News — Black Dad

Zizo is a gender-based violence activist and a self-published author. However, behind this strong, hardworking woman's positive energy is a chilling story. Zizo's father raped her first when she was 7 years old then continued doing it for seven years. Zizo lived with her mother and visited her father over the weekend; this is when he would rape her. It is when she got pregnant that her mother realized what was going on. This story is an eye-opener for all parents. Children need extra care, attention, and need sex education from a young age, so they know no one is allowed to do this to them. What do you think?

Coviello Salinès’ father, Freddie Francisco Salinès, introduced him to cooking and winemaking at a young age although his dad wanted him to become a neurosurgeon.

“He wanted me to be like the early Ben Carson, so he would bring home large brain books for me to study,” Coviello told Soul Vision Magazine. “They were 1,000 pages long, breaking down analysis and all this different stuff with him,” according to Travel Noire.

Coviello’s parents migrated to Southern Bronx from the Caribbean. His father was a serviceman while his mother was a nurse. Cooking was his father’s big hobby and he would often pair different wines and beers and things that match with the food that he made, Coviello recalled.

After completing a university in Ohio where he studied biochemistry and minored in petroleum engineering, Coviello worked in the engineering field for a while before he was discouraged from the field by the wide-scale land destruction, racism, and nepotism.

It was at this point that he decided to venture into winemaking, after all, he had been introduced to it in his formative years when his father was alive. He traveled to Geneva to meet his friends. While in Geneva, he learned about the unethical practice of wine coloring. Coviello got to work on a scientific blueprint.

“I started writing out the formula of not only the derivative of grape skins but the anthocyanin compound that is in multiple fruits and vegetables,” he told TravelNoitre. “I also wrote the analysis of spectrum when it came down to the acidic to pH scalability of these different types of skins that allowed the molecular breakdown of that compound to sustain another color.” 

“So at that point, I started researching it, I figured out a formula that I was comfortable with, and I brought it to a few of the researchers and a few of the people that I was close with. And we started to find different areas that we can start sourcing these products,” he said.

He also traveled to Italy, known for producing some of the finest wines in the world, to learn more about preparing wine. He finally managed to come out with a product he so desired.

“It broke down every single avenue of the color spectrum of blue,” he said of the final result. “So when you look at the bottle, it has every single hue of blue attached to it, which I wanted to achieve but I didn’t think it was possible.”

After successful trials, he launched Amour Genève, the world’s first FDA, TTB, and EU-approved natural blue. His blue wine is now making waves in several countries, including the United States. “People are loving it. They’re loving the story. They’re loving the journey and the shape of the business. It’s just, it’s just all beautiful.”

Also, the wine is linked to his father as the wine’s trademark color of blue is his late dad’s favorite color.

Two Cameroonian dads living in Quebec are bringing a much-needed representation into the doll industry. Upon realizing that many stores did not have Black dolls or they were either stacked at the back of shelves when shopping for toys, they decided to make their own.

The Quebec-based dads, Gaëtan Etoga and Yannick Nguepdjop, after doing a lot of groundworks and research, launched their own doll company, Ymma, in November, according to HuffPost Quebec.

The main aim of the company is to introduce children to the world’s diverse communities while they play with these dolls. Although the Ymma dolls are mostly Black and mixed-race, the daddy-duo say their products are meant for children of all ethnic backgrounds.

Even for a big cosmopolitan city like Montreal, there were some obvious loopholes in terms of diversity and inclusion especially when it comes to toys, the fathers observed.

The dads did not want their children growing up with an identity problem. “We want Black kids to have toys that look like them. We want to inspire them, build their self-esteem, their self-confidence, and make them understand they are beautiful the way God created them.”

Children develop their social skills from a tender age. Ymma’s intentions are for these kids to embrace all races and be exposed to diversity from the onset and what better way to do this than through afro-loving and African print wearing Black and mixed-race dolls which retail for $20.

This is crucial because studies conducted in the 1940s by doctors Kenneth and Mamie Clark have shown that children naturally gravitate towards white dolls when presented with the two. A more recent one undertaken in 2010 reaffirms the findings of the earlier study, which should not be the case, according to Etoga.

Being Black or mixed-race should not make anyone feel unseen. That is why Ymma is on a mission to normalize what should have been normalized a long time ago, making sure Black and mixed-race children feel more seen and more accepting of who they are.

“I think certain parts of society dictate to them that their hair and their noses are ugly,” Etoga told HuffPost Québec. “But what we want to tell them is that that isn’t true.”

The dads are also paying homage to their native home’s culture through the names of the dolls, their natural hairstyles, and the traditional Cameroonian ensemble worn by them.

The names of each doll, Priso, Beri, and Sadi, originate from Douala, a town in their Central African Nation, where they are originally from.

Aside from staying connected to their roots, they are also creating wealth for the locals in their hometown as all the fabrics and outfits worn by the dolls are produced in Cameroon.

Etoga explained that the blue top pattern used for some of the outfits is traditionally used in Cameroon during large ceremonies. The black, yellow, and orange circular pattern ‘toghu’ used for some other outfits are also usually used by Cameroonians in the northwest of the country. The dolls come with outfits, but extra ones can be purchased and sold separately for $10.

Determined to make a difference wherever they find themselves, all Ymma’s packaging is done locally in Quebec to contribute to the local economy which has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

“We hope to see our dolls in every household in the world,” the ambitious entrepreneurs said.

“We want to be the reference for diverse dolls. It’s true we are a business, but it’s not just about selling dolls. It’s about change. Kids are the future; we want to make the world a better place for them.”