that boy, those tigers

RpH #7

that boy, those tigers

What we see is what we know. First impressions are the engine of romance and mystery, and some history too. Just try to undo your first impression of an historical figure. Because of our first impressions, we recoil when we find out that Jefferson had a black bed slave and that FDR knew about the death camps and did nothing. I fell in love with Thomas More when I was 13 because he was Paul Scofield, with that perfect ruined face and endless voice. When I finally read More, I found a narrow minded pedant who didn’t want me to read the Gospels because he thought I wouldn’t understand them correctly.

In the realm of children’s picture books, image is everything and every picture tells a story. Pictures give us Madeline and Curious George and Gold Bug and everything else. In Goodnight Gorilla, Peggy Rathman tells us the entire story in pictures and the story is complete. But what happens when a great story is ruined by really bad pictures? I speak of The Story of Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman, first published in 1899, the boy and the tigers.

Little Black Sambo, the very words make us cringe. The pictures from this book were used for at least 75 years to demean, denigrate and defame African Americans in particular and Africans in general. This is because the defamers didn’t spend the time to read the book. Point the first, Sambo is not from the mother continent of the human race, Africa, but from South India. The Imperial Brits, in their colonial madness, called anyone who could handle more than ten minutes in the full sun without suffering second degree burns a black. Point the second, Sambo, Mumbo and Jumbo are all smart. Mumbo runs a tight, thrifty household and she can handle the sudden appearance of a large amount of tiger ghee. Jumbo is so smart and hard working that he can afford to kit his son out in the latest style, that perfect green umbrella, those perfect red slippers and all the rest. Jumbo is also very resourceful, always traveling with great copper pots, ideal to collect anything of value that might come along, including tiger ghee. And then there is Sambo his own self.

There he is, walking down the road in the finery that his mother’s thriftiness and his father’s acumen have produced. Sambo is fearless and quick of wit. He loves the beautiful things he’s been given but he knows what matters—he has to come home alive. So he bribes the truly deadly and really stupid tigers and gets home with his skin intact. Jumbo collects the ghee, Mumbo cooks the pancakes and both are very proud of their brilliant boy. So what is not to like in this story? THE PICTURES.

The original pictures are dreadful, racist and badly drawn. How dow do we tease this good story away from really bad pictures? Simple, make new pictures. In 2007 an edition of Bannerman’s story was published with new illustrations and it made all the difference. Set in South India, Christopher Bing paints a beautiful and lush landscape to aid the rebirth of Bannerman’s words. Jumbo is tall and handsome and Mumbo is resplendent in a sari of orange and red. Sambo is a good looking boy with the sly eyes of trickster who can outwit tigers. Change the pictures and you can regain the story; all it takes is a new look through new eyes. Bing’s gorgeous illustrations of Bannerman’s story resurrects it for new readers. The first impression will change and someday, no one will remember that Sambo was a terrible insult. They will just think of a terrific story about a very smart boy and some very vain tigers.