Unecatef confuses Congo and DR Congo, uses Tintin image for Claude Le Roy and Omar Daf | OneFootball

France’s coaches’ union, Unecatef, posted on 12 June to congratulate Claude Le Roy and Omar Daf on taking charge of DR Congo, then echoed Tintin au Congo imagery in the same message.

L'Équipe reports that the pair have actually been appointed by Congo-Brazzaville, not the Democratic Republic of Congo, who are at the World Cup and face England in the last 32 on Wednesday at 18:00.

The union’s artwork riffed on Hergé’s 1931 album. Le Roy is shown driving the car in Tintin’s place, with Daf in the passenger seat where the cartoonist drew a Congolese child in a caricatured manner.

Scholars have long flagged this kind of imagery in Hergé’s work. Marc Angenot has described a recurring xenophobic imaginary used as a source of comic effect in depictions from that era.

The comic was reissued in 2023 with a cover showing Tintin facing a lion and a new preface intended to set the work in its historical context.

In that preface, Philippe Godin, president of Les Amis de Hergé, rejected accusations of racism. Historian Pascal Blanchard called the preface contestable, arguing that Hergé chose to ignore sources detailing the violence of colonisation.

Source: L'Équipe