Nigerian toys

June 1, 2016 8:07 PM

Can you tell me what the "Rosebud" of a Nigerian girl in about 1990 might be?

In a work of fiction that I'm writing, I have a woman from Nigeria, now working as an attorney in NYC, about 30 years old. I have her thinking about her childhood and reminiscing about some special toy she had. What is this toy?

posted by falsedmitri to Society & Culture (3 answers total)

Where in Nigeria was she from, and what social strata were her parents in?

Well-to-do Nigerians in, say, Lagos, would have had access to quite a bit of British pop culture (and the toys that go with that).

Poor Nigerians in, say, Kano? Not so much.
posted by sparklemotion at 9:00 PM on June 1, 2016 [2 favorites]

traveling in that area around 1992, I saw a lot of kids that would make their own toys, especially cars made out of wire, (like this) with long sticks attached to the front axle, so the kid could walk along behind the car and steer it. they were pretty neat!
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 10:47 PM on June 1, 2016 [4 favorites]

Response by poster: I haven't gotten into details of her childhood. Maybe now is the time. It would seem likely the someone who is now attorney comes from at least a middle class background, but I don't know the culture that well.

Those cars are cool. Thanks for showing them to me.
posted by falsedmitri at 7:13 AM on June 2, 2016