This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/05/new-black-dolls-knowledge-pride

The article has changed 8 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
New black dolls aim to foster African knowledge and pride Black dolls come of age in an industry plagued by racial prejudice
(about 2 hours later)
First there was the golliwog, then there was black Barbie. Now the creators of a new talking doll say that after 140 years of racism and negative stereotyping, toys for black children have finally come of age with a doll that helps them to learn their roots. We've come a long way since the golliwog, right? These days there are black dolls in every toy shop. Tesco might be known for selling black dolls for the wrong reason – pricing black versions £1 cheaper than almost identical white dolls – but the fact that they sell black dolls is progress in itself.
"Rooti" dolls claim to be the first fashion dolls to speak languages from countries ranging from Ghana to Zimbabwe and are designed to help the western children of African parents to stay in touch with their African heritage. That is, until you look at the black dolls that are on the market a little more deeply. Black Barbieland is a pretty scary place. Chandra, Zahara, Trichelle and Janessa inhabit a world of long weaves, stick-thin thighs, facial features that are barely distinguishable from their white counterparts – except for the fact that they are painted brown – and their only concession to so-called black culture is a one-dimensional version of ghetto-bling.
"The idea of Rooti dolls is to create that early interest in our children in their own culture, an appreciation of where they come from, and to improve their self-esteem," said Chris Chidi Ngoforo, founder of UK-based Rooti Creations, which makes the dolls. "My three daughters love dolls that look and dress like them. Their whole range is named So In Style, which to cynics like me raises the immediate prospect that black people are having a Mattel moment in the limelight before proceeding to go back out of style some time soon. In this context, Rooti dolls caught my attention. These dolls, created by the UK-based Nigerian entrepreneur Chris Chidi Ngoforo, claim to be the first fashion dolls to speak African languages, and are designed to help the western children of African parents to stay in touch with their African heritage.
"But my daughters couldn't speak a word of Igbo, which is the ethnic group in Nigeria that I come from. They were my inspiration to create a doll that could provide a positive image and also teach them our languages." "The whole idea of Rooti dolls is to create that early interest in our children in their own culture, an appreciation of where they come from, and to improve their own self-esteem," says Ngoforo.
The dolls, which go on sale this year, are further evidence of a resurgence in confidence among African migrants, experts say, and an increasing desire to hold on to their culture. "Many people told us that the existing black dolls on the market look like a white doll painted black," Ngoforo adds. "Our dolls are created as a real image and identity of us as black people – African, African-Caribbean and African-American. They have wider noses, fuller lips, long curly hair and they come in various shades of black."
"In the past, the argument for not teaching the children the African language in addition to English was that it would confuse them, or detrimentally affect their picking up of English, which is deemed to be the more important language," said Kwaku, a UK-based African history consultant. "Now we know that children can learn several languages at the same time. It's about mindset and confidence. It's a shame, for someone who has an African name, not to be able to speak their parents' African language. It's like one's missing a part of their makeup, or identity." Don't get me wrong, Rooti dolls are not perfect. They too are rocking the weave, with long hair that most black girls could only achieve by buying hair extensions, not helped by the fact that one of the dolls has dark blonde hair.
The dolls are the latest in a long line of attempts to reshape a toy industry that for many people of African descent still reflects racial prejudice. Attempts by Mattel to create an entire range of African American Barbie dolls – with names such as Chandra, Zahara, Trichelle and Janessa – met with derision from some groups who said the dolls did not go far enough in portraying a more realistic body image of black women. "Many people told us that the existing black dolls on the market look like a white doll painted black," said Ngoforo. "Our dolls are created as a real image and identity of us as black people – African, African Caribbean and African American. They have wider noses, fuller lips, long curly hair and they come in various shades of black." Ngoforo defends the toys – somewhat unbelievably – by pointing out that children are so unaccustomed to seeing ethnically accurate images of black people, that to shock them with afro hair would be too drastic.
The impact on children of unrealistic depictions of black people has been the subject of controversy since the legal case that led to the desegregation of schools in 1950s America. Psychologist Kenneth Clark conducted a test on black children where, given dolls that were identical except for their skin colour, the majority associated the black doll with negative stereotypes. "The conclusion which I was forced to reach was that these children ... like other human beings who are subjected to an obviously inferior status in the society in which they live, have been definitely harmed in the development of their personalities," Clark said. "You have to remember that children are not used to dolls that look like this, and we don't want to give them so much of a shocking product that it puts them off," says Ngoforo. "But we plan was to come out with a next range, which promotes natural hair and more detailed black features. By then we will have arrested the attention and interest in what we are doing."
In the 2005 short film A Girl Like Me, teenager Kiri Davies repeated the experiment and found that the majority of children still preferred the white doll. I think Rooti dolls are maybe underestimating the capacity of little girls to embrace their own image. Its easy to forget how important this is. The famous experiment by Professor Kenneth Clark – argued as part of the landmark Brown v Board of Education, which led to the desegregation of schools in 1950s America – is still cited as relevant by psychologists working with ethnic minority children in western countries.
This year, Tesco was also criticised for selling black and white versions of almost identical dolls with the black dolls priced £1 cheaper. "Without dolls that accurately represent their own image, children end up looking up to white dolls, and seeing the white image as being powerful and what beauty is," said Phillip Jordan, author of a study on racial preferences among black children. "For children to have an image of a self that is black and embraces your language and ethnic features is a very positive development." The experiment gave black children dolls which were identical except for their skin colour, and found that the majority associated the black doll with negative stereotypes.
"Our kids have suffered a lot in the west – they have been bombarded with a mixed representation of who we are, they suffer from a lot of low self-confidence," said Ngoforo. "We are trying to use these dolls as a tool to address these issues." It may seem like stating the obvious, but psychologists still emphasise the importance for children of seeing positive depictions of their own image.
It is not the first time that African dolls have been developed as a way of countering negative images of black people. In the 1920s pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey backed his African pride and self-empowerment movement with a factory line producing a black-skinned doll with African features. "Without dolls that accurately represent their own image, children end up looking up to white dolls, and seeing the white image as being powerful and what beauty is," says Phillip Jordan, author of a study on racial preferences among black children. "For children to have an image of a self that is black and embraces your language and ethnic features is a very positive development."
But Rooti dolls, despite their more African facial features, have been criticised, too. The dolls have long hair, which critics say reinforces negative messages about natural afro hair and encourages the growing trend in hair extensions. "The doll is amazing except for the hair," said one blogger on a Ghanaian website reviewing the dolls. "Some natural hair would be cool," posted another. Ngoforo is planning a new range that promotes natural hair and more detailed black features. This was the Marcus Garvey's thinking, when in the 1920s the Jamaican pan-Africanist backed his African pride and self-empowerment movement with a factory line producing a black-skinned doll with African features.
Dolls alone cannot address the negative images of black people that are still so prevalent in the western media, but they can help. Plus I think the linguistic element of the dolls is its real strength. So many of children of African parents, myself included, were not raised in our parent's languages, forcing us to learn them like tourists, an exercise is usually abandoned in frustration.
I couldn't find any statistics about the number of people with African parents who want to learn their languages, but anecdotally the Goethe institute in Accra, which teaches the widely spoken Ghanaian language Twi to beginners, has a record number of students this year and has had to run extra classes to cope with demand.
Ngoforo was driven by his own daughters' inability to speak his language, Igbo, in creating dolls that could teach children African languages. "I have three daughters who love dolls that look and dress like them. But my daughters couldn't speak a word of Igbo, which is ethnic group in Nigeria that I come from. They were my inspiration to create a doll that could provide a positive image and also teach them our languages."