Black baby gets all dolled up
2003-12-03 13:24
Johannesburg - Prima Toys has launched a plastic black doll named MissDela, named in honour of former president Nelson Mandela.
The 45cm baby doll, with ethnic African features down to the curly black hair, hit the shelves of large retail stores at the end of last week.
Darryl Le Kock, product director at Prima Toys, said the doll comes dressed in modern clothes with an ethnic design. One is dressed in turquoise and another in orange. The doll has movable arms, legs and head.
The doll is selling for between R99 and R120.
Judith Oosthuizen, the founder of MissDela and Company, the "mother" of MissDela, says she has been toying with the idea of a black doll for the past decade.
Originally she wanted to put a handcrafted ethnic black doll on the market that would have sold for more than double the amount.
Beautiful black baby
"Earlier black dolls were never a true reflection of a beautiful black baby," says Oosthuizen.
She had been trying for the past three years to get the doll manufactured in South Africa. Eventually, she ran out of money, and approached Prima Toys.
With the help of managing director Joey Diamond the doll took shape, and MissDela was born.
Oosthuizen commissioned a local artist to make a ceramic prototype of the doll, and after a long refining process, mould-maker Klaus Fullbrugge went to work to scale down the model from 53cm to 41cm and make a plastic mould.
She named the doll MissDela in honour of former president Nelson Mandela.
Says Diamond: "It's hard to imagine that before the end of apartheid, black dolls were actually forbidden by the government."
The Early Learning Resource Unit endorsed MissDela as a learning aid, saying: "It is our dream that all South Africa's children will have access to this black doll."
The doll is so authentic that St Gabriel's church in
Guguletu, Cape Town are using her as their baby Jesus this Christmas, says Samantha Walt, a public relations person for Ama-zing, who markets the doll.
Arnold Pietersen of the toys department in Pick 'n Pay, Canal Walk in Cape Town said none of the dolls displayed in the shop since last weekend, has been sold.
He said it is still "early days" and people first have to "get used to" the new doll.
Favourite dolls were still Hulk, Spiderman, Barbie and a teenaged Barbie-like doll that comes with sets of clothes.
Pietersen said the black Barbie dolls were selling well, and that should bode well for the new black baby doll.