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Olaolu Fajembola

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Olaolu Fajembola (* 1980 in Stuttgart) is a German-Nigerian cultural studies scholar, author and founder. She lives with her daughter in Berlin.1Nachgefragt! (n.d.): Von klein auf über Rassismus sprechen. In: Nachgefragt!. Available online at: https://nach-gefragt.org/interviews/von-klein-auf-ueber-rassismus-sprechen (accessed on 3 August 2023).

Career

After finishing secondary school (Abitur), Olaolu Fajembola trained as an archivist at Südwestrundfunk, then studied cultural studies and worked in film.2Zeit Online (2021): Olaolu Fajembola: „Als Schwarze Frau bin ich auch beruflich nie vor Rassismus geschützt“. In: Zeit Online, article of 26 October. Available online at: https://www.zeit.de/arbeit/2021-10/olaolu-fajembola-rassismus-arbeit-podcast (accessed on 3 August 2023). For several years she worked as project manager of the “Berlinale Africa Hub” platform of the Berlinale’s European Film Market, and she worked as project lead at AfroPolitan Berlin.3Nachgefragt! (n.d.): Von klein auf über Rassismus sprechen. In: Nachgefragt!. Available online at: https://nach-gefragt.org/interviews/von-klein-auf-ueber-rassismus-sprechen (accessed on 3 August 2023).4AfroPolitan Berlin (n.d.): Weiterbilden: Tipps & Ressourcen von AfroPolitan Berlin & unserem Netzwerk. In: AfroPolitan Berlin. Available online at: https://afropolitan.berlin/ueber-uns/ressourcen/ (accessed on 3 August 2023).

Tebalou

Together with Tebogo Nimindé-Dundadengar, Olaolu Fajembola founded Tebalou in 2018, an online toy shop offering diverse toys, books, drawing and craft materials, and learning and educational resources for children, such as dolls of different ethnic backgrounds or crayons in different skin tones. According to the founders, Tebalou offers products “that tell of ethnic diversity, the heterogeneity of family models, different religions, beyond binary gender roles or stereotypical depictions of girls and boys.”5Digital Female Leader Award (2021): Olaolu Fajembola & Tebogo Niminde-Dundadengar. In: Digital Female Leader Award. Available online at: https://digital-female-leader.de/finalists21/olaolu-fajembola/ (accessed on 3 August 2023). The two also set out the vision of their company on their website:

“Our dream is that every child, regardless of skin colour, religious denomination, family constellation, physique, preferences, wishes and dreams, can recognise themselves and find positive images in which they can see themselves reflected. We want to play our part in this by offering the right doll, the fitting book or the suitable play figure.”6Tebalou (n.d.): About Us. In: Tebalou. Available online at: https://tebalou.shop/pages/ueber-uns (accessed on 3 August 2023).

In their own childhood in the 1980s, there were hardly any toys in which the founders could recognise themselves.7Femtastics (2020): Die Gründerinnen von „tebalou“ setzen sich für Diversität im Spielzimmer und Anti-Rassismus ein. In: Femtastics, article of 26 June. Available online at: https://femtastics.com/stories/tebalou/ (accessed on 3 August 2022).8Toys Kids (2023): Brennpunkt: Mehr Raum für mehr Vielfalt. In: Toys Kids, article of 11 March. Available online at: https://www.toys-kids.de/insight/brennpunkt-mehr-raum-fuer-mehr-vielfalt/ (accessed on 3 August 2023). As Olaolu Fajembola describes it:

“I did have the feeling of not always belonging, of being something special, that is, in a certain way being particularly visible because of my outward appearance, but on the other hand also completely invisible when it came to books and toys. There was a discrepancy between the perception of my conspicuous outward appearance and the books and games. There were no Black heroines or characters in them.”9Toys Kids (2023): Brennpunkt: Mehr Raum für mehr Vielfalt. In: Toys Kids, article of 11 March. Available online at: https://www.toys-kids.de/insight/brennpunkt-mehr-raum-fuer-mehr-vielfalt/ (accessed on 3 August 2023).

Even later, when the two became mothers themselves and were looking for toys that represented their own children, they often could not find any in Germany.10Toys Kids (2023): Brennpunkt: Mehr Raum für mehr Vielfalt. In: Toys Kids, article of 11 March. Available online at: https://www.toys-kids.de/insight/brennpunkt-mehr-raum-fuer-mehr-vielfalt/ (accessed on 3 August 2023). After all, representation is always a form of appreciation too. Olaolu Fajembola’s co-founder Tebogo Nimindé-Dundadengar explains:

“For children who otherwise do not see themselves represented, it is a form of appreciation, of equal worth. It shows that they, too, are seen and are part of the world. And it opens up possibilities. The children see a protagonist who looks like them and think: ‘I could be a hero in a story too.’ That is incredibly motivating.”11Dombrowsky, Julia (2021): “Mama, guck mal! Die Frau hat braune Haut!” – Wie zur Hölle bespricht man Rassismus mit einem Kleinkind? In: Watson, article of 18 December. Available online at: https://www.watson.de/leben/interview/357525652-tebogo-niminde-dundadengar-ueber-kleinkinder-und-rassismus (accessed on 3 August 2023).

