Ivory Coast company brings Black dolls to African children

FILE PHOTO: Aissa, a new model of doll, is pictured in front of a computer screen at the office of Sarah Coulibaly, an Ivorian designer and creator of Naima Dolls brand of dark-skinned dolls, in Abidjan, Ivory Coast December 16, 2020. REUTERS/Luc Gnago.

ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Frustrated by seeing store shelves in Ivory Coast lined with almost exclusively light-skinned dolls, Sara Coulibaly decided to create alternatives in which local children could see themselves.

Five years on, Coulibaly's company Naima Dolls employs around 20 young women who were scrambling on a recent afternoon to package 32 models of dolls with dark skin in time for Christmas.