年 月 日 because you didn‘t have money to allow your child to pass through the rite of passage,‖ Etim said. What‘s more, many believe an unfattened girl will be sickly or unable to bear children. Etim, 65, put his two daughters in, a fattening room together when, they were 12 and 15 years old, but some girls undergo the process as early as age 7. As for how fat is fat enough, there is no set standard. But the unwritten rule is the bigger the better, said Mkoyo Edet, Etim‘s sister. “Beauty is in the weight,‖ said Edet, a woman in her 50s who spent three months in a fattening room when she was 7. ―To be called a ?slim princess‘ is an abuse. The girl is fed constantly whether she likes it‘ or not. In Margaret‘s family, there was never any question that she would enter the fattening room. “We inherited it from our forefathers; it is one of the heritages we must continue,‖ said Edet Essien Okon, 25; Margaret‘s stepfather and a language and linguistics graduate of the University of Calabar. ―It‘s a good thing to do; it‘s an initiation rite. His wife, Nkoyo Effiong, 27, agreed: ―As a woman, I feel it is proper for me to put my daughter in there, so she can be educated.‖ 传统观念带来的压力 Etim的计划 越肥越好 马格利特母Effiong, a mother of five, spent four months in a fattening room at the 亲与继父的见解 age of 10. Margaret, an attractive girl with a cheerful smile and hair plaited in fluffy bumps, needs only six months in the fattening room because she is already naturally plump, her stepfather said. 湖南涉外经济学院备课纸
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年 月 日 During the process, she is treated as a goddess, but the days are monotonous. To amuse herself, Margaret has only an instrument made out of a soda bottle with a hole in it, which she taps on her hand to play traditional tunes. Still, the 16-year-old says she is enjoying the highly ritualized fattening practice. “I‘m very happy about this,‖ she said, her belly already distended over the waist of her loin cloth.―I enjoy the food, except for gari.‖ Day in, day out, Margaret must sit cross-legged on a special stool inside the secluded fattening room. ?When it is time to eat, she sits on the floor on a large, dried plantain leaf, which also serves as her bed. She washes down the mounds of food with huge pots of water and takes traditional medicine made from leaves and herbs to ensure proper‘ digestion. As part of the rite, Margaret‘s face is decorated with a white, clay like chalk. “You have to prepare the child so that if a man sees her, she will be attractive,‖ Chief Etim said. Tufts of palm leaf fiber, braided and dyed red, are hung around 马格利特单调的增肥生活 乐在其中 必修的功课 为了美好的Margaret‘s neck and tied like bangles around her wrists and ankles. They are 未来 adjusted as she grows. Typically, Margaret would receive body massages using the white chalk powder mixed with heavy red palm oil. But the teen said her parents believe the skin-softening,, blood-stimulating massages might cause her to expand 确保增肥的辅助办法 湖南涉外经济学院备课纸
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further than necessary. 年 月 日 增肥屋里的Margaret is barred from doing her usual chores or any other strenuous physical activities. And she is forbidden to receive visitors, save for the half a dozen matrons who school Margaret in the etiquette of the Efik clan. They teach her such basics as how to sit, walk and talk in front of her husband. And they impart wisdom about cleaning, sewing, child care and cooking — Efik women are known throughout Nigeria for their chicken pepper soup, pounded yams and other culinary creations. “They advise me to keep calm and quiet, to eat the gari, and not to have many boyfriends so that I avoid unwanted pregnancy,‖ Margaret said of her matron teachers. ―They say that unless you have passed through this, you will not be a full-grown woman.‖ What little exercise Margaret gets comes in dance lessons. The matrons teach her the traditional ekombi, which she will be expected to perform before an audience on the day she emerges from seclusion — usually on the girl‘s 淑女教育 wedding day, Etim said. But Okon said his aim is to prepare his stepdaughter for the future, not to marry her off immediately. Efik girls receive more education than girls in most parts of Nigeria, and Okon hopes Margaret will return to school and embark on a career as a seamstress before getting married. Once she does wed, Margaret will probably honor southeastern Nigeria‘s rich marriage tradition. It begins with a letter from the family of the groom to the family of the bride, explaining that ―our son has seen a flower, a jewel, or 湖南涉外经济学院备课纸
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年 月 日 something beautiful in your family, that we are interested in,‖ said Josephine Effah-Chukwuma, program officer for women and children at the Constitutional Rights Project, a law-oriented nongovernmental organization based in the Nigerian commercial capital of Lagos. if the girl and her family consent, a meeting is arranged. The groom and his relatives arrive with alcoholic beverages, soft drinks and native brews, and the bride‘s parents provide the food. The would-be bride‘s name is never uttered, and the couple are not allowed to speak, but if. all goes well, a date is set for handing over the dowry. On that occasion, the bride‘s parents receive about $30 as a token of appreciation for their care of the young woman. ―If you make the groom pay too much, it is like selling your daughter,‖ 埃菲克人独Effah-Chukwuma said. Then, more drinks are served, and the engagement is 特的求婚方式 official. On the day of the wedding, the bride sits on a specially built wooden throne, covered by an extravagantly decorated canopy. Maidens surround her as relatives bestow gifts such as pots, pans, brooms, plates, glasses, table covers — everything she will need to start her new home, During the festivities, the bride changes clothes three times. The high point is the performance of the ekombi, in which the bride 埃菲克人独twists and twirls, shielded by maidens and resisting the advances of her 特的婚礼形式 husband. It is his task to break through the ring and claim his bride. Traditionalists are glad that some wedding customs are thriving despite the onslaught of modernity. Traditional weddings are much more prevalent in 湖南涉外经济学院备课纸
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and conducted in a church or registry office. 年 月 日 southeastern Nigeria than so-called white weddings, introduced by colonialists 埃菲克传统的生命力 “In order to be considered married, you have to be married in the traditional way,‖ said Maureen Okon, a woman of the Qua ethnic group who wed seven years ago but skipped the fattening room because she did not want to sacrifice the time. ―Tradition identifies a people. It is important to keep up a culture. There is quite a bit of beauty in Efik and Qua marriages.‖ (Adapted from A. M. Simmon.s ―Where Fat Is a Mark of Beauty ―) Comprehension Questions 1. How does Margaret, a Nigerian teenager, gain weight to have the mark of beauty: fat? （eat and sleep） 2. What are the challenges to the traditional African custom of the fattening room? (influences from western culture) 3. How has the fattening room survived and continued under relentless pressure from Western influences? (educate and inherit the tradition) 4. Why did no one in Margaret‘s family doubt that she would enter the fattening room? (they take the custom as heritage and think it proper) 5. What is Margaret‘s response to this traditional practice? 湖南涉外经济学院备课纸
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