Until now, most little girls have grown up playing with the infamous Barbie – the white, blonde, blue-eyed beauty, whose body was so perfect that it should have appeared to us as almost creepy. Instead, Barbie was idolised by little girls as the perfect woman worth aspiring to be.
Since then the world has transformed, with people beginning to realise that there is something very wrong about telling young girls that beautiful is white and thin. This is particularly an increasing problem for little girls in Africa and Asia, who undoubtedly begin to wonder whether their own skin colour makes them ugly because as all their dolls are white.
Taofick Okoya was disturbed by this idea when he began shopping for toys for his daughter and realised that all the dolls on the shelves in toy stores across Nigeria were white. This realisation made him launch Queens of Africa, the first doll collection that boasts of black beauties in beautiful traditional African clothing, challenging Barbie who has been around for years.
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Speaking exclusive to the International Political Forum, Okoya said, “I was moved to embark on the project when I realised my daughter had an identity crisis at a tender age of three. She wished she was white. I believe this was due to the fact that all her dolls were white. I felt the need to introduce black dolls that will be a symbol of confidence.”
Queens of Africa has since gone on to beat Barbie and become one of the best-selling toys in Nigeria. Okoya said he sells between 6,000 and 9,000 dolls per month across the country, and that he has nearly 15% of the country’s toy market share.
The brand was launched in 2007 but Okoya said that it didn’t take off immediately. He mentions that a lot of work was put into promoting the dolls and educating people about the benefits of buying these new dolls.
“As a father I have the responsibility to guide and protect my children. By contributing positively to the community I realise I will be contributing towards the learning of my children as well. Appreciating their race and skin colour is a step towards a more confident them.”
Okoya said that distribution of the dolls has been one of the main challenges in launching the collection, as there aren’t many major toy stores in Nigeria with nationwide branches. He also mentioned that the export process is extremely laborious and costly. However, despite these challenges, Queens of Africa has been recognised all over the world and received extensive media coverage over the last few months. Okoya and his team are now working on making the doll collection available in toy stores in as many countries as possible.
“The future is huge!” he said. “We are working on books, comics, music and animation series.”
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