Tundraco's Daily Living Guide to Book Reviews
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Tundraco's Daily Living Guide to Book Reviews |
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The Story of Little Black Sambo By Helen Bannerman HarperCollins (1923), 64 pages ISBN 10: 0397300069 ISBN 13: 978-0397300068 |
Reviewed by Israel Drazin - December 24, 2009
Imagine working hard writing a book and seeing it become an international best seller. Then, imagine that many years after you wrote it, you hear that it is criticized because of the name you chose for your main character, a name that had no bad connotation in England where you wrote your book. Imagine your shock, confusion, anguish, disappointment, and your feeling of being victimized. This happened to Helen Bannerman, who published her popular tale in 1899, one hundred and ten years ago.
The problem wasn't that she used the adjective "black." Bannerman placed the word in other books, such as The Story of Little Black Quibla, The Story of Little Black Quasha, and The Story of Little Black Bobtail. She also used the adjective "white" in The Story of Little White Squibba. No one complained about these books.
The problem wasn't that the characters were bad. There was Little Black Sambo, his mother Black Mumbo and his father Black Jumbo. Sambo's loving parents gave him a red coat, blue trousers, a green umbrella and purple shoes. No one was unhappy about the colors. True, the four tigers in the story were bad, but no one objected to reading about them. It was fun, especially for children. The problem also wasn't that she wrote about an American black child. Sambo lived in India.
Controversy arose because Bannerman called the boy Sambo.
During the American slave period, the name Sambo described a slave who was docile, child-like, irresponsible, lazy, and who lied and stole. After the slaves were freed, Sambo became a stereotype slur in the foul mouth of bigots who wanted to smear a black or the entire race.
But the story itself, the characters, plot, and the language of the tale had absolutely nothing to do with American blacks. Furthermore, Sambo and his parents, the only humans in the tale, are not depicted in a way that belittles their race.
The story is fit for children. It tells about an Indian boy whose parents gave him four items of clothes. Sambo was proud of his gifts, but gave them up to four hungry tigers, who attacked him on four separate occasions, who agreed not to eat him if he surrendered his clothing.
Rather than depicting Sambo as a lazy foolish child, the story shows how clever he was to save his life by persuading the dumb tigers to take the clothing instead of his life. The story ends by showing what happened to the tigers and how Sambo got his clothes back.
In short, the story is an exciting tale for children. It is an unfortunate and understandable shame that the history of our country made people sensitive to the hero's name.
Dr. Israel Drazin is the author of fifteen books, including a series of five volumes on the Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Bible, which he co-authors with Rabbi Dr. Stanley M. Wagner, and a series of four books on the twelfth century philosopher Moses Maimonides, the latest being Maimonides: Reason Above All, published by Gefen Publishing House, www.israelbooks.com.
