Find out what the origin of the Oompa-Loompas is and why it was changed a few years after the release of Road Dahl’s story
With the premiere of “Wonka” in theaters on December 7th, a new plot derived from “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” by Road Dahlit was possible to discover the first steps of fiction’s most beloved chocolatier, as well as new details of Willy Wonka’s relationship with the Oompa-Loompas, the creatures with orange skin and green hair, who this time come to life through the interpretation of Hugh Grant.
What is the origin of the Oompa-Loompas?
The feature film reveals that the Oompa-Loompas are beings that inhabit Loompalândia, a place that is also mentioned as the country of origin of these characters in the other two live-actions derived from the story created by Dahl in the books: “Charlie and Chocolate Factory” from 1971 and 2005.
However, the first version of the work written by Dahl, published in 1964, had a different origin. This is because, in the pages, the author says that the Oompa-Loompas were pygmies smuggled from the deepest and darkest part of the African jungle to work in the chocolate factory, where they would receive cocoa seeds as payment, according to “Roald Dahl: A Biography ” in Jeremy Treglown (via CBR).
It is worth mentioning that the pygmies are members of several groups of people in Central Africa who have different languages and hunting traditions, known for living in the forest and for their short stature, as explained by the Aventuras na História portal.
In this way, the origin of the Oompa-Loompas in the original plot brought racist representations, since Wonka believed he had done something good by taking away the freedom of a people, who in exchange only worked for food without being able to leave the factory, while he, as owner , remained with all the profit and credit for the success.
Furthermore, this is reinforced among several other problematic lines, for example, when one of the girls who finds the golden ticket to visit the factory, Veruca Salt, discovers what the Oompa-Loompas were, and insistently asks her father to buy it for her. one immediately, making it clear that they are seen as possessions.
As a result, in 1970, the year before the release of the first film, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in the United States threatened to boycott the film if it arrived in theaters with the Oompa- Loompas with the same portrayal as on the pages, which led to changes in the characters’ characteristics not only in the feature film, but also in the books.
Thus, despite the plot not having been changed, the Oompa-Loompas appeared as creatures with pink skin and golden brown hair in the 1973 edition of the book, while in the film, they appeared just like the 2023 version: with orange skin and green hair. .
The version that became popular on the big screen was also fixed in the traditional dictionary of the English language, the Oxford dictionary (OED in its acronym in English) in 2016, since in the document in question, the Oompa-Loompas are synonymous with “a short person” or “a person whose skin appears orange, typically because they have had too much sun.”
It is worth mentioning that the word was included in the OED, as it fit the established criteria, as it was used by different sources (not just one author) and became a permanent term in the language.
Source: Recreio
