As Kinshasa prepares for next month's Francophonie summit when thousands of visitors from French-speaking countries will descend on the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, craftsmen in the city have begun building up their stock of Tintin memorabilia. The country was immortalised for many comic readers in one of Belgian writer Herge's earliest titles - Tintin in the Congo.

However the book, written in 1931, is now controversial because of its crude racial stereotypes. Earlier this year, a court in Belgium rejected an application to ban the title for allegedly breaching racism laws.

Auguy Kakese (pictured), an artisan who has made a career out of carving thousands of Tintin souvenirs for tourists, sees no harm in the book. "It's humour, it's not racist... for those who say it's racist I say that in the comic strip, you never see images which show him trying to kill the Congolese," he told Reuters news agency.

The book tells of the young reporter’s escapades in the former Belgian colony and includes encounters with diamond smugglers, big game hunters and wild animals. Herge – whose real name was George Remi – later admitted embarrassment over some of the views his book expressed. One scene in the book - when Tintin gave a geography lesson to Congolese about Belgium - was later changed to a maths class.

“We were a Belgian colony - if we work with Tintin now, it's to say that the Belgians are still our brothers," Mr Kakese said at his Kinshasa workshop where he employs 10 people to make the wooden statues. Tintin is usually accompanied by his dog Snowy and his friend Captain Haddock. Other recurring characters include scientist Cuthbert Calculus, the clumsy detective duo Thomson and Thompson and the opera singer Bianca Castafiore.

The workshop produces thousands of Tintin statues, which are painted in bold colours. Most of the figurines are of the European characters, but Mr Kakese does not shy away from depicting the Africans as well.