The Commission for Racial Equality said yesterday it was unacceptable for any shop to stock or sell the 1930s cartoon adventure of the Belgian boy journalist because of its crude racial stereotypes.

The book, which includes a scene where Tintin is made chief of an African village because he is a "good white man" and a black woman bowing to Tintin saying: "White man very great ... white mister is big juju man!" was highly offensive, a spokeswoman from the commission said.

"This book contains imagery and words of hideous racial prejudice, where the 'savage natives' look like monkeys and talk like imbeciles," she said.

"How and why do Borders think that it's OK to peddle such racist material? This is potentially highly offensive to a great number of people."

She added that the only place the book was acceptable was in a museum - with a sign accompanying it saying "old-fashioned, racist claptrap".

The commission was made aware that the chain stocked the book after a customer, David Enright, a solicitor, found it in the children's section of a London branch. "I was aghast to see page after page of representations of black African people as baboons or monkeys, bowing before a white teenager and speaking like retarded children," he wrote.

A spokesman for Borders confirmed the book would be moved to the adult section but it would not be withdrawn, adding that the company stood by its commitment to let customers make the choice. Waterstone's said it would not censor the book but is considering moving it from the children's section. The book's publisher, Egmont, released a colour edition in Britain two years ago, which included a foreword noting the colonial attitudes prevalent when it was written.