The Four Color Media Monitor

NDTV and AFP reported that the 2nd Tintin story from 1931, set in the Congo Republic, has been altered in some way or other for the sake of wokeness:

There has been a mixed response from anti-racism groups over a newly modified version of the Tintin comic books, after it was widely criticised over its colonialist depiction of Africans.

[...] In the comic Tintin, an intrepid reporter, travels to Belgian Congo to report on events there leading to encounters with native people, wild animals and an American diamond-smuggling gangster.

Over recent decades, the comic strip has become increasingly controversial, with critics pointing to its racist and colonialist treatment of the local population.

The new edition, launched in November together with two other books in the Tintin series, carries a preface explaining the colonial context of the time.

It also contains tweaks to the story. At one point, Tintin teaches an African child mathematics, whereas in the original he teaches the child that its home nation is Belgium.

The cover was also changed from the original, showing Tintin facing off against a lion, whereas before he was sitting with a black child.

"This volume goes back to a time, that is thankfully over, where it was acceptable to consider blacks as inferior," said Patrick Lozes, founder of CRAN, a federation of anti-racism associations.

He welcomed the addition of the preface, which he said went "in the right direction".

Seriously, what good does it do to change any of the dialogue, or even the cover illustration? (The editions I saw years before seemed to depict Tintin riding in a car with a black man, something this item doesn't make clear.) If the story is little more than a rotten apple, wouldn't it be better to just stop buying and reading it, and let it fall out of print, into obscurity? I just don't see how it's helping to make these alterations, if that's what happened, and not too long after what was announced for Roald Dahl's books, not to mention the original James Bond novels. But for anybody who's wondering if anti-Americanism could've made its way into George Remy's scripts, this certainly does provide a clue, and I also recall reading a minor franchise of Herge's "The Adventures of Jo, Zette and Jocko", which had an American as a villain too in one of the 5 entries. Somehow, the notion of making an American character an organized crime member seems expected, despite how organized crime wasn't limited to just the USA, nor was diamond smuggling.

The preface, written by Philippe Goddin -- head of the Friends of Herge association -- is mostly concerned with defending the record of Tintin's creator in terms of racism.

"He defended himself vigorously against that charge," he wrote. "He happily mocked everybody, whites and blacks."

In an interview with AFP Goddin said "there is a thin line between caricature and racism, he did not cross that line".

Pascal Blanchard, a historian of colonialist propaganda, said he was "surprised" that the publishers did not make a special announcement of the changes, and that the new preface was not mentioned on the cover.

He called the preface "highly debatable".

Claims that Herge's work had simply been a reflection of his time were "facile and false", he said.

Herge himself admitted in 1975 that all he knew about the Belgian Congo was "what people talked about" at the time, saying: "I drew Africans in the pure spirit of paternalism that was prevalent back then."

What's more troubling is that in this case - one proving even non-English creations aren't immune to potential censorship and bowdlerization - any changes went unannounced, without public comment in Belgium. It's okay to add a special preface, but not okay to do something worse than banning the book. Yet that's what appears to be the case here, and now, we may be seeing an example in motion of censorship that was bound to come after a foreign language originating comic, no matter what one thinks of it in retrospect. I may not care for Tintin today like I used to in childhood, and I do think it's dismaying Herge wasn't so well informed. But bowdlerization isn't the answer, and only leads to a lot of aggravating, divisive grappling over whether one should be supporting such directions.

Labels: Africa, censorship issues, comic strips, Europe and Asia, history, misogyny and racism