I’m old enough to remember when, if a little Black girl wanted a doll for Christmas or a birthday, there was nothing available to buy for her except white dolls, baby dolls, barbies, it didn’t matter …

they were ALL white.

I also remember the “black doll/white doll” experiment of days gone by and the most recently updated one that, unfortunately, had never changed results over the years.

I also remember the introduction of the first Black baby dolls sometime around the late 1960s and early 70s, and the first Black BARBIE, named “Christy” (or Christie).

Of course, Christie(y) had no Ken to come pick her up in a fancy powder blue sports car and whisk her off to a night on the town or a prom date, or a GI Joe “bad boy” to kidnap her so they could both tell little lame “good guy” Ken where to go.

And Christy(ie) ain’t had no ‘fro – not at first anyway; her hair was definitely press’n’comb or permed out, or she was wearing an updo wig, something like that.

I also remember the more recent days of Disney and the fight over a Black Disney Princess, who turned out to be a Louisiana Cajun-cooking queen who was so ill-fated that she kissed the frog …

and turned into a FROG HERSELF.

Of course, she couldn’t have been from Africa or had an African lineage or root of birthright inheritance, because that’s where white people are from and our African ancestors did not exist until white people “discovered” them, according to them.

Well…off with all of their freakin’ molded on and twisted-in anatomically incorrect heads (in my “Queen’s British” accent).

White Barbie, and even these [single Black mom] fashion dolls in white folks’ heads who can’t ever seem to find a man, are sometimes sold “cheaper” than their lighter-skinned companions (like ‘we’ can’t afford them or the white dolls are simply worth more), or even the ones who don’t even have their full stock of accessories and amenities when it’s time for them to sashay off to some little Black girl’s imaginary world, are about to become a thing of the past.

Manufactured in China, but assembled in Nigeria, meet THE QUEENS OF AFRICA and the NAIJA PRINCESSES, dressed in traditional Nigerian garb.

And girrllll, these ladies gots MENFOLKS’es! Real plastic ones, too! 

Yes, some Alpha Male KINGS and PRINCES to join them at parties and a dinner table MADE FOR COUPLES.

The brainchild of Taofick Okoya, who said that he designed and created the dolls because he could not find one for his niece, Okoya said that he is sure people will still buy the white Barbies simply because even Nigerians have been tainted with the notion that if it doesn’t come from the “white man’s world,” it’s not important enough to purchase.

However, Okoya does very well with the dolls, even with budget constraints in mind during production in order to make the dolls more affordable.

I just got one question … what’s up with the stringy-haired weave-wearing ones? And the British accents on the speaking ones?

(Kidding…I know what’s up widdat.)

Ahma need more of them dolls to come out with natural hair, kinks and braids, though.

REFERENCE

Wonder if they need to do an experiment called “Fat Doll/Skinny Doll”? Not trying to be funny, but the owner is quoted as saying the children actually did not want the bigger “thicker” dolls he created, so he had to replace them with the thinner model even though Nigerian women don’t much care for pencil-stick skinny bodies.