Arjan Boltjes reviewed Kuifje in Afrika by Hergé (De avonturen van Kuifje, #1)
Little to like
2 stars
This is awfully poor in so many ways. Even for a comic from the 1930ies - the argument used by Hergé and his publisher - the depiction of black people is nothing less than a racist caricature; how they look, how they behave, how they talk. There is a monkey in the book that actually speaks fluently, in contrast to the Congolese in the book. Additionally, Tintin (or Kuifje in this Dutch version) acts superior like the paternalistic white person that he apparently is supposed to be. In the meantime shooting a whole score of wild animals. Besides these issues there is the following: the plot is extremely flimsy. There is hardly a story. And what is there is pretty poor storytelling. The main thing going for this book is the comic style that Hergé develops, determining European style comics.
Luckily, in later books, Tintin becomes a lot more likeable, …
This is awfully poor in so many ways. Even for a comic from the 1930ies - the argument used by Hergé and his publisher - the depiction of black people is nothing less than a racist caricature; how they look, how they behave, how they talk. There is a monkey in the book that actually speaks fluently, in contrast to the Congolese in the book. Additionally, Tintin (or Kuifje in this Dutch version) acts superior like the paternalistic white person that he apparently is supposed to be. In the meantime shooting a whole score of wild animals. Besides these issues there is the following: the plot is extremely flimsy. There is hardly a story. And what is there is pretty poor storytelling. The main thing going for this book is the comic style that Hergé develops, determining European style comics.
Luckily, in later books, Tintin becomes a lot more likeable, the depiction of non-whites less stereotypic, and the stories a lot better. This book however, hardly worth the read.