Preface
As a young man I happened to find myself working as an editorial assistant at the sleepy old children's book publisher, Platt & Munk Company, best known to the world as publisher's of the classic edition of "The Little Engine That Could" story. When I arrived they were in the middle of finishing for the press a re-release of a number of their backlist titles in a new paperback picturebook format which was the "new thing" in children's book publishing in the late 1970's (Think Berenstain Bears.)
Included in the series was a revised edition of "The Story of Little Black Sambo." It was explained to me by the editor that the story, despite its recent racist associations, was really the story of a black Indian child, not a black African. Of course, the history of the British Raj in India is replete with subtle and not so subtle at all problems of racism as well, but the effort was being made to disconnect from the specifically black African racism "problems" the story had developed, and try and get some continued mileage out of its classic charm as a favorite story for children. In order to do this, the very lovely illustrations from the 30's or 40's by Platt & Munk illustrators Eulalie -- which were the real intellectual property being exploited here, the story itself being in the public domain by this point -- were being updated to overlay Indian sarongs on his parents and subtly tweak facial features to reinforce the Indian ethnicity.
At any rate, the story -- known to me since childhood fondly, which makes the racist associations painful -- continued to persist in my awareness, now with realization of its Indian origins. Gradually, a picture emerged of how this children's story can be seen to embody classic archetypes of spiritual initiation.
First, the story:
THE STORY OF LITTLE BLACK SAMBO
Once upon a time there was a little black boy, and his name was Little Black Sambo.
And his mother was called Black Mumbo.
And his father was called Black Jumbo.
And Black Mumbo made him a beautiful little Red Coat, and a pair of beautiful little blue trousers.
And Black Jumbo went to the Bazaar, and bought him a beautiful Green Umbrella, and a lovely little Pair of Purple Shoes with Crimson Soles and Crimson Linings.
And then wasn't Little Black Sambo grand?
So he put on all his Fine Clothes, and went out for a walk in the Jungle. And by and by he met a Tiger. And the Tiger said to him, "Little Black Sambo, I'm going to eat you up!" And Little Black Sambo said, "Oh! Please Mr. Tiger, don't eat me up, and I'll give you my beautiful little Red Coat." So the Tiger said, "Very well, I won't eat you this time, but you must give me your beautiful little Red Coat." So the Tiger got poor Little Black Sambo's beautiful little Red Coat, and went away saying, "Now I'm the grandest Tiger in the Jungle."
And Little Black Sambo went on, and by and by he met another Tiger, and it said to him, "Little Black Sambo, I'm going to eat you up!" And Little Black Sambo said, "Oh! Please Mr. Tiger, don't eat me up, and I'll give you my beautiful little Blue Trousers." So the Tiger said, "Very well, I won't eat you this time, but you must give me your beautiful little Blue Trousers." So the Tiger got poor Little Black Sambo's beautiful little Blue Trousers, and went away saying, "Now I'm the grandest Tiger in the Jungle."
And Little Black Sambo went on, and by and by he met another Tiger, and it said to him, "Little Black Sambo, I'm going to eat you up!" And Little Black Sambo said, "Oh! Please Mr. Tiger, don't eat me up, and I'll give you my beautiful little Purple Shoes with Crimson Soles and Crimson Linings."
But the Tiger said, "What use would your shoes be to me? I've got four feet, and you've got only two; you haven't got enough shoes for me."
But Little Black Sambo said, "You could wear them on your ears."
"So I could," said the Tiger: "that's a very good idea. Give them to me, and I won't eat you this time."
So the Tiger got poor Little Black Sambo's beautiful little Purple Shoes with Crimson Soles and Crimson Linings, and went away saying, "Now I'm the grandest Tiger in the Jungle."
And by and by Little Black Sambo met another Tiger, and it said to him, "Little Black Sambo, I'm going to eat you up!" And Little Black Sambo said, "Oh! Please Mr. Tiger, don't eat me up, and I'll give you my beautiful Green Umbrella." But the Tiger said, "How can I carry an umbrella, when I need all my paws for walking with?"
"You could tie a knot on your tail and carry it that way," said Little Black Sambo. "So I could," said the Tiger. "Give it to me, and I won't eat you this time." So he got poor Little Black Sambo's beautiful Green Umbrella, and went away saying, "Now I'm the grandest Tiger in the Jungle."
