Beauty standards have not always gravitated around the evanescent silhouettes of modern models. In Europe, there was a time not so long ago when corpulence was synonymous with opulence and therefore desirability. The curves of motherhood (round stomach, wide hips, prominent buttocks and chest) are featured in prehistoric art and up to 18th century painting.e century – signs that these physical traits were coveted, signaling not only social rank, but also the ability to provide offspring.
We would easily tend to forget it, but the cult of thinness exalted by the media is an obsession as recent as it is Western. In West Africa, for example, voluptuous silhouettes are still eagerly sought after. So much so that a Tuareg tradition, observed since the 11the century in the Saharan regions, consists of force-feeding young girls in order to round out their silhouettes and achieve this ideal of desirable femininity. This is what we call “leblouh”.
Originally, this tradition probably arose among the nomadic peoples of the Sahara, where only the wives of dignitaries could stay in their tent and gain weight. Glorified by traditional poetry, these plump wives reflected the largesse of their husbands and thus became examples to follow. “A woman occupies the place in a man’s heart that she occupies in his bed.”recalls an old Moorish proverb. The ultimate test of beauty, it seems, is to see if the person can be lifted by a camel.
Good flesh
Surprisingly, this tradition has survived the passage of time and remains particularly alive today in Mali, Niger and especially in Mauritania, a desert nation of just over 5 million inhabitants. Paradox: while 32% of the local population lives in poverty, local hospitals report numerous cases of morbid obesity, alarming cholesterol levels and a plethora of cardiovascular diseases – symptoms usually associated with excess calories in the West. And it is women who suffer the most: according to the World Obesity Observatory, 31.5% of Mauritanian women over 15 were obese in 2006, compared to only 8.6% of men.
In question, the tradition of “leblouh”, an obligatory passage for most young girls in Mauritania in search of a husband. The practice consists of ingesting as many calories as possible – sometimes from the age of 6 – under the careful supervision of grandmothers, mothers or professional “fatteners”. On the menu: plasters of couscous and millet, camel or cow’s milk, assortments of crushed peanuts, dates, peanut oil… and even animal fat. In one day, young Mauritanian women can consume up to 16,000 calories, or ten times the recommended dose.
And beware of the “fatted” young girl who might not be very cooperative… “The start of force-feeding is painful for the little girl whose stomach revoltsobserves Edmond Bernus, French geographer who rubbed shoulders with the Tuaregs of Niger in the last third of the 20th centurye century. We hit, we pinch the one who refuses milk. When she is about to vomit, we tickle her nostrils with a leather thread which is used to sew the skin to make her sneeze and make her stop the urge to vomit. Sometimes, the recalcitrant people are even forced to re-ingest what they have vomited.
Good to marry at 12 or 13 years old
Unsurprisingly, this hellish diet leads to dangerously rapid weight gain. At this rate, it only takes a few weeks for hems of fat to bar the necks of the “guinea pigs”, emphasize their hips or cover their waistlines. The ideal is to achieve the coveted stretch marks, considered erotic by men in Mauritania and which some do not hesitate to create artificially by rubbing a comb against their skin.
We find in this cruel practice the same mechanisms as excision: it is a rite of passage towards adulthood, perpetuated from generation to generation and often carried out by the women in the victim’s entourage, who themselves underwent it during their childhood. The practice is closely linked to that of forced marriage, which generally determines the destiny of Mauritanian women before they come of age. Disappearing under a cloak of flesh, the young girl faints. In her place appears the “mature” woman who, at the age of 12 or 13, is now suitable for marriage.
This is the aim of the maneuver: the parents who monetize the services of the “fatteners” intend to escape poverty by attracting the attention of the right people, the gaze of men not lingering on figures that are too thin.
The practice of “leblouh” Would it show some signs of weakening today? If it gradually disappears in the cities, being chased away by the beauty standards broadcast by TV series and Western magazines, it remains significant in rural communities. According to a specialist, the “leblouh” would still concern 40% of Mauritanian women today. In desperation, the most impatient are now turning to steroids or growth hormones intended for breeding livestock.
