CALABAR FATTENING ROOMS

The Efik send their women to 'fattening rooms' in preparation for marriage. There, they are fed large amounts of food, massaged and made to sleep for long periods of time in an effort to increase their weight and gain fuller proportions. (If you are not familiar with this practice, please click here to read a detailed description of the procedure.) Efik women (and men) take great pride in this time-honored tradition of fattening brides before marriage. I have indeed heard stories of girls who were refused by a fiance's family because their stature was not befitting a proper rotund bride.

Prince Edem recently described best the social importance of the fattening rooms in a recent BBC article on the subject when he stated, "People will think I am not rich... If a woman is not fat and has not gone through that process she does not qualify for marriage." He then went on to explain his 'revulsion' for slim women, clarifying that he could never marry one as slim women hold no appeal for him.

As much as I can appreciate this tradition, I wonder about the consequences of such fattening rooms for the health of the bride to be. Making any individual gain enormous amounts of weight is unhealthy and can result in serious health problems. Obesity and simply being overweight have been shown to be bad for health. Obese and overweight people are at a higher risk of suffering from diabetes, joint and muscle pain, heart problems and many other health problems that I will not expound upon here. To maintain this fattening practice in this day and age, despite our knowledge about the importance of health and the consequences of being overweight and obese is foolhardy in the least and dangerous at the most. Especially when you consider that, as Prince Edem suggested, this practice is simply maintained to show the world that one is rich - not a very redeeming quality in my book, especially when a woman's health is concerned.

I am all for maintaining traditions, but I nonetheless believe that like anything else, traditional practices are subject to review and can be discarded or modified if and when they are shown to be detrimental. Like the Osu practice in Igbo land, which I have already espoused my opinions on, I believe it is time to at least modify this 'fattening' practice. There are better, more health conscious, ways for people like Price Edem to flaunt their wealth to society. Do what the Kalabari people do, require a man to build a house for the woman in her village. The bigger the house, the more people will sing the man's praises. Or, simply put an ad in the paper or on television telling all who are willing to hear, (or read), how much you are worth. Sort of like what Yar'Adua did - publicly reveal your assets. The whole world will understand that you are unquestionably rich. Of course such a practice would not work for those who are simply perpetrating at being rich, but that is an issue for another day.

Further modification of the fattening process could require women to go away to 'beauty rooms' instead. I would be very envious of any woman who spent 6 months being pampered from head to foot with massages using oils from natural plants, soaking in mud baths and eating delectable dishes while she read a few books and engaged in meaningful and stimulating conversations to prepare her to be the partner of a 'wealthy and important' man who can obviously afford such a 'beauty room'. Doesn't that sound much better than fattening a woman as if she is a cow being prepared to produce choice cuts of steak?

If the fattening room practice is about beauty, which it arguably is, then we need to modify our understanding of beauty. Beauty comes in all shapes and sizes. I am not campaigning for thinness, but I am campaigning for healthiness. Just as women do not have to be skinny to be considered beautiful, so also do they not have to be obese or overweight. A woman can be beautiful however God made her. Fattening her up, should not be a prerequisite.

No one is above change. No people are above correction. I believe that we must change the aspects of ourselves that can and do cause us more harm than good. This fattening practice would qualify. Think about it....