The lady who authored the article is by the way the dean (head) of the Law faculty at Makerere University Kampala (MUK) - one of Africa's leading and most respected academic institutions. At least she was when I last checked
Billy
August 12, 2010
Hi
I have been looking at this site for a number of years,
but can't get enough of the pictures of these gorgeous women. The
interesting thing is I am originally from Southern Uganda where large
labia are the rule rather than the exception. Seriously. I did not
know that there were so many caucasian women with such lips UNTIL I
saw this site. I thought it was only our women that proudly sported
these treasures.
Back home most girls are trained from
an early age to pull or stretch their pussy lips. This is a practice
that has gone on from time immemorial for several centuries. How they
do it am not sure but I am sure glad they do....it is traditionally
one of the prerequisites for marriage eligibility in young women (for
more details see:
www.feministafrica.org/index.php/eroticism) ....so it seems in
this respect Africa has been a step ahead of the rest of the world.
Now everyone is beginning to wake up and realise the magic of huge
labia.
I am finding it hard to venture into
relationships outside my nationality partly because i am more
comfortable fishing where i am almost guaranteed to find such well
endowed women...at home we men are not even considered perverts for
this craving-it's almost a right as well as a national obsession. No
one will condemn me at home for divorcing a woman who has an
infantile vulva....
I would love to hear from women who have
this divine gift so I may increase may pool of potential er
friends...
Billy
PS- I am well educated and in good
health and also have lots of other interests beyond long labia
Dear Billy,
I wasn't aware that Ugandan people thought highly of long labia, especially since the prevalence of female genital mutilation is said to be anywhere from 20% to 40% as can be seen on this map. Only in 2009 was FGM officially banned by the government.
But thanks to the document you pointed to, titled Eroticism, Sensuality and “Women's Secrets” among the Baganda, I learned that women in Southern Uganda (aka Buganda) do indeed practise labia stretching. The document is very long so I took the liberty to copy the relevant passage and present it below:
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Women in diverse cultures have always “fixed” or otherwise transformed their bodies (through dieting, plastic surgery, waxing, piercing, tattooing and various forms of grooming) to fit their cultural norms. One of the ways that Baganda women “fix” their bodies is through an elaborate routine of “packaging the vagina” for men's maximum pleasure. Such “packaging” takes many forms and may be divided into two stages: pre-pubertal and marital.
The cultural labia: Pre-pubertal vaginal preparation
Between the
age of nine and twelve, before experiencing menarche (first
menstruation), a Muganda girl would be guided by her Ssenga to
prepare her genitals for future sex. This was done through a
procedure that involved elongating the labia minora. Known as
okukyalira ensiko (visiting the bush), this rite was traditionally
performed in a clearing among bushes where the herbs (for example,
mukasa, entengotengo, and oluwoko) used for the procedure were found.
Pubescent girls would “visit the bush” for a few hours every day over
a period of about two weeks. The Ssenga would persuade them to comply
by advising them that if they did not, no man would ever ask for
their hand in marriage.[39] Worse still, if a man discovered that his
bride had not “visited the bush”, he would send her back home for the
Ssenga to fulfil her duty. According to Sengendo and Sekatawa:
A [Muganda] woman who did not elongate the labia minora is traditionally despised and regarded as having a “pit” (kiwowongole, kifufunkuli, funkuli muwompogoma). If a bride was found not to have elongated her labia minora, she would be returned to her parents with disgrace (1999).
Over the years, how has this culturally specific practice been mediated and transfigured? When I began this study, I was under the impression that the practice was dying out. However, the findings revealed not only that it is alive and thriving in the urban and peri-urban areas around Kampala, but that it has also spread to many non-Baganda women (including some of European descent), who seek the services of commercial Ssengas to elongate their labia. Nevertheless, a great many younger urban women have chosen to opt out of this cultural practice, dismissing it as “useless and primitive”. It may no longer be obligatory for most young urban women, but it certainly remains a well-entrenched tradition, especially among the Baganda aristocracy.
The findings show that the practice of elongating the labia minora seems to serve three main purposes. The first one is functional in that the extended labia enhance the erotic experience of both the male and the female. When touched and manipulated in the correct manner during foreplay or mutual masturbation, they may be the source of immense pleasure to the couple. Secondly, elongated labia serve as a kind of self-identifier for Baganda women – the stamp of legitimacy for a “true” Muganda woman.[40] The Ssenga understands that a Muganda woman without elongated labia is a “half-baked” one. Similarly, many participants in this study were of the view that it was a practice worth preserving (see Sengendo and Sekatawa, 1999). The third function is a purely aesthetic one; several Baganda men interviewed said that they enjoyed looking at and fondling the stretched labia of a woman.
These findings contrast sharply with the definition put forward by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Classifying it and condemning it as type-IV female genital mutilation, the WHO lumps this procedure together with FGM procedures that pose health hazards to women.[41] It completely disregards the ways in which this practice, encoded within the Ssenga institution, has enhanced sexual pleasure for women, and expanded their perceptions of themselves as active sexual beings. Interestingly, harmful cosmetic procedures (such as clitoral piercing) sometimes performed in Western countries are not listed under type-IV FGM. Through such discourse, this global health body writes this African practice of sexual enhancement into the broad negative rubric of harmful cultural practices that violate the rights of women and children. Far from suffering feelings of “incompleteness, anxiety and depression”[42] that the WHO associates with this practice, most of those interviewed in this study spoke positively of this cultural practice. This “lived experience” of Baganda women contradicts the negative blanket characterisation of the cultural practice of labia elongation offered by the WHO.
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Billy
August 14, 2010
The lady who authored the article is by the way the dean (head) of the Law faculty at Makerere University Kampala (MUK) - one of Africa's leading and most respected academic institutions. At least she was when I last checked
Jessica
August 19, 2010
LOL what hypocrites the people in the west are! They classify labia
elongation as genital mutilation, on the other hand, they massively
advertise and advocate labiaplasty!
Yeah if mutilation is
done in the west it is perfectly fine, they just don't want Africans
do it!