Helen Bannerman

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Helen Bannerman (1862--1946) was the Scottish author of a number of children's books, the most famous being Little Black Sambo.

She was born in Edinburgh and, because women were not admitted as students into British Universities, she sat external examinations set by the University of St. Andrews and attained the qualification of LLA (Lady Literate in Arts). She lived for a good proportion of her life in India, where her husband was an officer in the Indian Medical Service.

The heroes of many of her books are recognisably south Indian or Tamil children from the illustrations. However, despite the plots having no really racist overtones and usually celebrating the intelligence and ingenuity of the children, the name Sambo has become a slur against people of colour and the books have often been banned or censored. As a result of this controversy, a politically correct version co-authored by Fred Marcellino, The Story of Little Babaji, changed the names of the main characters.

[edit] Works

The Story of Little Black Sambo, 1899
Story of Little Black Mingo, 1901
Story of little Black Quibba, 1902
Little Degchie-Head: An Awful Warning to Bad Babas, 1903
Little Kettle-Head, 1904
Pat and the Spider, 1905
The Teasing Monkey, 1907
Little Black Quasha, 1908
Story of Little Black Bobtail, 1909
Sambo and the Twins, 1936
Little White Squibba, 1965 (a rewrite of Little Black Sambo with a white girl as heroine) Elizabeth Hay (1981) wrote that Helen's daughter Day completed the Squibba book from scribbles Helen had written down. (pp.152-153, "Sambo Sahib: The Story of Little Black Sambo and Helen Bannerman")
The Story of Little Babaji (with Fred Marcellino), 1996 (Little Black Sambo with more politically correct names), ISBN 0-06-205064-8