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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. |
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. |
Second adventure | |
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. |
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. |