suricattca:

Is it true that "Fathouse/Fat house" is a place where Nigerians girl are prepared for marriage? I read about this in book. Can u explain what this means? What do the girls do in "Fathouse/Fat house"?

suricattca:

@ Stillwater
I knew that only one or few ethnic groups.

Why should the girls be fat?

suricattca:

@ Stillwater
I knew that only one or few ethnic groups.

Why should the girls be fat?

bawomolo:

because some men like them thick, phat and fabolous or whatever obesity is known as these days

Dis Guy:

I don't think men like girls/ladies that deliberately chomp down carbohydrates just to look thick
have you seen these women? they end up being round with wide mid-section making their
arms look disproportional short high round chest almost struggling for breathe

Dis Guy:

I don't think men like girls/ladies that deliberately chomp down carbohydrates just to look thick
have you seen these women? they end up being round with wide mid-section making their
arms look disproportional short high round chest almost struggling for breathe

JamaicanQT:

i saw it one the BBC or channel4 can't remeber which african country its was though,  they even force feed the girl,  the bigger she is the more appealing she looks to her future husband,  one woman was so fat she suffered from back and knee pains,  oh and when the husband thinks the wife is big enough he then exchange her for a cow or two cows

iceblue:

ahh ahhnn rumors don begin fly!

it's a tradition common among the calabar/efik people (that general geographic area sha)
and it involves the seclusion of a girl who is about to get married (she has already chosen her hubby or vice versa).
they feed her with rich food to make her put on weight, teach her how to cook, keep her home clean et c. she also takes modelling classes (i.e. how to catwalk for her man ). the only downside is putting on weight. very few (if any) still go through the ritual today.

i mean, she can only take a week off from work to prepare for the trad wedding, even if she's interested, who has time to go to the fathouse?

My people still practise that custom 'til today - the Kalabaris of the Niger Delta.  However, I'm not quite sure about the Calabar people but we certainly do it.

When a woman has her first child, she has to go into the fattening room at her husband's family home.  She stays there for three months, and gets fattened up.  She never has to do anything for herself except to breast-feed the child. 

During this period, everything is done for her by members of the family.  She's fed lots of yam and onunu (yam and riped plantain pounded together in oil), fish and so on.

After the three-month period, it's time for her to leave the fattening room.  Inorder to celebrate this momentous event, the female elders in the family then dress her up in very old traditional clothes that span several generations (these are always boxed up after use), such as 'india' (wrapper) and silk.   She's then donned in ancient jewellery especially big, pink cowry, all over, including her ankles and wrists.

The wrapper is only tied up to her knees, and indeed, this is the only time that a Kalabari woman has to show her knees in public.

They then give her a saucer and a walking stick with which she has to go round the town twice a day, for three days, collecting alms.  She's accompanied by members of her husband's compound, who are singing right behind her, as she goes to every compound in the town.

After the three days, she then has to perform a dance for a further three days, in front of an audience, both mornings and evenings, in the compound square, so as to bring the event to an end.

This ceremony is only performed on the birth of her first child but not the rest.