The Story of Little Black Sambo is a children's book written and illustrated
by Helen Bannerman, and first published by Grant Richards in October 1899 as one
in a series of small-format books called The Dumpy Books for Children. The story
was a children's favorite for more than half a century though criticism began as
early as 1932. The word sambo was deemed a racial slur in some countries and the
illustrations considered reminiscent of "darky iconography". Both text and
illustrations have undergone considerable revision since.
Plot Sambo is a South Indian boy who lives
with his father and mother, named Black Jumbo and Black Mumbo, respectively.
Sambo encounters four hungry tigers, and surrenders his colourful new clothes,
shoes, and umbrella so they will not eat him. The tigers are vain and each thinks
he is better dressed than the others. They chase each other around a tree
until they are reduced to a pool of melted butter. Sambo then recovers his
clothes and his mother, Black Mumbo, makes pancakes out of the butter.
Controversy The book has a controversial history.
The original illustrations by Bannerman showed a caricatured Southern Indian or
Tamil child. The story may have contributed to the use of the word
"sambo" as a racial slur. The book's success led to many pirated,
inexpensive, widely available versions that incorporated popular stereotypes of
"black" peoples. For example, in 1908 John R. Neill, best known for his
illustration of the Oz books by L. Frank Baum, illustrated an edition of
Bannerman's story. In 1932 Langston Hughes criticised Little Black Sambo as
a typical "pickaninny" storybook which was hurtful to black children, and
gradually the book disappeared from lists of recommended stories for
children. In 1942, Saalfield Publishing Company
released a version of Little Black Sambo illustrated by Ethel Hays. During the
mid-20th century, however, some American editions of the story, including a 1950
audio version on Peter Pan Records, changed the title to the racially
neutral Little Brave Sambo. The book is beloved in Japan and is not
considered controversial there, but it was subject to piracy. Little Black
Sambo was first published in Japan by Iwanami Shoten Publishing in 1953. The
book was a pirated version of the original, and it contained drawings by
Frank Dobias that had appeared in a US edition published by Macmillan
Publishers in 1927. Sambo was illustrated as an African boy rather
than as an Indian boy. Although it did not contain Bannerman's original
illustrations, the pirated book was long mistaken for the original version in
Japan. It sold over 1,000,000 copies before it was pulled off the shelves in
1988 after copyright issues were raised. When the copyright expired, Kodansha and
Shogakukan, the two largest publishers in Japan, published official editions.
These are still in print. As of August 2011, an equally
uncontroversial "side story" for Little Black Sambo, called Ufu and Mufu, is
being sold and merchandised in Japan. Modern versions
In 1996, noted illustrator Fred Marcellino observed that the story
itself contained no racist overtones and produced a re-illustrated version, The
Story of Little Babaji, which changes the characters' names but otherwise
leaves the text unmodified. Julius Lester, in his Sam and the
Tigers, also published in 1996, recast "Sam" as a hero of the mythical
Sam-sam-sa-mara, where all the characters were named "Sam".
A modern printing with the original title, in 2003, substituted more
racially sensitive illustrations by Christopher Bing, in which, for example,
Sambo is no longer so inky black. It was chosen for the Kirkus 2003 Editor's
Choice list. Some critics were still unsatisfied. Dr Alvin F. Poussaint said
of the 2003 publication: "I don't see how I can get past the title and what it
means. It would be like ... trying to do 'Little Black Darky' and saying, 'As
long as I fix up the character so he doesn't look like a darky on the
plantation, it's OK.'" In 1997, a Japanese retelling of the
story, Chibikuro Sampo, replaced the protagonist with a black Labrador puppy
that goes for a stroll in the jungle. It was published by Mori Marimo from
Kitaooji Shobo Publishing in Kyoto. This publication was denounced by a 3-person
organization calling itself "The Association To Stop Racism Against
Blacks", which consisted of a woman, her husband, and their 10-year-old son.
Kitaooji Shobo refused to stop the publication.
Bannerman's original was first published with a translation of Masahisa Nadamoto
by Komichi Shobo Publishing, Tokyo, in 1999.
In 2004, a Little Golden Book version was published, The Boy and the Tigers,
with new names and illustrations by Valeria Petrone. The boy is called
Little Rajani. The Iwanami version, with its
controversial Dobias illustrations and without the proper copyright, was
re-released in April 2005 in Japan by a Tokyo-based publisher Zuiunsya, because
Iwanami's copyright expired after fifty years of its first appearance.
Sam from Little Black Sambo appears in Jack of Fables Volume 1: The Great
Escape. He is a prisoner of Golden Burroughs, a prison for Fables.
The band R.E.M. referenced the story of Little Black Sambo in the 1986 song
"Begin the Begin": "On Zenith, on the TV, tiger run around the tree. Follow
the leader, run and turn into butter." It was retold as "Little Kim" in a
storybook and cassette as part of the Once Upon a Time Fairy Tale Series where
Sambo is called "Kim", his father Jumbo is "Tim" and his mother Mumbo is "Sim".
Adaptations A board game was produced in 1924 and
re-issued in 1945, with different artwork. Essentially the game followed
the storyline, starting and ending at home.
An animated version of the story was produced in 1935 as part of Ub Iwerks'
ComiColor series. Little Black Sambo appeared again in Bugs Bunny's cartoon
All this and Rabbit Stew. In 1961, HMV Junior Record Club issued a
dramatized version - words by David Croft, music by Cyril Ornadel - with
Susan Hampshire in the title role and narrated by Ray Ellington.
Restaurant A popular U.S. restaurant chain of the
1960s and 1970s, Sambo's, borrowed characters from the book for promotional
purposes, although the Sambo name was originally a combination of the
founders' names and nicknames: Sam and Bo. Nonetheless, the controversy about
the book led to accusations of racism that contributed to the 1,117-restaurant
chain's demise in the early 1980s. Images inspired by the book were common
interior decorations in the restaurants. Though portions of the original chain
were renamed No Place Like Sam's to try to forestall closure, all but the
original restaurants in Santa Barbara, California, had closed by 1983. The
original location still exists in Santa Barbara under the name Sambo's.
See also List of banned books
Zambo, a term used in the Spanish colonial caste system to denote a person
with both African and Amerindian ancestry.
Ethnic issues in Japan Murzynek Bambo - Little black Bambo by
Polish writer Julian Tuwim References
Further reading Barbara Bader. "Sambo, Babaji, and Sam",
The Horn Book Magazine. September–October 1996, vol. 72, no. 5,
p. 536. Phyllis Settecase Barton. Pictus Orbis
Sambo: A Publishing History, Checklist and Price Guide for The Story of Little
Black Sambo Centennial Collector's Guide. Pictus Orbis Press, Sun City, CA.
Dashini Jeyathuray. "The complicated racial politics of Little Black Sambo",
South Asian American Digital Archive. April 5, 2012:
Kazuo Mori. "A Comparison of Amusingness for Japanese Children and Senior
Citizens of The Story of Little Black Sambo in the Traditional Version and
Nonracist Version." Social Behavior and Personality, Vol. 33, pp. 455–466.
External links Media related to Little Black Sambo at
Wikimedia Commons The Story of Little Black Sambo at
Internet Archive. The Story of Little Black Sambo at
Internet Archive.