And poor Little Black Sambo went away crying, because the cruel Tigers had taken all his fine clothes.
Presently he heard a horrible noise that sounded like "Gr-r-r-r-rrrrrr," and it got louder and louder. "Oh! dear!" said Little Black Sambo, "there are all the Tigers coming back to eat me up! What shall I do?" So he ran quickly to a palm-tree, and peeped round it to see what the matter was.
And there he saw all the Tigers fighting, and disputing which of them was the grandest. And at last they all got so angry that they jumped up and took off all the fine clothes, and began to tear each other with their claws, and bite each other with their great big white teeth.
And they came, rolling and tumbling right to the foot of the very tree where Little Black Sambo was hiding, but he jumped quickly in behind the umbrella. And the Tigers all caught hold of each other's tails, as they wrangled and scrambled, and so they found themselves in a ring round the tree.
Then, when the Tigers were very wee and very far away, Little Black Sambo jumped up, and called out, "Oh! Tigers! why have you taken off all your nice clothes? Don't you want them any more?" But the Tigers only answered, "Gr-r-rrrr!"
Then Little Black Sambo said, "If you want them, say so, or I'll take them away." But the Tigers would not let go of each other's tails, and so they could only say "Gr-r-r-rrrrrr!"
So Little Black Sambo put on all his fine clothes again and walked off.
And the Tigers were very, very angry, but still they would not let go of each other's tails. And they were so angry, that they ran round the tree, trying to eat each other up, and they ran faster and faster, till they were whirling round so fast that you couldn't see their legs at all.
And they still ran faster and faster and faster, till they all just melted away, and there was nothing left but a great big pool of melted butter (or "ghi," as it is called in India) round the foot of the tree.
Now Black Jumbo was just coming home from his work, with a great big brass pot in his arms, and when he saw what was left of all the Tigers he said, "Oh! what lovely melted butter! I'll take that home to Black Mumbo for her to cook with."
So he put it all into the great big brass pot, and took it home to Black Mumbo to cook with.
When Black Mumbo saw the melted butter, wasn't she pleased! "Now," said she, "we'll all have pancakes for supper!"
So she got flour and eggs and milk and sugar and butter, and she made a huge big plate of most lovely pancakes. And she fried them in the melted butter which the Tigers had made, and they were just as yellow and brown as little Tigers.
And then they all sat down to supper. And Black Mumbo ate Twenty-seven pancakes, and Black Jumbo ate Fifty-five but Little Black Sambo ate a Hundred and Sixty-nine, because he was so hungry.
Exegis
Little Black Sambo represents the primitive, child-like essence in all of us. For white westerners, his "blackness" further embodies the unknown, the unconscious nature of this self.
Its parent powers provide a covering in the form of four-fold clothing: a shirt, trousers, shoes, and an umbrella. These "clothes" can be seen to represent the layers of our personality, which covers our essence. In our pride, we strut forth into the world, "the jungle" -- and then encounter the terrorizing forces of our animal passions, our deep, uncontrollable urges. The forces usurp the child-like essence's possession of the personality, dismembering it piece by piece, leaving us forlorn and naked.
In the Bannerman story, the competing pride of the tigers causes them to fight amongst themselves and to chase each other in circles, each biting the tail of the other. They escalate in fury until, moving around and around the tree, they eventually "melt" into butter.
This image is powerfully resonant with two expressions of a fundamental esoteric idea: that of the circulation of passionate or sexual energy to transform poison into nectar. The symbol is found in alchemical works in the image of Ouroboros, the snake eating its own tail; or in the Hindu tale of the churning of the ocean of milk, Samudra Manthan, where the gods and asura together churned the ocean of milk into the nectar of immortality using the snake Vasuki as the churning rope. Rather than the Meru mountain of the Samudra Manthan, the tigers are circling a tree; both are symbols cognate with the human spine, through which the serpent power (Kundalini) is caused to circulate, transforming the energies of the soul into forces of higher consciousness.
In the Bannerman story, "ghee" or melted butter is all that remains after the circular chase of the tiger reaches its highest pitch. Sambo and his father collect this to feed the family (they use it to make pancakes); and Sambo recovers his clothing -- his personality -- and the terrifying, dismembering power of the tigers has been transformed.
The story fits together with remarkable integrity relative to the transformational imagery of initiation, and one can only marvel at the way in which this tale insinuated itself into the consciousness of countless children.
