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Monday, January 19, 2009

This saddens ME.

I was going through a newly discovered blog and reading up on its old post wen I saw a video talking about breast ironing.
This is a very old practice in Cameroon where a young girl's breasts are ironed at a tender age sometimes as early as 9 so that they become unattractive to men hence she doesn't become promiscuous and probably become a teenage mother!. word??!!

It didn't make sense to me and i went searching for literature about it, and apparently, its a very common practice in Cameroon where over 4 million of the female population have ironed breasts.
This ironing starts the moment their breasts begin to bud. their mothers take little flat and smooth stones, pestles,wooden spoons, basically anything that can convey and retain heat. this item is heated and then held against the young girls breast pressing it in a downward motion in the process destroying the ligature of the breasts and slackening the skin around it. this is done everyday for a period of about 2 months by which time the breasts would have unnaturally fallen and would most definitely have burn marks around it.

These girls grow up with a sense of insecurity and inferiority as they cannot undress in public.
I ask myself, why do these things happen and continue to happen? we say its to prevent promiscuity, whatever happened to sexual education? doesn't it take two anymore? why are the boys/men being exonerated?
Why is it that in the year 2009, we still talk about issues like this, first female genital mutilation, now breast ironing. next maybe we would be slashing off their noses and plucking out their eyes just so men aren't attracted and it doesn't cause em to have sex!

All this i feel is because the women, in an African society,have always been the underdog and still it continues, albeit in small ways in some places. baby steps, baby steps. because they are not on the same plane as men, they are blamed for everything. how else would you have me explain a culture that flattens a young girl's breasts so she doesn't attract men! why cant the men be told to keep off the young ones instead and wait till they become consenting adults?!

Nigeria..sigh!
our government.. sigh sigh!
the president.. sigh! sigh! sigh!
apparently the president's daughter is getting married to the bauchi state Governor as his.. wait for it.. 4Th wife! that's not the end, she's 24 while he's.... wait for it....47!
I got some mad statistics about the wedding today.
the dowry was paid in dollars, even though i don't believe the figure, i would still state it here for shock purposes, $250,000.

her wedding dress was being sewn for,(i don't believe this either.. )$60,000
about 80 boxes were taken to her parents.
a trailer load of cows were sent to her grandmother.

OK...... where is all this money coming from.. last time i checked... no one in Nigeria was earning in dollars....

what annoys me the most?? the economy is going down and no one seems to care about it, everyone seems to just be trying to gather as much as they can for themselves! disgusting!

this is quite reminiscent about the abacha days....

12 comments:

Rebirth said...

on the marriage.........wow...... is she educated? i wonder

NoLimit said...

I feel drained...and very helpless...pls somebody wake me up and tell me it is not true...what exactly is my president portraying?...this is just dead wrong!

Jen Juma said...

Funms she probably even went to cambridge...being from the north I'm used to this crap.

They girls get british education and come back to be married to old men thats why many of them go wild and enjoy their youth.

The older sister married another governor in 2007 also.

I'm just pissed...

Jen Juma said...

Zara are you from the north?

My educated cousin got married to one of those politicians kids, had a kid, then got divorsed since it was marriage arranged for political reasons it fell. Her dad then married a second uneducated wife who is YOUNGER than her.

Don't for get Babangida's daughter left her first husband to marry a governor to become his 3rd wife. She overthrew the 1st lady who had a heart attack when the 3rd wife was introduced as first lady..

Did a post in my blog: http://missladidi.blogspot.com/2008/06/married-away.html

Northern drama.... Times like this I'm happy I'm not in Nigeria then I go home to witness the action.

Nigerian Drama Queen said...

Yes the breast ironing situation is really sad. The first time I heard about it is when Bumight did a post on it a while back. It is sad that such practices are perpetuated not just by men, but by women as well. I hope that with the spread of education, all harmful practices against women and children will be eradicated in Africa within the next few years...

As for the wedding, I havent really heard about it so I'll hold me lip till I know the full 411...

mizchif said...

My dear sad doesn't even cover it.
Why poor little females shd be subjected to such a dehumanizing act, when they are the victims of said crimes such as rape. Sometimes i don't understand most African practices.


As for $250,000 dowry, when children cannot learn because their teachers are not paid....... I really have no words!

Anonymous said...

Well. Although it is really horrid right now, I have hope and I believe that our generation will at least make a little change. This is what makes me work so hard and what makes me want to come home as soon as I can. I believe our generation must and WILL do something about this situation.

Anonymous said...

Oh my God! So, all our presidents are but the same.....

The breast ironing thingy is tragic...I can't say no more!

Muse said...

good heavens! ironing breasts? my God! that is just wicked! the parents should be arrested, tortured, and their breasts and backsides ironed too!

on Nigeria...(with a heavy heart and an even heavier sigh)"E go beta". I can't believe I said that.

zara (my alter ego) said...

@ funms... well i think she is.. not realli sure..
@ no limit..am still trying to think what he is trying to show...
@ladi.. i am from the middlebelt, kogi to be precise,, but i have lived so much in the north, i know the language and culture.. and yes! all what u say is true.. they might get a harvard education but instead of putting it to good use, they come back to marry a man theri father's age, have one kid and divorce him after.. sad!

@ndq.. yeah the blog i got it from was one bumight was a contributing editor to..lol
@mizchif... what more can we do?

@temite... i wish i had so much hope in our generation as you do.. we are kind of beginning to be corrupted by the old generation and its sickening listening to some of us talk.. i hope we sha make it better than it is now though..
@severus snape... sad to say but yes they are cut from the same material.
@muse..AMEN!

Buttercup said...

*sighs*

Buttercup said...

*sighs*