Zulu 8

There was a copy of "Tintin in the Land of Black Gold" (1950) at my grandfather's house in Ahmedabad. I remember always being struck by this panel. Herge was certainly Euro-Paternalist, but nonetheless demonstrated worldiness through researched illustration. Around 1971, the publisher Methuen commissioned calligraphers to re-draw the made-up Arabic he drew in this book, and others, into readable words. In the book, I show this panel, with Tintin's hands holding a letter which I erased to blankness.