Product Description

The young reporter Tintin and his faithful dog Snowy set off on assignment to Africa. But a sinister stowaway follows their every move and seems set on ensuring they come to a sticky end. Tintin and Snowy encounter witch doctors, hostile tribesmen, crocodiles, boa constrictors and numerous other wild animals before solving the mystery and getting their story. First published in book form in 1931 (in black & white only), Tintin in the Congo reflects the colonial attitudes of that period in its depiction of African people. Herge himself admitted that he was influenced by the bourgeois, paternalistic stereotypes of the period. This is also true of the treatment of big-game hunting and the attitude towards animals. All copies of the book will be displayed with a belly-band advertising its content.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8024 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 64 pages

Customer Reviews

Curiosity satisfied
As with a lot of people, I guess, I've bought this book as an adult after being a fan of the books as a child, and out of curiosity at the controversy surrounding it.

Looking at it from a modern perspective, I didn't feel particularly offended by the racism. The stereotypes portrayed are so out of date they become almost meaningless and you don't automatically interpret the negative assumptions. In fact, the arrogance and paternalism of Tintin is just absurd to modern eyes and makes Tintin look foolish and naive rather than the African people. If you've been taught anything about race issues you'll be able to put the story into context and you'll see the racism from the historical perspective rather than taking any inherent malice away from the book.

On the other hand, the attitude towards wildlife is probably more offensive today than it ever was at the time of writing. If Tintin's stance towards Africa's people didn't put you off him, then his lack of respect for its fauna probably will!

As other reviewers say, the story is fairly weak and the overall style is not a scratch on the later books. Still, it's a worthwhile investment for the older fan, satisfied the curiosity for the missing book and makes for an interesting study of the controversial issues. For children it's definitely not the book to start with, but, I don't think it requires the ban that we had to face, especially with the modifications Hergé himself made and the stereotypes it enforced, hopefully long gone.

Interesting, but not for the faint hearted.
Tintin in the Congo is a book for Tintin affecionados. Many of the "normal" readers won't even know that the book exists. It's not the best known of the Tintin books due to it's politically incorrect nature. There is no real story to the book, although it does set the scene in a vague way for Tintin in America, introducing the Al Capone story. It is a very early Tintin, and this I think is also a facsimile copy - from before herge recoloured the book. The background is a little boring, and you get the impression herge didn't like this book as much as some of the others. The facsimile is interesting if you have the newer version as you can see all the changes Herge made to make the book slightly more acceptable. It was the last of the Tintins to be translated into English and you can see why. All in all, a book for the Tintin fan, not necessarily the Tintin reader.

Provokes Thought Rather Than Outrage
The Tintin series starts and ends with different types of weakness. At the end of Herge's career the books are visually elaborate but lack the visual spontaneity that makes Herge's greatest albums so loved; on the other hand, at the beginning they are masterpieces of the comic-book serial form, but they are weaker in terms of plot. Until recently, the earliest of the adventures to be commonly available was Tintin In America, so there was a lot of interest among fans when first Tintin In The Land Of The Soviets and then Tintin In The Congo were republished.

Given the fall of Communism, the right-wing orientation of In The Land Of The Soviets attracts very little criticism now. In The Congo, however, plays on some readers' sensitivity to issues of colonialism, racism and animal welfare. To my mind, condemning this book on the third count is like saying that Jerry should be kinder to Tom. There is some merit to the accusation, though, that this book promotes ideas of colonial paternalism: the Congolese are treated sympathetically, but very much as gullible children. Also, they are drawn with curly hair and thick lips, which might itself be considered offensive in a comic strip drawn today.

Any responsible parent will want to flick through this book before handing it, or reading it, to his or her child, but while there are things here that should probably be explained by reference to their historical context, there is nothing here that I would personally regard as outrageous. Tintin does not mistreat the natives, and Herge's concern regarding the exploitation of indigenous peoples is clear from his depiction of Native Americans in Tintin In America (the next of the adventures to be published). Indeed, the book could play a valuable part in educating a child about how our views about Imperialism changed in the latter half of the Twentieth Century, but that lesson can only be taught to a child old enough to understand it.

This, then, is a secure purchase for those who enjoy Tintin. It's isn't a great entry point to the series: the best books for that are probably still The Crab With The Golden Claws and The Blue Lotus. Nevertheless, it is more than a historical curiosity.