A Nigerian Father creates a line of African dolls called Queens Of Africa that are now more popular than Barbie amongst young African girls.
Toafick Okoya, 43, created the dolls out of frustration and a little heart break after his daughter confessed to him that she wanted to be white much like the dolls that she saw on shelves. Determined to help her see the beauty in her race and culture he set out to find dolls that look like her and other Nigerian girls, but found that there were no dolls that looked like his daughter and her friends.
So in In 2007 the entrepreanuer decided to create his own doll that Nigerian girls could identify with by recreating their skin colour and style – and it is now so successful that it is outselling Barbie.
The doll, which is called Queens of Africa, comes with traditional outfits and accessories and costs around $6.78. ‘My mission is to make the Queens of Africa a symbol of hope, trust, and confidence by promoting African history, culture, and fashion.’
So from now on, any girl that gets a doll for her birthday or Christmas from me will be getting one of these! Check out the website here.
So Are they coming to the USA any time soon? Unfortunately, Okoya has been told that he won’t be able to sell the dolls on the shelves of mainline stories in America and will have to limit his business to specialist stores.
But he is determined to see the decision overturned, he said: ‘I am looking to prove them wrong.’
