On my daily internet surfing adventures *cough* I found a company by the name of EthiDolls that made collectible African historical characters. They were formed in 2003 and are based in the USA.
Currently, they have two dolls in their line – Makeda, The Queen of Sheba (modern day Ethiopia – East Africa) and Queen Mother Yaa Asantewaa of the Asante (modern day Ghana – West Africa).
Queen of Sheba
Queen Mother Yaa Asantewaa
These dolls are 16 inch tall and hand crafted by Madame Alexander (The Alexander Doll Company, Inc.) and at USD $139 each, they are a bit pricey so I guess I’ll be admiring from afar for a while.
This is an excerpt of the company’s profile -
Established in 2003, EthiDolls® is a developer of collectible quality, educational, African dolls and accessories, based in New York City. The company’s mission is to create unique dolls and related accessories that help children and adults embrace African heritage, culture and tradition.
Salome Yilma, EthiDolls’ CEO, conceived and designed the line of learning and exploration products along with Yeworkwoha Ephrem, EthiDolls’ EVP. Both women are Ethiopian entrepreneurs living in the New York area.
Through EthiDolls, Ms. Yilma and Ms. Ephrem plan to develop a line of culturally authentic and unique Signature Dolls and Accessories that teach history, celebrate cultural diversity and offer new play patterns.http://www.ethidolls.com/about_us.htm
(accessed 20 August 2009)
Apparently, King Solomon’s son Menelik by Makeda took the Ark of the Covenant back to Ethiopia after he visited his father. I find this story terribly intriguing… even to this day this story is still quite a mystery.
Tags: african dolls, american companies, doll designers, ethidolls
They are beautiful. Some people are proud of their culture and it shows in these dolls. I hope I can say the same with everyone.
I hope to make OAAK dolls like these showcasing the different culture/costume within my country. ^_^ Well that’s gonna take a lot of research and appropriate base dolls. For now I can only dream.
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Therese Reply:
August 24th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
me too! I’m particularly interested in Eurasian areas like far Eastern Russia and South East Asian countries including the Philippines
and also ancient civilisations such as like Mesopotamia – which also involves a bit of research!
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I remember the designers talking about these dolls on TV. She wanted to focus on African Roots. I really like them but, they do cost a little bit too much. But when I do get the money, I will buy one.
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Therese Reply:
August 25th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
I think these dolls (apart from the price) are just wonderful… I believe that too much of ancient African history has been erased due to colonial mess-ups… imagine how much knowledge and stories that we could learn from all that hidden history!
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