The Story of Little Black Sambo - Modern Versions

Modern Versions

In 1996, noted illustrator Fred Marcellino observed that the story itself contained no racist overtones and produced a re-illustrated version, The Story of Little Babaji, which changes the characters' names but otherwise leaves the text unmodified. This version was a best-seller.

Julius Lester, in his Sam and the Tigers, also published in 1996, recast "Sam" as a hero of the mythical Sam-sam-sa-mara, where all the characters were named "Sam."

A modern printing with the original title, in 2003, substituted more racially sensitive illustrations by Christopher Bing, in which, for example, Sambo is no longer so inky black. It was chosen for the Kirkus 2003 Editor's Choice list. Some critics were still unsatisfied. Dr Alvin F. Poussaint said of the 2003 publication:

"I don’t see how I can get past the title and what it means. It would be like . . . trying to do 'Little Black Darky' and saying, 'As long as I fix up the character so he doesn't look like a darky on the plantation, it's OK.'"

In 1997, a Japanese retelling of the story, Chibikuro Sampo ("sampo" means "taking a walk" in Japanese, "Chibi" means "shorty" and "kuro" means black), replaced the protagonist with a black Labrador puppy that goes for a stroll in the jungle. It was published by Mori Marimo from Kitaooji Shobo Publishing in Kyoto.

Bannerman's original was first published with a translation of Masahisa Nadamoto by Komichi Shobo Publishing, Tokyo, in 1999.

In 2004, a Little Golden Book version was published, The Boy and the Tigers, with new names and illustrations by Valeria Petrone. The boy is called Little Rajani.

The Iwanami version, with its controversial Dobias's illustrations and without the proper copyright, was re-released in April 2005 in Japan by a Tokyo based publisher Zuiunsya, because Iwanami's copyright expired after fifty years of its first appearance.

Sam from Little Black Sambo appears in Jack of Fables Volume 1: The (Nearly) Great Escape. He is a prisoner of Golden Burroughs, a prison for Fables.

The band REM referenced the story of Little Black Sambo in the 1986 song "Begin the Begin:" "On Zenith, on the TV, tiger run around the tree. Follow the leader, run and turn into butter."

It was retold as "Little Kim" in a storybook and cassette as part of the Once Upon a Time Fairy Tale Series where Sambo is called "Kim", his father Jumbo is "Tim" and his mother Mumbo is "Sim."

Sambo appears as 'Sam' in the Graphic Novel series "Fables (Legends in Exile)" in the "Jack of Fables" spin-off.