In Nigeria, the rich can pay for special "fattening rooms" to put on extra weight.
BBC World Service's Outlook programme spoke to a couple who opted for such a service before their wedding.

"In the morning you eat fine," says Happiness Edem, recalling her time in the fattening room in the Nigerian city of Calabar.
"After eating you can take a bath. From there you can sleep, you sleep fine, you wake up, you eat, you sleep."

Happiness attended the fattening centre for a total of six months, at the request of her husband, Morris Eyo Edem, leading up to their wedding.
By the time she had come out, her body shape had changed completely - to the delight of her husband.

Fattening culture

The average weight of a Nigerian woman is 60kg - but Happiness is well over twice that.

As a prince, Mr Edem requires a particularly large wife, and adds that a slim wife would have no appeal for him.


Happiness maintains her weight through garri
"I don't think I will ever even do that," he says.
"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."

After she had been fattened up, he continued to maintain her weight through feeding her up on garri, a sort of porridge made from cassava tubers, and native salads, known as Ekpan Koko and Oto.

"I add rice and beans and more meat and fish to make her more huge and big to maintain the stature you want your woman to be," he adds.

And the Prince and his wife, who belong to the Efik tribe, certainly see no reason to change.

"When you are fat, it makes you look healthy," says Happiness.
"People respect you. People honour you. Wherever you go, they say, 'your husband feed you fine.
"If you go to a village, people can come out to look at you, because you are healthy."

Despite the risks of heart disease, diabetes and other health problems associated with being overweight, Happiness says she has had no problems as a result of her stature.

"It is all about cultures," says her husband.
"The culture here in our area permits women to go into fattening room. But the culture in Europe and other Asian or American does not."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6904640.stm

abeg when them start this kin thing?

e don tey ! " "

in fact its part of their culture

bull shit

when she is 50 and has diabetes adn heart disease, then she will know what is up

Going to the Fattening room is optional. It is NOT compulsory. It is a practice that is fast dying out. Am sure in the next five years, most people would have forgotten that such a thing existed.

No one said it was compulsory. and did you say it was dying out?

Dis Guy:

No one said it was compulsory. and did you say it was dying out?

Yup!

One man's meat is another's poison.Come to think of it,fat is horrible for health reasons,it affects the workings of the organs in the body and you are prone to diseases like diabetes,high blood pressure etc but like i said earlier on,it is a choice thing based on mind sets,evolution,we will get there.

Mikel X:

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Wrong location though.

Fattening rooms? I gotta get me one of those, with the candidates included of course!!!!

Oops!!! How did that get in there , Really sorry y'all

wavemasta:

Fattening rooms? I gotta get me one of those, with the candidates included of course!!!!

I bet, u'll come out of there slimmer. LOL

It is a dying culture, but nevertheless still thriving in certain parts of the Cross River/Akwa Ibom area.

culture my ass. it is olding days thing.

real men love big ladies

@osereka, Yes yes you know the koko!!!!

osereka:

real men love big ladies

omo head on,  unlike those freakingly disgustinstickthin models u see on catwalks on tv. Nigeria chics suddenly have a desire to  be thin too,  ##@$#^#^%$%^$!!!!

corpulence is sexy!

@topic

its a culture diminishing. and its never been compulsory to enter the fattening room.

Well, i never thot the 'fattening room' thing still existed in this modern day of heart diseases and obesity. . . .

hey hey this tin dey happen 4 Naija here? Little wonder Calabar women r so fat

1 man's meat is anoda man's poison. sum lyk their women orobo', while sum like em lepa'.

This is not something new. A vast MAJORITY of Naija men prefer women with some meat, and before you jump on me, I didn't say 'fat', I simply said 'meat'. You can argue all you want but it is a fact.

I put meat on quote. . . it simply means (My own definition) somebody with some flesh, not Muscle bound woman. Yes, I like women like Serena Williams.

I wish they have a defattening room. I needdddddddddddddddd one

The defattening room has that Taibo dude on the screen telling you to get up and dance the weight off.

omg!

Old news.

Interesting perspective on fatness from this culture. A bridge into the past of all humanity, when plumpness was preferred by all.










Not that I agree with it though.

I love the practice

^^^

No wonder you are fat too

I like you though.

keep getting fat

I like fat girls!

reading 'Tiny Sunbirds Far Away' made me come across this tradition

Kobojunkie:

The defattening room has that Taibo dude on the screen telling you to get up and dance the weight off.

Lol.

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