured in the book bowing before Tintin and exclaiming: "White man very great. White mister is big juju man!"
Written in the late 1920s, it was the second Tintin adventure created by Herge, who later said it was a youthful sin which reflected the prejudices of the time.
A scene in Tintin in the Congo in which the eponymous hero gave a geography lesson to Africans about Belgium was later changed to a maths class.
Now UK editions are generally found alongside more adult books and are sold with a band of paper around the outside, warning the content is offensive.Now UK editions are generally found alongside more adult books and are sold with a band of paper around the outside, warning the content is offensive.
Now Bienvenue Mbutu, a Congolese national living in Belgium, is asking the Belgian courts to ban the book, although he says he would be satisfied if it was sold with a warning like the one used in Britain. While Mr Mbotu has asked for the book to be banned, he has said he would be satisfied if it was sold with a warning like the one used in Britain, says the BBC's Dominic Hughes in Brussels.