 As in Land of the Soviets , where Hergé had based his information about the Soviet Union almost entirely on a single source , in Tintin in the Congo he used limited source material to learn about the country and its people . He based the story largely on literature written by missionaries , with the only added element being that of the diamond smugglers , possibly adopted from the " Jungle Jim @-@ type serials " . Hergé visited the Colonial Museum of <unk> , examining their ethnographic collections of Congolese artefacts , including costumes of the Leopard Men . He adopted hunting scenes from André <unk> 's novel The Silence of Colonel <unk> , while his animal drawings were inspired by Benjamin <unk> 's prints . He also listened to tales of the colony from some of his colleagues who had been there , but disliked their stories , later claiming : " I didn 't like the colonists , who came back <unk> about their exploits . But I couldn 't prevent myself from seeing the Blacks as big children , either . " 
