NAME: ABIOLA SOLIU OLAKUNLE

MATRIC NO: S115304001

DEPARTMENT: POLITICAL
SCIENCE
COLLEGE: COSMAS
COURSE CODE: SOC 102
COURSE NAME: SOCIOLOGY
LEVEL: 100LEVEL

BRIDE FATTENING IN IGBO LAND

Walk up to the young, westernized bachelor in Nigerias big cities
and ask him if bigger is better in choice of a bride. Youll most
probably get that quizzical stare and a coy smile that give you the
sneaky feeling that your question is-well-silly (Hellooo!!! At least,
you do sometimes watch beauty pageants, dont you?). So very
likely your poll result would be: the modern African bride must be
slim, curvy and graceful; very much alike an Agbani Darego,
Oluchi Orlandi, Genevive Nnaji or a Tiwa Savage.
But all that runs against the grain in the Efik tradition. Here, the
pride of the groom is an obese bride just emerging from a
fattening room; where shes subjected to an incredible six months
of no-work and all food and sleep! So is the bigger the better,
according to this curious African Marriage Rite.
Among the Efik, domiciled in large parts of Akwa Ibom and Cross
River States, beauty is not always in the eyes of the beholder, but
as defined as the fattening room rite of the people.
In this culture, men are conditioned to have a preference for
round, fat, overweight women which in their eyes is the symbol of
desire, prosperity, wealth, homeliness, motherliness and virtue.
Sometimes easier pregnancy and fertility are associated with
obese women, making the fattening room culture an important
aspect of Efik culture and tradition. Big is beautiful. . I have
indeed heard stories of girls who were refused by fiances family
because their stature was not befitting a proper rotund bride.
In contrast slim women are seen as unhealthy, unfed and likely to
have difficulty bearing children; and men who prefer looked down
on as tasteless, poor, too westernized and ultimately unafrican.
Although as a result of modernity as well as the well known health
problems connected to obesity, the cultural practice of fattening
rooms is not all that rampant in that part of Nigeria as before,

some African societies still view being fat as a symbol of status

and power. In fact, some rich grooms or families pay for special
fattening rooms for their bride to put on extra weight.
But like all entrenched cultural practices, the Efik have their own
compelling arguments why the curious marriage rites of the
fattening room is a very important traditional and cultural event
that symbolizes wealth, prosperity, good fortune and beauty by
the bride to the husband.

ALL PLAY AND NO WORK

The bride is subjected to seclusion for a long period ranging
from three months, six months to an entire year and fed a large
quantity of rich fatty food daily and allowed lots of sleep so she
can gain excess weight and become obese. After the rites, your
bride of just about 60kg will be well over twice than that.
The foods the woman is forced to consume in large quantities,
even when she has no appetite, are usually rich native delicacies
loaded with calories like Ekpan Koko, Edika Ikong, Afang
generously filled with snail, bush meat and fish, as well as meals
consisting yam, rice, beans, cassava and wheat.
The womans entry into and eventual emergence from the
fattening room is characterized by funfair celebrations and
excitement. She is attired in traditional outfits, beautified in
finery, colourful materials, beads around the waist, hair properly
woven in cornrows and bangles on ankle and wrists. She may also
be painted in earthy colours all over the body.
The isolation of the bride also means she gets no visitor either
male or female (except minders) and is restricted t her immediate
environment which could be a bungalow, hut, or small compound.
Although, in modern times she may have a few home comforts to
compensate for a likely feeling of boredom or loneliness. She may
also be allowed to relish the taste of palm wine, undergo

massages, spa and body treatment, stretching, rubbing of lotions,

use of herbal concoctions and oils on her body.
But besides fattening her up for her would-be-husbands pleasure,
the bride is taught other cultural traditions of her people by her
minders, who are usually elderly women.
This includes certain traditional wifely duties and expectations like
how to cook some native dishes and properly care for her new
family. She may also learn some traditional songs and oral
traditions and tutored in traditional art and crafts, manage funds
and ultimately please her husband.

WANING TRADITION
In the olding days, sometimes a more sinister purpose like
circumcision is carried during the fattening room rites as it was
erroneously believed to aid child birth and reduce the likelihood of
promiscuity. In more modern fattening room practices, this
particular function is banned and long forgotten.
As glamorized as it may look, in the past the fattening room was
not journey to blissful pampering, indulgence and sumptuous
meals. In reality, the rite was tough, frightening and forced on the
woman. Thankfully in modern times it is no longer compulsory.
Only those bound by a need for tradition and the rich with a
compulsive itch to be acknowledged as wealthy and healthy still
carry out this practice.

References;

Sugabellyrocks.com
Nairaland.com
Google.com