Bountiful Brides

Last Sunday I saw a fascinating documentary on the Discovery Channel. It was called "Fat Fiancees," and I almost passed it by because it sounded like one of those ridiculous reality shows - the bride-to-be who drops the most pounds wins a free honeymoon or something like that. But I'm so glad I checked "Fat Fiancees" out. The documentary profiled the Hima tribe in Uganda, and their rather unorthodox (at least to my American mind) standard for female beauty. Men judge a woman's beauty by her obesity.

We followed the story of Sheila, a young woman who appeared to be in her mid-teens. She lived with her family which, like many of the other Hima families, raised cattle in a rural region of Uganda. Cattle are vital to the Hima way of life, and when listening to the men talk, it was sometimes hard to tell if they were discussing their women or their herds. Anyway, Sheila's family made an agreement with the family of a young neighbor named Moses: in exchange for Sheila's hand in marriage, Moses's family would give the parents of the bride ten of the finest specimens from their cattle herd. In a rather telling scene, Sheila's parents are shown discussing whether the deal is a good one; her father ultimately says that they should give up the girl, since it's the cows that really matter.

Once the deal was sealed, it was time for Sheila to leave for her grandmother's compound to undergo a four-month ritual which would prepare her for marriage. That ritual? Fattening.

In Hima society, offering a chubby daughter for marriage is a sign of prosperity, wealth... in short, a fat daughter accords high status to her father. Sheila retired to a small fattening hut where for four months, under her grandmother's watchful eye, she drank gallons of fresh, whole milk every day. She literally had nothing to do other than sleep, drink, and eat; the boredom must have been stupefying.

While Sheila was off being fattened up, viewers were treated to interviews with the men of the family about the value of a fat woman. Her father observed that, just as with fat cattle, a man can't find anything bad to say about a large woman. Sheila's intended, the short and rather scrawny Moses, was especially excited to see how much weight she would gain over the four months.

Back at the fattening hut, Sheila's grandmother expressed pride at how much weight Sheila had gained. She really did look as though she had added 30 or 40 pounds to her previously-thin frame. The grandmother observed (with a bit of disgust) that before Sheila got to the fattening hut, she didn't even have any stretch marks! Now her arms and legs were covered with them. She wasn't fat enough yet, though.

Sheila's future sister-in-law observed in an interview that she hoped that Sheila wouldn't gain too much weight. She herself had grown quite large, to the point where she had difficulty rising and walking. She noted that, in addition to the physical handicaps imposed by her size, people were more savvy now about the health risks associated with such dramatic and rapid weight gain. She was considered beautiful and had been a very desirable bride, but paid the price with her health and mobility.

When the wedding day finally came, everyone in attendance commented approvingly about Sheila's larger frame. Moses was especially happy, even though Sheila, who had already towered over him, now looked like she could drop kick her diminutive husband. Moses's family hired a Hima poet to entertain at the reception, and he spoke in free verse about the newly married couple. Following Hima tradition, the poet referred to Sheila as a cow, and carried the metaphor through his entire performance.

Even after they were married, Sheila was expected to keep up her fattening routine for three more months, drinking surplus milk from the herd she now shared with Moses.

Unfortunately I couldn't find much more information about the Hima fattening traditions. However, this practice is also common in parts of Nigeria, and I was able to find an article about the fattening practices of the Efik people of Cross River State in Nigeria:

Fattening culture among the Efiks

The Efiks have two types.

(1) Ordinary type

(2) Special type (called Nkuho-Eket).

Ordinary type: This takes place when the girl is between 15 and 18 years of age. Efik fattening room is a place where their girls are instructed in domestic life and rest before they pass to their husband's hands and not just to go in and come out with hanging fat.

Six months before going into the fattening, the girls shave their heads, starts powdering themselves with camwood and wear hollow cylindrical brass rings around their ankles. Into these rings they put some small stones which produce a gentle noise when they walk. Each girl wears about six of these rings. When the day comes to go in, each girl is rubbed all over with palm-oil and is given a secluded room curtained off with raffia strands where she has to lie on a mat. Across the room, a raffia string is tied on which she hangs the bones of the fish she eats during this period in order to show her visitors how sumptuously she is being fed.

After three days, she is given a bed, the raffia string with its load is removed and she ceases from rubbing on oil and starts to rub herself with white clay. She is supplied with a very large calabash which serves her as a portmanteau for storing things friends come in to play with her. Children are brought to her for nursing when their mothers go to market or farm. She is being taught on native etiquette on how to serve visitors and craft works. She can step out of her room but not beyond her room. Girls start this type in the months of December or January and it lasts about a year.

Special types

Nkuho-Eket: Girls of weak constitution, who suffer from intermittent fevers, and who have blood relationship with the people of Etebi-Eket (a part of Oron) go for this type. It starts in June or July and lasts at least a year and half or three years if the parents are wealthy.

Before a girl undergoes this fattening, a soothsayer is consulted who names an Oron woman who has to perform necessary sacrificial rites and the nominee must have undergone this type of fattening before. After the necessary sacrifices have been made, a curved piece of cylindrical brass is hung with a piece of string from the girl's neck as a sign that she belongs to this type. They are served by small girls and are fed on special food cooked with special kind of firewood. They must not eat fresh crops from the farm and must not step out of their rooms.

Mbobo: The girls are secluded in the huts for a shorter or longer period depending on the wealth of the parents.

After reaching the age of puberty, the girl is clothed in an embroidered cloth cap, a loin roll of bright coloured cloth, a correlate ornamented with beads and cowry shells, headed shoulder braces and leglets of gaily coloured cloth or coiled brass rods, necklace and armlets of bead work. She is taken to the fattening hut called Mbobi by her mother. The huts are situated on the outskirts of the village. Her period of seclusion may extend from six months to two years. Whilst in the hut, she is called a woman of seclusion (wann-kukho). During the fattening process she is compelled to eat vast quantities of fat producing foods including pounded yam cooked in palm oil. She is not allowed to exert herself in any way. Her face and body are not washed and she is rubbed with clay. White cloths are tied round her neck, wrists and ankle to prevent evil spirits retarding the process.

I'd heard of societies with these fattening traditions before, and they are often regarded by Western observers with humor or derision (laypeople anyway - I think anthropologists probably take them more seriously). Imagine a woman who has been worn down by months of reading Stylish Bride magazine, fasting and doing an hour of cardio a day just to fit into the perfect wedding dress. Now imagine telling that woman that there are cultures where she would be considered more attractive if she actually gained weight before the wedding. Sign me up! But the Hima practice of dictating which body type is desirable, and essentially forcing women to endanger their health to live up to those standards, is not so different from our own culture.

Sure, Americans are supposedly starting to embrace organic foods and active lifestyles, rather than polar opposites of starvation diets and punishing exercise or McDonalds binges and sedentary TV viewing. But the so-called ideal female form, the American version, is still one that many women aren't able to achieve. Should we be judged for not possessing a Jennifer Aniston-like, Pilates-sculpted body, just as Sheila was ridiculed for not having enough stretch marks? Neither extreme is desirable, productive, or particularly healthy.

[Please note that this post just covers the concept of the fattening of brides. A person could write volumes about the Hima's conflation of cattle and women - not intended to offend or to denigrate women, at least not in the minds of the Hima men. And Sheila's inability to choose her husband or direct her own life - she wanted to finish school and to marry someone else, anyone other than her Moses - is tragically common in many societies. These issues are important and have been, I'm sure, addressed in great depth by people with more knowledge and expertise than I have.]