Tintin facing racism challenges in Belgium by Ioana Madalina Tantareanu

Legal action has been taken by a Congolese student against comic book "Tintin in the Congo", which he considers to be racist. Mbutu Mondondo Bienvenu, from Brussels wishes the comic book that portrays Africans as stereotypical black characters and whites as they're colonial masters, to be removed from bookstores and seeks symbolic damages of one euro from Moulinsart, the publisher of Tintin. "I want to put an end to sales of this cartoon book in shops, both for children and for adults. It's racist and it is filled with colonial-era propaganda", said Bienvenu. Not only that Moulinsart was only aware of this action through media, they added that they are not in the position to remove the books from the shelves, as they only hold Tintin rights and did not publish the novels themselves. Prosecutors declared a motion being filled at the beginning of August, but it's not probable that the case be examined before September. Britain's Commission for Racial Equality has taken some action ths year by moving the book from children's shelves to adult's shelves, with sales of the book subsequently shot up. "The book dates back to 1931 and has to be seen in the context of the time. We are surprised to see this complaint after so many years. Look at John Wayne films and there are Indians being killed. But I'm not aware of calls to withdraw these movies", a spokesman for Moulinsart declared.

by Ioana Madalina Tantareanu for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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