Photo of the Week Contest 21 | Sharing my best Photo of the Wee

Hello beautiful ladies, compliments of the season to you all and to @m-fdo, thank you for this contest. I'm gonna share some beautiful pictures with you and the story behind it. I remain one of you, @destinedhanik from #Nigeria.

I'm from the Southern part of Nigeria, Akwa Ibom precisely and in Akwa Ibom and even in Cross River state, we have young ladies known as the 'Mboppo'.

The Mboppos

Mboppo is/was a way of preparing girls for marriage. It is an Ibibio customary way of preparing young virgin girls between the age of 13 and 25 for marriage and their role as wives and mothers. The fattening period was usually 3 to 6 months depending on the resources of the girl's parents.

The Mbopo initiate were young girls who had never had sexual intercourse and they were put in the house of seclusion for fattening. One of the beliefs of those days was that a girl must be fattened before marriage.

The Mbopos would be prepared by experienced elderly women for womanhood. They would be taught, mentored, advised on how to be successful in the marriage they were about to go into. They would be taught morals, skills, home craft lessons, body care, how to please their husbands, etc. During the period of seclusion and fattening of these girls, they were not to do any domestic work or stress themselves in anyway. Their duty was only to eat rich and good local meals and sleep, wake up, eat and sleep. They may take a stroll in the evening around the compound where they were but must not be sighted by outsiders. The Mboppos had attendants who were there to attend to them.

The Mboppos were usually rubbed natural oils like palm oil, shea butter, etc to make their skins shiny and smooth. From the pix shared by me, the Mboppos here had been fattened and came out on the final day for the public to see and appreciate them, with their skins rubbed with palm oil.

This practice was not for everyone, but only girls who were virgins. It was one of the practice to curtail sexual wrecklessness among young girls and because of this, other girls would envy them and would keep themselves undefiled so as to undergo the same treatment. Of course, on their day of marriage, the husband of the mbopo would be very happy to marry a girl that is very healthy with smooth skin.

On the Uruan day during Christmas, the Mbopos came out to be appreciated. They showed their different dance steps and all they were taught.

Shots taken by me from Infinix smart 8