The Story of Little Black Sambo, a children's book by
Helen Bannerman, a
Scot living in
India, was first published in
London in 1899. In the tale, a boy named
Sambo outwits a group of hungry tigers; the little boy has to sacrifice his new red coat and his new blue trousers and his new purple shoes to four tigers, including one who wears his shoes on his ears, but Sambo outwits these predators and returns safely home, where he eats 169 pancakes for his supper. The story was a children's favorite for half a century, but then became
controversial in certain countries due to the use of the word
sambo. The children's story takes place in a
fairy tale India with
Caribbean elements, with the tigers racing around the tree eventually being turned into
ghee -- translated as "butter" -- and the humans eating inhuman quantities of
pancakes.
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