Monday, August 25, 2008

Interesting short documentary on fattening houses and FGM in Cross River

17 comments:

Uzezi 11:33 pm  

the fattening room in CRS has always interested me since i learnt about it

Lost at the Other End of the World 12:11 am  

Could not play video. Says the video is no longer available.

xoliquoricexo 12:35 am  

funny how i was looking for this video just yesterday and just couldn't find it on youtube! thanks!

anonymaus,  1:56 pm  

Interesting how Nigeria is no where near the size of India, Indonesia, US or the Russian Federation, but you have such constrasting cultures regarding the human body, 500 miles due north and the burqah and hijab reign supreme, and the female body is hidden under yards of material, compare that to the display of the body in Cross Rivers state.

Controversial Anon 5:51 pm  

Ok this documentary is not interesting, if anything it's misleading. I was born and raised in Calabar and this thing is sooooooo off track I don't know where to start.

It is Europeans that started the name 'Fattening House' for obvious confused reasons, mainly because they did not understand what the process was about and I shall try to educate everyone about it. The real name of this process is 'Nkuho', Nkuho is a noun and is the name by which we refer to any girl that has undergone the process, the process is NOT about getting fat, it rather is a process of transition from a childhood to a womanhood (like a right of passage). This process includes many things, few of which I shall list below:

1) Cooking - the girl is tutored in cookery and house keeping. Ever wondered why Calabar food is so delicious? She is thought how to make all major dishes and the skills she will need to feed her husband and children.

2) Sex - she is schooled in the art of pleasing men. Not only the sexual acts, but foreplay, seduction, tactics and strategies to get what you want from a man, and all the other things that Calabar girls are accused of when they steal your man.

3) Child birth - her body is readied for child birth, her hips and cervical muscles are worked on to make her better able to cope with the wahalla of pregnancy and delivery.

4) Beauty - her skin and hair are worked on, she is thought personal hygiene, her legs and eyes are all worked upon using local cosmetics to make sure she is looking beautiful when she comes out as an Nkuho.

Now the fattening bit comes in because Calabar men (well, African men) love booty, it was not really about being fat, it was more about getting the booty out, in the right places, the hips, the breasts, and the butt, and these help in child birth too.

Also very important is that female circumcision has no place in this process, I have no idea where they got their information, but there is no female circumcision in Calabar (at least not since the Church of Scotland Missionaries settled - Mary Slessor and co - over 130 year ago now), the tradition in Calabar is actually pro-sex and pro sexual pleasure, so isn't it contradictory to be circumcising girls?

As mentioned before, I was born and raised in Calabar, I have never seen a 'fattening house' where people go in solely to be fat. I have seen Nkuhos but they are no 'fatter' than the regular big booty girl in any university.

Whenever British people go through colonial and missionary diaries, they see one fascinating thing that a district officer of missionary wrote down (which was largely misunderstood anyway) and they go off on this wild goose chase, into the most remote villages and piece together with bad editing, entirely different people talking about entirely unrelated things so as to justify their budget.

The girl that was interviewed in the gym is not from Calabar, she is from Bayelsa state and she lives in Port Harcourt, her name is Tubolayefa. Guess what, the only thing she can remember is someone walking into a gym to ask her whether she prefers to be fat or slim.

So my point is - There is no such thing as a 'fattening house', that, like many other things about our culture, is the white man's confused interpretation.

Anonymous,  6:12 pm  

Controversial Anon - thanks for keeping the record straight. I thought it was about getting the girls ready for marriage/womanhood and not the other.

I hear Calabar women know how to keep thier men satisfied based on this process.

I need that rite of passage. Is their an age limit? I guess over 25need not apply!

Sandrine 7:09 pm  

to Jeremy:
I could not open the video.What is the title of it?

to controversial anon:
"her body is readied for child birth, her hips and cervical muscles are worked on".What do you mean? Is she already pregnant?
"it was more about getting the booty out, in the right places, the hips, the breasts, and the butt,and these help in child birth too."LOL!
Having a booty "out" does not help anyone in childbirth.Being fit does.

Sandrine

Homeless 8:21 pm  

Like Wole Soyinka was saying "There are some guests , when they leave the house, you have to count the forks and knives."
Who has stolen the bloody movie? I am not finding this funny

'derin,  9:25 pm  

All I have to say (after a few glasses of vodka and i will probably be mortified when i read this tomorrww)....is I NEED ME THAT FATTENING ROOM (or whateever the heck it's called).. the art of seduction and pleasing a man? oh laord my gawd, somebody get me there!!

'derin,  9:28 pm  

WTF??? Who stole the video??

Anonymous,  12:30 am  

not to be mean or nothing, did anyone see this video,- the swearing-in of liyel imoke as governor of calabar today..looked liked his wife had been to a fatenning house. dont blame her if its the calabar ideal woman....

Anonymous,  2:04 am  

i agree with everything you say except female circumcision does take place in calabar, though not through nkohu. females in my family have been circumcised, at least 3 i know of. However, none of them went through 'the fattening house.'

anonymaus,  2:12 am  

Controversial Anonymous, a highly informative post, it was great many thanks.

Anonymous,  2:21 am  

@ controversial anon, you are bang on target.

Furthermore, the women from Calabar are well known for being great in the - ahem - bedroom, and I think it's because they are taught about the fine art of sex. Ask any non-Calabar man married to a Calabar woman, and they will tell you. Calabar women sweet pass honey and sugar.

Controversial Anon 9:54 am  

Sorry to burst your bubble but Liyel Imoke is not from Calabar, neither is his wife. Liyel Imoke is from Northern Cross River - different language, different culture, different food, different values, different everything. And he wasn't sworn in as governor of Calabar, he was sworn-in in Calabar (the State capital) as governor of Cross River. Donald Duke, on the other hand, is from Calabar.

Thought I'd clarify. :-)

Anonymous,  4:12 am  

Controversial anon, good on you. There are so many ignorant Nigerians about Nigeria, I wonder if these are the same people in Jeremy's ears? WTH? Governor of Calabar? If you do not know something, try and do some research before you confuse others. Not every one east of Benin or the Niger is "omo Ibo".

BTW the Calabar woman myth is just the dirty fantasies of beer parlour men. Half the time the woman might be Anang,Ibibio or from Eket but to the ignorant Nigerian, na Calabar woman.

Feral Female 1:05 am  

What!! So the assumption is that all these Calabar girls know how to please a man, despite one poster above claiming to have never seen a fattening house or been to one.

Lol.

Anyways, I read various 'fattening houses' in different tribes and some circumcise, some don't. The emphasis is not about liberating a female and allowing her to enjoy sex, but instead to prepare her so that her husband finds no fault and can enjoy her body to the fullest and that she becomes the 'perfect wife'.

If one exists??

Someone share tips of what they've learnt from one of these Fhouses because last time I checked if you were a pro at sex you were considered a 's***' to African men.

:(

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