Maasai tribe - father spits on daughter
The Maasai tribe in Kenya has a very special wedding custom. Girls in the tribe are not free to love or decide who their husband will be, but must follow the arrangement of their parents. They are also not allowed to divorce and must live with their husband for life, even if that husband is violent or treats them badly. Until now, a Maasai man can marry many wives if he has enough wealth to support his wife.
During the wedding ceremony, the bride will be dressed in colorful clothes and heavy jewelry. Before officially going to her husband's house, her father will spit on the bride's chest to symbolize the best of luck. All girls of marriageable age in the tribe undergo this unique ritual.
Saliva symbolizes all the best things that the bride's parents want to send to their daughter. The bride also feels happy and grateful to her parents for this special "blessing".
Himba tribe - the groom's family came to kidnap the bride
The women of the Himba tribe have a very unique beauty, along with a seductive body as a natural advantage, helping them to be awarded the title: "the most beautiful women on the black continent". Perhaps because of this beauty, there arose the custom of "kidnapping" the bride on the wedding day.
Before that, girls were given cowhide scarves by their mothers as a family heirloom passed down through generations. When the bride was “kidnapped” by the groom and his family to be his wife, she had to use that cowhide scarves to cover her face, to prevent another groom from stealing it.
Ethiopian tribe - women wear round discs on their lips
The Mursi tribe's lip disc is called dhebi a tugion. Archaeologists say the practice of wearing lip discs in this area dates back 30,000 years. According to archaeologist Jerrome Lewis from London, this is the most beautiful body modification people have ever had. The middle of the lip is cut open to insert a small round piece of wood, which is then replaced with a larger piece. When the hole is wide enough, a decorated ceramic disc is inserted and left in place for many years. The disc can reach 19.5 cm in diameter.
Girls between the ages of 15 and 18 will have their two lower front teeth removed to lengthen their lips and older women will help them pierce holes through their lips. The Ethiopian government recently banned women from wearing lip plates, but many still cannot give up this custom. For women here, lip plates have many meanings, they both attract the opposite sex and are very useful in receiving dowries. The larger the plate, the more highly regarded the girl is and the more cattle dowry she receives when she gets married.
Bodi tribe - drink milk mixed with cow's blood to fatten
For the Bodi tribe in the remote Horn of Africa, the fatter a person is, the more respected they are, and they believe that drinking cow's milk mixed with blood is the fastest way to "fatten up".
Six months before choosing a new leader, the men of the tribe start a “fattening” competition to win the throne with a series of horrifying measures. The lucky ones will be obeyed and respected as heroes. Each family will choose an unmarried young man to compete. The candidates will have to hide in their homes and not have sex during the challenge period. The main food for “fattening” is a mixture of cow’s blood and milk. The cow is not killed, but only has a small blood vessel lightly cut and is bandaged afterwards. The young men will have to drink this mixture quickly and many times a day before the cow’s blood coagulates. This mixture also causes many young men to give up and vomit.
Wodaabe tribe - festival of nomads
At the end of the rainy season in the Lake Chad region of northern Niger Republic, the Wodaabe people gather for a “nomadic festival” called Cure Salee. The festival centers on a male beauty pageant and “courtship rituals”.
In the beauty pageant, held each September, the contestants are always men and the judges are women. The contestants spend about six hours preparing, dressing up as dancers. They smear red clay on their faces, use black eyeliner to highlight the white, wear their best outfits, and then wait to be judged by the women attending the ceremony. White teeth and white eyes are a priority, so all contestants try to smile widely and express their emotions as much as possible. The prize for the best flirt is a night with one of the judges.