For the idea behind their diverse online shop, the entrepreneurs received the Kultur- und Kreativpilot*innen-Preis der Bundesregierung (the German federal government’s award for cultural and creative pilots) in 2019 and were honoured with the Digital Female Leader Award in the Diversity category.12Kultur- und Kreativpilot*innen Deutschland (2019): Tebalou. In: Kultur- und Kreativpilot*innen Deutschland. Available online at: https://kultur-kreativpiloten.de/titeltraeger/tebalou/ (accessed on 3 August 2023).13Digital Female Leader Award (2021): Olaolu Fajembola & Tebogo Niminde-Dundadengar. In: Digital Female Leader Award. Available online at: https://digital-female-leader.de/finalists21/olaolu-fajembola/ (accessed on 3 August 2023). The two women spoke about the story of founding their company in the magazine SHE works! – Das Wirtschafts- und Karrieremagazin für Frauen (the business and career magazine for women).14SHE works! (2020): Tebalou: Für mehr Vielfalt im Spielzimmer, article of 17 November. Available online at: https://www.she-works.de/gruenderinnen-im-portraet/tebalou-fuer-mehr-vielfalt-im-spielzimmer/2020/11/17/ (accessed on 3 August 2023). In the essay “Unlearn Rassismus” (Unlearn Racism) in the essay collection Unlearn Patriarchy, the two founders discuss how founding a company in Germany involves many obstacles for women, and for Black women in particular.15Nimindé-Dundadengar, Tebogo/Fajembola, Olaolu (2022): Unlearn Rassismus. In: Jaspers, Lisa/Ryland, Naomi/Horch, Silvie (eds.): Unlearn Patriarchy. Berlin: Ullstein, ISBN 978-3-550-202193, pp. 159–177.

In February 2026, the two founders announced that they would be closing their online shop and were seeking changes.16Tebalou (2026): untitled. In: Instagram, post of 27 February. Available online at: https://www.instagram.com/p/DVP-_vNDGi9/ (accessed on 27 February 2026).

Books

Olaolu Fajembola writes diversity-sensitive, racism-critical parenting guides and children’s books. In her book Afrokids, which is aimed primarily at the parents of Black children, she discusses questions and fears that are addressed only marginally or not at all in other parenting guides, for example skin and hair care for Black children or dealing with multilingualism.17Fajembola, Olaolu (2016): Afrokids: Ein Ratgeber für die ersten Lebensjahre Schwarzer Kinder. Münster: Unrast, ISBN 978-3-89771-218-8. Together with Tebogo Nimindé-Dundadengar, she has published the book Gib mir mal die Hautfarbe: Mit Kindern über Rassismus sprechen (roughly: “Pass me the skin colour: Talking to children about racism”), in which the two offer tips for an anti-racist upbringing.18Fajembola, Olaolu/Nimindé-Dundadengar, Tebogo (2021): Gib mir mal die Hautfarbe: Mit Kindern über Rassismus sprechen. Weinheim: Beltz, ISBN 978-3-407-86689-9. In the children’s book So schlafe ich! Und wie schläfst du? (“This is how I sleep! And how do you sleep?”), Olaolu Fajembola and Tebogo Nimindé-Dundadengar, together with Paran Kim, tell bedtime stories that depict diverse family models from different cultures.19Fajembola, Olaolu/Nimindé-Dundadengar, Tebogo/Kim, Paran (2023): So schlafe ich! Und wie schläfst du? Hamburg: Carlsen, ISBN 978-3-551-17278-5.

Awards

Publications

  • Fajembola, Olaolu (2016): Afrokids: Ein Ratgeber für die ersten Lebensjahre Schwarzer Kinder. Münster: Unrast, ISBN 978-3-89771-218-8.
  • Fajembola, Olaolu/Nimindé-Dundadengar, Tebogo (2021): Gib mir mal die Hautfarbe: Mit Kindern über Rassismus sprechen. Weinheim: Beltz, ISBN 978-3-407-86689-9.
  • Fajembola, Olaolu/Nimindé-Dundadengar, Tebogo (2022): Unlearn Rassismus. In: Jaspers, Lisa/Ryland, Naomi/Horch, Silvie (eds.): Unlearn Patriarchy. Berlin: Ullstein, ISBN 978-3-550-202193, pp. 159–177.
  • Fajembola, Olaolu/Nimindé-Dundadengar, Tebogo/Kim, Paran (2023): So schlafe ich! Und wie schläfst du? Hamburg: Carlsen, ISBN 978-3-551-17278-5.
  • Fajembola, Olaolu/Nimindé-Dundadengar, Tebogo (2024): Mit Kindern über Diskriminierungen sprechen. Weinheim: Beltz, ISBN 978-3-407-86791-9.

External links

Machine translation: This article was translated automatically from the German original.

Olaolu Fajembola Foto: Madlen Krippendorf
Empfohlene Zitierweise
  • Svenja Schürmann
  •  (2023)
  • : Olaolu Fajembola. In: Equalpedia. 
  • Online unter: 
https://www.equalpedia.org/en/olaolu-fajembola-2/
  • (Zugriff am 26. September 2026).