A Congolese student has launched legal action in Belgium to have the comic book “Tintin in the Congo” declared racist and removed from bookstores.

The book portrays Africans as stereotypical black characters and shows whites as their colonial masters.

“I want to put an end to sales of this cartoon book in shops, both for children and for adults. It’s racist and it is filled with colonial-era propaganda,” said Mbutu Mondondo Bienvenu, who lives in Brussels.

Bienvenu is also seeking symbolic damages of one euro ($1.38) from Moulinsart, the publisher that owns the rights to Tintin.

A call by Britain’s Commission for Racial Equality earlier this year for bookstores to remove the Tintin edition from their shelves prompted one chain to move the book from its children’s section to the shelves for adult graphic stories.

Sales of Tintin In The Congo subsequently soared following protests over 3800 percent. The book, which first appeared in Belgian newspaper Le Vingtieme Siecle as a comic strip in 1930-1931, is part of the series “The Adventures of Tintin” by the Belgian author and illustrator Herge.

In May, the centenary of the birth of Herge – real name Georges Remi – was marked with a set of stamps, a 20-euro coin and an exhibition in honour of the ageless reporter – one of the country’s most famous exports.