Belgian Court Rejects Racist Claim Against Tintin Au Congo

The long-running court case against the Tintin book Tintin Au Congo for its depiction of the Congolese moved onto its next phase late Friday when the Belgian court of first instance ruled that the book did not violate racism laws. The key seemed to be the issue of intent, that the frequently maligned book was not created as a way to incite racial hatred. The book was serialized in the early 1930s, collected in the mid-'40s but not released in English until the early 1990s. Complainant Mbutu Mondondo Bienvenu plans to appeal.

One thing I didn't know about until I read the CBLDF brief on the matter is that the book is apparently also criticized at times for its treatment of animals, and in fact was altered at one point in terms of excising a scene where an animal is killed in spectacular fashion. I think one fascinating aspect of the entire case isn't so much the debate over whether or not laws should keep works off of shelves or attach certain requirements as to how they're presented, or even the issue of intent and how it might be argued that a lot of racist work isn't intended to incite racial hatred but profit from same, but the strength with which some advocates of the comics have denied the charges in a way that could be said to suggest it's some sort of made-up, spiteful act to claim there's anything racist about the work at all. It would be interesting to track how the two areas of criticism are treated, and by whom.

You can read a bunch of comments from Guardian readers here.
 
posted 4:10 am PST | Permalink
 

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