On Beyond Tintin

This is a page from "Congo 50," a graphic novel produced by a group of Congolese artists to mark the nation's 50th anniversary.

You can read the first chapter here, plus get an insight into the purpose and process. I wish the pages had been done in a higher resolution or larger size, but I was able to read it on the site by clicking on the page and then selecting the larger view -- and then reading the translation at the right, which is slightly larger and clearer than the actual French on the comic itself.

The second downer is that I haven't been able to find a place the comic is actually available. I don't need an English version (which, at least so far, doesn't exist), since my French is good enough to muddle through without missing too much. But I can't find it for sale anywhere.

So here I am, featuring a comic you can barely read, as a sample of a book you can't buy. Way to go, huh?

But even working your way through this initial chapter is valuable, a mon avis, because it's an inside view of a situation, and a nation, that we only see from the outside. That's rare enough that it doesn't have to be perfect to be important.

There is a fallacy working in the world that says that the cultures and people of various countries, and certainly those of the various continents, are very different.

There is a counter-fallacy that says they are quite the same.

The truth is somewhere in the middle -- we each have unique qualities and perspectives, and yet there are universal lines running through all of us. And you can't see the interplay of these factors without immersing yourself in that other place.

The surprises come in the overthrow of assumptions: To read that these Congolese cartoonists are influenced by Hergé's line was almost shocking, given that the combination of the words "Hergé" and "Congo" bring, to the mind of a western comics buff, "Tintin in the Congo," the most controversial and racist of his books.

But, upon reflection, it would be even more surprising if the work of a major cartoonist, who was Belgian, had not been widely available in the Belgian Congo. And, after all, there were 22 other Tintin adventures plus a body of non-Tintin work by Hergé.

Ironically, another assumption that falls by the wayside comes simply from seeing that Africa has a dynamic cartooning establishment, which I label "ironic" because those of us who are so offended by colonialist stereotypes like those in "Tintin in the Congo" are still influenced by them, and tend to think of Africans as people squatting by the roadside with a blanket on which are spread a few shriveled fruits and vegetables they are hoping to sell, not as modern creative artists drawing incisive cartoons.

To read this comic and see a pair of middleclass parents discussing what school their children should attend is a challenge to those assumptions, while, to see their lives turned upside down by civil war confounds us yet again. War is, for them, no more an assumed fact than is the growing horror that Vladek Spiegelman deals with in Maus.

The great revelation of Maus was that all Jews in World War II were not cute little Dutch girls huddling in secret annexes. Nor did they all start out as human skeletons in striped suits.

It's not that those stories are false. But when you are presented with a larger view, the easier narrative of the helpless victims gives way to the story of people caught up in a situation that forces them to make decisions and choices, to act in this way or that. Which makes it real.

Africa's problems are real problems of real people. Sometimes that's not obvious from over here.

For instance, as some dissenters in Uganda have pointed out, the drawback of Kony 2012 is that it is based on getting Civilized People to rescue Poor Helpless Africans, as if flash mobs of middle class American kids could accomplish what years of effort by African governments and military could not.

For a less condescending view of Kony and that struggle, head over to Cartoon Movement, where they have been running Army of God, a graphic novel being created by David Axe and Tim Hamilton. And, on that page, don't miss the point-counterpoint with Axe and Brian Conley concerning Kony 2012.

Obviously, given that I led with "Congo 50" rather than this very good piece, I line up more with Conley, who advocates helping people not by trying to solve their problems but by helping them find their own voices.

If for no other reason than that I fear the day some object of my well-intentioned punditry will walk in, take a listen and say, "Man, that sure is the biggest load of rubbish I've ever heard in my life."

 

 

Comments

[Carol Jean Gallo]

Awesome post, thank you! (Great blog too, I love it.)

[Carol Jean Gallo]

... Please also do let us know if you find out where one can buy a hard copy of Congo 50. I'd also really like to get my hands on it.

[Carol Jean Gallo]

LOL. I just found a comment on the blog Africa is a Country, which says: "The book will soon be available via http://www.blacklabel.be In the meanwhile, you can order it directly through Africalia ([email protected])."

[Mike Peterson]

Unfortunately, that link didn't seem to actually provide a way to buy the book.