South Africa's Akiki doll promotes positive self image for black girls

Record ID: 1353904

  • Title: South Africa's Akiki doll promotes positive self image for black girls
  • Date: 27th August 2018
  • Summary: JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF AKIKI DOLLS VARIOUS OF CHILDREN PLAYING IN THE PLAYGROUND (SOUNDBITE) (English) PUPIL, SELI SITHOLE, SAYING: "I like about her dress and her shoes and her hair and her eyebrows and her hands and her skin." (SOUNDBITE) (English) PUPIL, MPILO SITHOLE, SAYING: "She's different, like a peach doll and a dark doll like bro
  • Embargoed: 10th September 2018 16:12
  • Keywords: Entrepreneur African dolls representation image
  • Location: JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
  • City: JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
  • Country: South Africa
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVA0018UYQ1JR
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:Meet Akiki - a 46 cm tall, brown doll with kinky, curly hair that is winning the hearts of children in South Africa and beyond.
    Akiki comes in a range of brown skin tones, hair texture and wears colorful outfits.
    "I like about her dress and her shoes and her hair and her eyebrows and her hands and her skin," said student, Seli Sithole.
    "She's different, like a peach doll and a dark doll like brown and she's a little brown and she's cute and she's my favourite doll," said another pupil, Mpilo Sithole.
    Akiki's creator Fatuma Abdullah started making the dolls in 2016 and targets children between the ages of 4-10 years old.
    She says she wanted to affirm African girls' confidence, and teach them about a positive self-image and a healthy self-esteem.
    Kenyan-born Abdullah was inspired to design the doll after she noticed a lack of African representation in the market for children's toys.
    "The first time I came with the Akiki doll and I showed my daughter, I said, for me I was really excited because I didn't have a black doll so I was like, 'yey, yey, yey! look at her, look at her' and then she was just like, 'oh yeah she looks like us' but then the first thing she started doing was touching her hair and then also looking at her skin like, cause for me the think is, dolls also come in these colours," she said.
    Abdullah works with designer, Bridgitte Mashile to create the colourful and trendy outfits that Akiki wears.
    "This is something very new, something I didn't have as a child, you know I didn't have a doll that had an afro and a doll that was closer to me in complexion or what-not. So, it's a lot of fun and we are literally free to do whatever we want to do. And with the owner being from Kenya, you know the options go beyond our own country, South Africa so we have a lot of options and you also want Akiki to sell Africa globally. So it's not a point of we only want to sell her only to South Africans, you want an American child to say that, 'I want that doll' so it's challenging but fun cause we have to take what we are and package it in a way that makes sense to the entire world," she said.
    Along with the dolls, Abdullah also launched a book series - Akiki's Short Stories, starring a 5-year-old African girl, whose adventures across the continent are aimed at teaching children basic life skills and values.
    Although Abdullah's background in finance helped kick-start her entrepreneurship journey, she says she faced many challenges, including high costs of production.
    Akiki dolls are manufactured in China while the books are printed in Cape Town.
    "The biggest challenge was, I was entering an industry I knew nothing about. So at first, I knew my end goal, what I want it to be but in terms of how do I get there and how do I get you to buy the doll, how do I get people to know I exist. And for me, it has been a journey, a long year, good, painful, up and downs - pull your hair out, come back," she said.
    The Akiki dolls and books are sold online and retail for 27 USD and 8 USD respectively.
    Akiki has attracted customers worldwide including from Mozambique, Kenya, the Netherlands, Austria and the United Kingdom.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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