Cultural Stereotyping in Tintin in the Congo

Hergé's Racial Self-Censorship of his 1930s Tintin Adventure

Aug 20, 2009

Hergé fixed racial stereotypes when he re-drew Tintin in the Congo. But the comic is still tinged with offensive material, and must be read keeping its period in mind.

Tintin in the Congo is the second book in the Adventures of Tintin series by the Belgian bandes-dessineés master Hergé (the pen name of Georges Remi). It was collected from a comics serial that ran in 1930 and 1931 in a children's supplement to the Brussels newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle.

The original, black-and-white edition of Tintin in the Congo did not age well, suffused as it was with racism and colonial condescension. Hergé himself later realized that he had promoted cultural stereotypes in the comic, and when he re-drew a color version in 1946, he altered many graphic details to be less offensive. However, this early Tintin work remains highly controversial.

Tintin and his trusty dog Snowy travel to the Belgian Congo, still a colony in the 1930s, to report for Tintin's newspaper. Already famous for visiting the Soviet Union in his first adventure, Tintin is warmly received by the Congolese. But a mysterious stowaway plots to kill Tintin as he tours the country and goes big-game hunting.

Eventually, Tintin discovers that he's been targeted by Al Capone, who, in a rather far-fetched plot, needs to get rid of the famous reporter before he can take over the lucrative Congolese diamond mines. Once Tintin and Snowy hand over Capone's henchmen to the authorities, they return to Belgium, leaving the natives celebrating Tintin's visit.

The original version of Tintin in the Congo depicts the Congolese as simpletons who speak a crude patois, and dress more like slaves in the antebellum southern United States than twentieth-century Africans.

When Tintin visits a local village, for instance, the villagers soon make him chief, and Tintin heals their sick and solves their petty problems. "White master very fair," says one man to another after Tintin arbitrates their dispute over a hat.

Colonial attitudes of the period are also quite obvious in Tintin in the Congo. Later in the story, Tintin meets a Christian missionary, who invites the illustrious Tintin to teach the native children about geography. Tintin gets up to the front of the class and proclaims, "My dear friends, today I'm going to talk to you about your country: Belgium!"

In 1946, Tintin in the Congo was re-issued in a new, full-color version. But Hergé didn't simply color in his original black and white drawings; he re-drew the story to match his mature style.

Hergé's self-censorship toned down some of the more offensive cultural stereotypes – the Congolese speak better French and don't have quite the same grossly exaggerated features. This time, when Tintin teaches the schoolchildren, he sticks to mathematics.

Yet Tintin in the Congo remained rife with what is now seen as political incorrectness. Animal lovers beware: Tintin shoots elephants for ivory, kills a monkey to make a monkey disguise, and, in one gag, slaughters fifteen antelopes by accident. And the cultural stereotypes, even in the full-color version, are still controversial – Tintin in the Congo was recently banned by the Brooklyn Public Library for being racist.

Despite Hergé's efforts to remove cultural stereotypes, Tintin in the Congo has numerous subtexts that can be offensive to modern sensibilities. But since Hergé's original comic is eighty years old, it must be read with an understanding of its different times in mind, and it is to Hergé's credit that his storytelling changed over time.

The copyright of the article Cultural Stereotyping in Tintin in the Congo in Classic Comics is owned by Luke Arnott. Permission to republish Cultural Stereotyping in Tintin in the Congo in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.