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 Nigeria’s big cities and ask him if
bigger is better in choice of a bride. You’ll 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, don’t 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 she’s
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 fiance’s 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 woman’s 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 craft’s,
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