Bigoted Tintin can still teach children a thing or two

This article was published in The Sydney Morning Herald 9 May 2010

The old comic series is racist, but that doesn't mean it should be banned.

A court in Belgium last week began hearing a case to decide whether Congolese man Bienvenu Mbutu Mondondo should succeed in having the comic book Tintin in the Congo banned on the grounds that it contains ''racist and xenophobic words which are designed to convey the idea that the black man is inferior''. In the book, Africans are depicted with ogling eyes and enormous lips. They appoint Tintin their chief, saying: ''White man very great … white mister is big juju man!'' And later they make totems of him.

Put away the dictionary. This is racist, plain and simple. The author Georges Remi (or Herge, as he is better known) created the comic strip in early 1930s at the age of just 23 as a piece of propaganda for his native Belgium's colonial project. Mondondo is right. But it does not follow that he should prevail in having the book banned.