Chill

Creating the African doll

They say a need calls for innovation. It was after one Bertha Munthali realised that the African girl was being deprived of an African doll that she decided to invent a doll that looks like an African, dresses like an African and has hair like that of an African. Our reporter Yvonnie Sundu took an interest in this form of art and caught up with Munthali of The African girl Chichi for more:

An illustration of one of the dolls

Q

: Tell us more about the dolls you are making.

A

: The doll I am making is a range of a black doll called “African girl” which comes in varying hair and skin tone but same face mould. The dolls are given African names drawn from across Africa—Chichi, Tumbika, Rutendo, Savanna, Akech and Almaz. African girl is the trading name but the doll is originally an inspiration from a Malawian story of Kamdothi.

 

Q

: What is the story that triggered the idea of the dolls?

A

: What had happened is that one night my children had asked me to tell them a bedtime story and I could not find any story that could appeal to them. Then I found their school library book which I started reading out aloud to them. It was about a snow Queen who was not a good person. Somehow reading about snow and winter made me realise that there was something terribly wrong about fairy tales our children enjoy. Come to think of Malawian children being raised in a country where there is no snow and no winter, but reading books that talk about snow and winter and how the snow queen created eternal winter. I knew my children enjoyed the tales of the snow queen but I felt terrible that our own stories were not as celebrated as all these other stories from beyond. The same with TV content for kids, we have not been able to create any relevant content for our kids.

As I was reading on the second page, I closed the book and started telling them the story of Kamdothi. By this time, I had forgotten much of the Kamdothi story, all I could remember was the song. I had to be creative there and then and tell the story of Kamdothi in an entirely different version but building it on the African ways of life and culture. As I made up most of the story, I noticed the inquisitiveness on my kids part and that gave me momentum to finish it. So I made Kamdothi the clay child to be a clay Princess. Winter and snow and evil snow queen disappeared and were replaced by the African sun and blue sky and rain and dance and drums and clay princess. The story has nicely been illustrated though not published yet and I have given Kamdothi a beautiful face, I have made her a courageous warrior, a girl who sacrificed a lot to defend her kingdom.  As Kamdothi was moulded from clay, it gave me an idea to mould a doll for a Malawian child, a doll that would scream, “I am African”, a doll that has features that an African child can relate to, with hair texture that is their own. Living in a global village, we cannot create walls and restrictions on what our children read or watch and how that forms their world view, but we can actively influence their world by exposing them to our stories as well. So, yes, this doll is a visual to entice the children to enjoy reading Malawian stories.

Q

:   What is the motivation? What do you want to achieve making them?

A

: One of the things I have always wanted to do, even when I was in Malawi was to develop Malawian themed entertainment for children and create an environment where children can have time after school and engage in all sorts of after-school activities. I had come up with “my space after school centre in Area 47, purely to provide all sorts of after school activities and learning, however when I left the country, I had to put on hold my project. But my passion remains to educate the children beyond the basic education.

 

Q

Do you make them from scratch? Where do you get the materials?

 

A: I outsource the service providers for most of my work. So I contracted a  company to mould the doll for me for now to give myself time to learn and master the processes. However, I plan to do it myself in the near future. I manage the designs myself with the help of my animator. I make decisions of how I want the eyes, the nose, the cheeks, the skin tone, the size, the length etc to look like. When the book illustrator illustrated the story, I also had specifics of how I wanted the character to look like and using the story picture, I made a doll

 

Q

: I have noted some of the dolls the usual ones but with big, fluffy hair. Why are you bringing these dolls in this equation? Anything with the big black hair?

A

: Big Afro kinky hair was deliberate to allow the kids appreciate that they can grow their hair in its natural state and it can still grow big, but also to allow them to play with it and put ribbons in it. Probably practise the plaiting with it as well.

 

Q

: Another outstanding feature about the dolls is the dressing. I understand you are doing the sewing. Tell us more?

A

: Yes, the dress is made from chitenje materials from across Africa. I do all the dress designs and sometimes I make them, though I have not yet mastered the art of dress making, but I have started outsourcing the skilled dress makers. As you can see, the dresses are made with African print but the designs are girly. I believe any girl can wear such a dress if their parents bought them the dress. And I mix with other styles of dress just to make the doll more relevant at global level.

 

Q

:    Once the dolls are done, as well as the dresses, what is happening next?

A

: The doll Chichi was the first to be produced and it’s already on the market. I have had many Malawians to date who have proudly bought the doll for their children. I think the doll is not only a doll in a Malawian household, but many relate to her because she is inspired from the Kamdothi, our very own Malawian story. I also have customers from Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa and outside Africa. n

 

Related Articles

Back to top button