Rooti Dolls are dolls designed for young children and speak a range of languages from countries including Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

ReConnect Africa spoke to Chris Ngoforo, the founder of Rooti Creations UK, the company behind the dolls, about his innovative products and how the dolls are connecting young children with the languages of their root culture.

ReConnect Africa:   What was the inspiration behind setting up Rooti Creations UK Ltd?

Chris Ngoforo:   Over the years we have found it extremely hard finding real black dolls that can truly connect with our little daughters. The dolls out there in the market are nothing close to the real image of a black child in terms of features and other attributes. They are either too thin, too light or chisel-faced, and even the complexions of most of the dolls are kind of whitewashed.

The unfortunate effect of this stereotypical misrepresentation is a case of low self-esteem among black children who have been made directly or indirectly to believe less of themselves as a black child. They have been made to believe that you have to look like a white doll to be accepted as beautiful, or even good.

Secondly, we observed that over 90% of children born or living in the Diaspora, and millions in Africa, do not speak or understand their mother tongues. Our research led us to understand that the reason for this is not so much because our children don’t want to learn their mother tongues, but more because there are not many tools that can be both educational and fun at the same time, like Rooti dolls. The danger of this situation is that we will be faced with a rapid rise in the demise of African ethnic languages.

So Rooti Creations UK Ltd was created as a solution to the above mentioned problems. My inspiration came from God Almighty, through my daughters, and also from the desire to help children to learn their mother tongues.

ReConnect Africa:   Why do you think it’s important that young children understand the languages of their countries of origin?

Chris Ngoforo:   The importance for children in understanding their mother tongues can’t be over emphasized. Being able to understand and speak their mother tongues gives children that deeper and more meaningful connection to their roots. It gives them a healthy sense of identity and/or belonging. This, as a result, improves their self-confidence and self-esteem. Nothing gives a child more sense of identity than knowing the language of the country or tribe that his or her parents come from.

Moreover, the only way our rich African ethnic languages can be preserved is by getting our children, who are our next generation, to know the languages. This is exactly what we aim to achieve through Rooti dolls. As the children play with the dolls; brushing the doll’s curly hair, changing her dress, etc they, at the same time, assimilate the phrases that the dolls recite. So Rooti dolls are more than just dolls; they offer both cultural and educational benefits.

Research has shown that children that speak an ethnic language besides English tend to bond quicker, easier and better than others. Speaking their mother tongues has been known to be one way of sustaining better community cohesion among children and parents.

Through playing with Rooti dolls, children can learn some key phrases in more than one ethnic language, as each doll can speak four ethnic languages of a particular African country.

ReConnect Africa:   What was and is your sense of the market for Rooti Dolls?

Chris Ngoforo:   We believe there is a gap in the market for our Rooti dolls brand as we are committed to serving these great African, Afro Caribbean and African American communities that have long been under represented in the toy market. We are focusing on offering our niche market toys that they can really connect with.

We don’t really see ourselves competing directly with anybody as we have carefully chosen a niche that has been neglected for ages. We believe our children deserve the best. They deserve to be given dolls that truly look like them and in fact speak like them or their community. So we are very excited to be able to serve the community in this way; from the UK to Europe, America and back home in Africa.

We want to see our children happily developing an early interest in their roots through language. And we are happy our Rooti dolls brand is rapidly gaining wide acceptance and recognition, not just a range of gorgeous dolls that give children comfort and fun, but also as an essential tool for socio–cultural integration, orientation and better community cohesion.

As a product that appeals to children of mainly African, Caribbean and African American heritage globally, we are also calling on various African government bodies, agencies, NGOs and even more toy distributors to become a part of this noble mission to preserve our rich African ethnic languages through Rooti dolls.

ReConnect Africa:   How are the dolls designed and what kind of phrases do they typically say? 

Chris Ngoforo:   All our dolls are designed in-house by our design experts who have years of experience in the art of design.

Regarding the phrases, each doll comes with a sound module that enables children to learn many phrases in any of four ethic languages of their country. Children will learn how to make basic conversation in their mother tongues using phrases such as ‘how are you?’, ‘I am fine thank you’, and so on.

ReConnect Africa:   What kind of feedback have you been getting from African parents about the Dolls?

Chris Ngoforo:   The feedback has been really encouraging; from children, parents, guardians, organizations, government bodies, and so on.

Most parents can’t hide their excitement and relief as they watch their children’s vocabulary suddenly increase in their ethnic language through role play with Rooti dolls. The joy in the faces of children as they fiddle, cuddle and snuggle with the dolls is just so satisfying.

One child said ‘My gosh, Nina doll is soooo cute, smells so fine, looks like me, and speaks my mummy’s language’ - of course not realizing that’s her language too.

ReConnect Africa:   How did you choose which dolls to create and which languages to focus on?

Chris Ngoforo:   The creation of Rooti dolls was done after a series of surveys, research and focus group sessions.

We also work with research information from the office of statistics in the UK, US and African countries especially to help us ascertain the correctness of the languages and their pronunciations.

ReConnect Africa:   How can readers purchase a Rooti Doll?

Chris Ngoforo:   Rooti dolls can be purchased online via our online store at www.rootidolls.com.