A Hima bride can gain up to 100kg before kuhingira
By Jackson Oboth
A friend living in UK sent me an extract from a London paper titled
Hima Fat Fiances It reads: or the Hima people in western
Uganda, fat is beautiful at least for the women.
Men measure a woman attractiveness by her obesity, and a young
woman is prepared for marriage in ways guaranteed to ç´ atten her
up the least possible activity and the most possible food.
By the time of her marriage, the young woman may be so fat that she
can not walk, only waddle. At the wedding, onlookers comment on how
beautiful she is, noting with approval the cracks in her skin caused
by the fatness and the difficulty with which she walks.
Once married, a wife is kept fat by consuming surplus milk from the
cowherd often coerced to do so by her husband long past the point
of satiation.
The wife leads a life of é¼ eisure.・She is assigned no heavy
physical work, rarely leaves home and spends her days in sexual
liaisons with a variety of men approved by her husband.
These sexual relationships cement economic ones: the obese,
conspicuously-consuming wife is both a symbol and an instrument of
her husband economic prosperity......
A few weeks ago, I set out to find out the truth. Do the Hima still
fatten up their brides in preparation for marriage?
The Bahima are a cattle-keeping community of the Ankole tribe,
living in western Uganda, known for their unique attachment to their
cows.
Eighteen-year-old Sheila lives with her parents in Kyabagenyi
village, a cattle corridor some 9kg off the main road to Rucwere
town.
She has been identified for marriage by 22-year-old Rubagyemyura of
Kyanga village, 17km west of the jungle from Sheilaç—´ village.
To reach Sheilaç—´ home, we drive through cattle trails in the
wilderness, with no clearly defined roads. Bushbacks, wild pigs and
goats criss-cross the trail as the noise from the car interrupts
their afternoon siesta.
Eventually, we come to a homestead of three housing units. Two
iron-roofed building and a grass-thatched mud and wattle hut.
The mud and wattle structure is where the fattening paraphernalia
has been arranged. It comprises a collection of well-polished and
smoked ebyaanzi (milk containers) of different colours.
This is where the young bride will spend months with the fattening
specialist, doing no heavy work, but eating. She will be coaxed into
drinking milk, eating ghee and roasted fatty goat meat.
Sheila is a tall, slender, dark-skinned Ankole girl, probably
weighing just over 65kg.
Nobody gets to see her now, apart from her close family members. She
has been allocated to her grandmother, a 70-year-old woman, to begin
the fattening rituals as soon as the cattle for bride price has been
selected from the groomç—´ kraal, a ceremony locally known here as
Okujugisa.
Shedrack, a University student who is our guide, says feeding on
specially selected traditional foods, and doing no physical work can
accelerate body growth at an amazing rate.
A young woman weighing 65kg at the time of identification for
marriage can be fattened to as heavy as 160kg in only three months.
By the time they are through with her, she would be too fat to the
extent that she can hardly walk.・
Rubagyemura is a typical Hima herdsman. He is out grazing his herd
when we visit his home. His brother, thrilled with our arrival and
purpose of visit, summons Rubagyemura by blowing into his curved
palms, making a musical sound.
To our surprise, an answer comes from a distance in the same manner
and 10 minutes later, a panting young man arrives, stick in hand.
His home is close nit, with four huts 末 one he shares with his
mother and a kitchen, the other two belong to his brother, who lives
with a fat mother of three children.
Rubagyemura is now ready for okugugisa, when the brideç—´ family will
select 10 cows from his kraal. The date has been fixed for the
beginning of December.
Mzee Rwamunyankole, whom we found grazing his cattle on our way back
to Rucwere town, says okujugisa is a very important event in the
marriage tradition among the Bahima.
During the ceremony, men from both the groom and brideç—´ sides
engage in witty debate and poem recitation in a bid to out-compete
each other.
Sometimes they engage in bitter disagreements, resulting into
quarrels. But in the end, the cows would still be selected and a
date would be agreed upon when the groomç—´ family would deliver them
to the bride home.
After okujugisa, the fattening process begins, as the bride is
prepared for okuhingira, the traditional give-away ceremony.
President Museveni refers to this ceremony as the Ankole wedding
ceremony, as good as a church wedding.
On this day, the bride must look fat and beautiful. This is the day
she is given away to her husband, along with an assortment of gifts
ranging from cattle to household items.
Rubagyemura is looking forward to this day. When we ask about how he
feels, his face lights up into a big smile and without a word, it
says it all; can wait to see my bride!
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I do not know the souce of this article!
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