BEYONCE NM and SERENA NM, regarding the lovely QAI QAI DOLL [1]

you know,
BEYONCE OHBEE NM,
SERENA OHBEE NM,
i sort of seem to remember writing via the internet to BEYONCE
sometime back in the day now
and saying to her that :

█ growing up here in Nigeria in the 1970s, we didn’t have black doll babies i.e doll babies made in the image of black, negro people

█ virtually all the doll babies around were doll babies of white people i.e doll babies made in the image of white, aryan, caucasian people

and so whenever we ran into a GOLLIWOG ►►►

{ — usually either when some kids born and brought up in Europe e.g the UK returned to Nigeria for a visit or returned permanently and came back with their toys

or

when some lucky kid(s) had parents or relatives who either visited Europe or lived in Europe returned to Nigeria for a visit or permanently and brought back a GOLLIWOG as a toy for that(those) kid(s) —- }

►►► we all used to be very happy and very excited
BECAUSE
THE GOLLIWOG WAS ALL BLACK
.. JUST LIKE US ..
and we related strongly to that black-ness and negro-ness of the doll.

what i didn’t say to BEYONCE then was that

● the doll babies available here in Nigeria then used to come in various prices
and that
● there were some doll babies then that were speaking dolls
and some that
● could bat their eyelids
and that
● these ones were usually more expensive than plain, ordinary, normal doll babies.

SERENA NM, i also didn’t say to BEYONCE NM then that

● there was one very affordable doll baby that used to sell at
NAIRA 0:05 KOBO if my memory serves correctly
and which was
● virtually everywhere because it was so affordable
( NIGERIA 0:05 KOBO ONLY at a time when
the UNITED STATES DOLLAR 1:00 = NIGERIA NAIRA 0:60 KOBO )
and that
● in fact, many children themselves used to buy it for younger kids from their own pocket-money then. 

● this doll was all plastic and came in virtually every colour
… blue, green, yellow .. you name it.

● one thing though about it was that it was modeled on an aryan, causian, white girl as could easily be seen from the hair area of the doll baby’s head.

SERENA AEZEEGBOH OHBEE NM, i also didn’t say to BEYONCE EEFEH ARTUH NM that
at some point
after seeing us running about with the GOLLIWOG
some parents called us together and then
SOBERLY EXPLAINED to us that

◙ it was nice that we all liked the GOLLIWOG because it was/is black just like us

◙ however, we should realize and understand that

the word/name GOLLIWOG
…. according to some knowledgeable persons ….
is made up of 2 words, viz :

█ GOLLY !! and
█ WOG

and that
◙ WOG is an england english language word / terminology / cockney english word for a black person
and that
◙ GOLLY is an england English language / terminology / cockney english  onomatopoeia
and that it is something sort of like GOSH !! or MY GOSH !! or OH ! MY GOSH !!  (i.e OMIGOSH !! )

and that
◙ so what GOLLIWOG really is is a shortening of the
england, united kingdom english language expression

GOLLY !! WHAT A WOG !

probably uttered by white, aryan, caucasian england UK folks on seeing a black, negro person

and explained to us that
◙ the GOLLIWOG toy was probably originally made by black slaves in the UK for their children
and luckily for all those black slaves
the white children of the white slave-masters and white slave-mistresses also liked the dolls
and asked the black slaves to make some for them
and from thence onwards the GOLLIWOG dolls became popular

although the belief of the white, aryan, caucasian england folks in their racial superiority ( or their racial prejudice if you will ) reflected through in the name GOLLIWOG ( GOLLY !!, WHAT A WOG ! )

in effect :
GOLLY !! WHAT A WOG !
GOLLY !! WHAT A VERY BLACK BLACK NEGRO PERSON !
GOLLY-WOG
GOLLIWOG

BEYONCE NKEH NM, SERENA NKEH NM,
that explanation of the name GOLLIWOG
which was probably given to us to sort of prepare us
in case we ever ran into a racist white kid / person who wanted to
put us and the GOLLIWOG down
sort of dampened our spirits
and made us realize .. again .. that
as black, negro people we were generally among the down-trodden of the world.

this was an era in which MOHAMMED ALI was alive
and was seen / perceived as a CHAMPION OF THE BLACK, AFRICAN WORLD
in the opinion of black, negro people in all Africa .. rightly or wrongly
( ref : ALI !, BOMAYE ! and all )

this was an era when the acquisition of a univeristy degree
particularly from UK, USA, Germany, Russia, etc
was celebrated in Nigeria and the rest of Africa
as the acquisition of the white man’s education
and therefore also as the acquisition of the golden fleece.
( refer to tales of ancient greece for the tale(s) that provide meaning to the words golden fleece. )

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