Talk:Sambo

Yes, Sambo was the original name, but it is important (or useful?) to remember that the original Sambo was Indian. The Babaji is, I think, a fairly recent edition. Bannerman's Sambo and the American Sambo were independent. --MichaelTinkler.

In the original Bannerman book, the setting was clearly India, but the illustrations of the boy were pretty clearly African, not Indian. It is quite likely that the Scottish author simply didn't know the difference or didn't care. American readers clearly assumed that the boy was African (they too were probably ignorant of the distinction), and the book published here was Bannerman's original with the same illustrations. "Babaji" is indeed very recent. --LDC

---

The original illustrations were done by the author, who had lived in India for ten years prior to creating her book. It is hardly likely that her pictures depicted Africans rather than Indians. - HWR

Maybe someone who knows clothing styles can settle the issue...are the later Sambo illustrations (1960s or 1970s) drawings of an Indian or an African boy? - firepink

---

Well, the Bannerman illustrations are just bad -- not racially, but clearly the work of someone not used to portraying non-whites. I honestly think they look like lower-caste Indians, but they are vague enough to be misinterpreted as African. The text is clear that this took place in India, though, and identifies the melted butter as ghi or ghee -- something indeed Indian. The version I had when I was a kid (possibly a little golden book) clearly showed them as Indian -- Black Jumbo (and yes, I do cringe at the names!)wore a turban, IIRC, and Black Mumbo something pink and flowing, although I am not sure if it was a sari or something of the trouser variety. Their skin was a golden brown.

I think the seriously stereotypical version was one that came out in the 1940s -- Sambo is a nappy headed (not in the British sense, but in the Stevie Wonder sense) little African child.

Strangely, the parts about the story that stuck with me were the picture of the butter around the base of the tree the one of the very handsome tiger wearing the shoes with crimson soles and crimson linings on his ears... JHK

---

I deleted the note that Bannerman's story is banned because it needs more details. Who banned it where? Tuf-Kat