http://blog.jimmywales.com/2004/10/13/i-met-a-somali-bantu-refugee-child/ Free knowledge for free minds Sat, 29 May 2010 18:20:55 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ http://blog.jimmywales.com/2004/10/13/i-met-a-somali-bantu-refugee-child/#comment-558 souley oumarou Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:41:07 +0000 /?p=7#comment-558 This story reminds me of my childhood in western Niger, I was about 7 years old and my little sister Zeinabou was about 4 at the time. We live in Tcheneyaro a small village situated at about 10 miles from Niamey, the capital city of Niger. Tcheneyaro had roughly 100 residents and one well where they all got water from. People were mostly farmers and herders. My father worked for a german NGO as a chauffeur and one day he brought home a little white doll for my little sister. The first time Zeinabou saw the doll after my father pull it out of is pocket, she creamed so loud and run so fast to plunge in my mother's arms. She was so scare, it was the first time she saw a doll, moreover, it was a white doll with a lot of hair that she was supposed to learn how to braid and big blue eyes that closes when you lay the doll down. Myself i was curious about the white doll but i was not scare of it. It was the first doll in our compound and it took my mother plenty of convince from my father to not through away the doll that brought nightmare in little Zeinabou's life. Now i wonder if she would have been scared of the doll if it were a black doll with much shorter hair and brown eyes? What happened to market segmentation? who thought a little african girl in the late 70's would love a white doll with long hair and blue eyes? This story reminds me of my childhood in western Niger, I was about 7 years old and my little sister Zeinabou was about 4 at the time. We live in Tcheneyaro a small village situated at about 10 miles from Niamey, the capital city of Niger. Tcheneyaro had roughly 100 residents and one well where they all got water from. People were mostly farmers and herders.
My father worked for a german NGO as a chauffeur and one day he brought home a little white doll for my little sister. The first time Zeinabou saw the doll after my father pull it out of is pocket, she creamed so loud and run so fast to plunge in my mother’s arms. She was so scare, it was the first time she saw a doll, moreover, it was a white doll with a lot of hair that she was supposed to learn how to braid and big blue eyes that closes when you lay the doll down. Myself i was curious about the white doll but i was not scare of it. It was the first doll in our compound and it took my mother plenty of convince from my father to not through away the doll that brought nightmare in little Zeinabou’s life.
Now i wonder if she would have been scared of the doll if it were a black doll with much shorter hair and brown eyes?
What happened to market segmentation? who thought a little african girl in the late 70′s would love a white doll with long hair and blue eyes?

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