 Farr and McCarthy stated that Tintin in the Congo was the most popular Tintin adventure in Francophone Africa . According to Thompson , the book remained hugely popular in the Congo even after the country achieved independence in 1960 . Nevertheless , government figures in the Democratic Republic of the Congo ( DRC ) have criticised the book . In 2004 , after the Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs Karel De Gucht described President Joseph Kabila 's provisional DRC government as incompetent , Congolese Information Minister Henri Mova Sakanyi accused him of " racism and nostalgia for colonialism " , remarking that it was like " Tintin in the Congo all over again . " De Gucht refused to retract his statement . 
