The editor of “Tintin au Congo” favors a contextualization of the work

MP raises debate

Brussels deputy Kalvin Soiresse Njall was surprised, on the RTBF TV news program on Saturday, that “Tintin in the Congo” has not reappeared in the news for the past few weeks. The Togolese-born parliamentarian is not asking to delete the album, which would be “counterproductive”, “but it is absolutely necessary to contextualize it inside”. “We do not understand that in the Nordic countries and the Anglo-Saxon countries Moulinsart (the company managing the rights to Hergé’s work, Editor’s note) accept this” and not in Belgium, he stressed.

The deputy, founder of the collective Mémoire coloniale, believes that this can be done for example by asking a designer to draw “a warning drawing with a small text” at the beginning of the comic strip.

Mr. Soiresse had already launched a similar appeal over a year ago when he was invited by … Moulinsart to a debate on the sidelines of the release of a recolorized digital version of “Tintin in Congo”.

Shared rights

The house of Casterman, which publishes the albums of the famous reporter, is not opposed to such an approach. Director Simon Casterman already said at the end of 2018, a few weeks before the release of the recolorized version, that Casterman was in favor of adding a note of context for this album. He specified however that “the addition of a note or a preface of this nature affects the moral rights of the author. In this case, such an addition does not therefore fall solely under the prerogatives of Casterman, but also also that of Mrs Rodwell (Fanny Rodwell-Vlamynck, second wife of Hergé, Editor’s note) in her capacity as beneficiary of Hergé , who is opposed to it ”.

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