Something that keeps coming up as a running joke in my compound is how "wide" I am. "Fanta be warima...pip!" (Fanta is wide....Very!) gets echoed to me at least once a day. Somehow, to my dismay, this became a running joke in my host family. I'm not that wide, I'm about normal adult Gambian woman sized. I wear pants which might show it off a bit more but really, does that mean its time to call Fanta a fatty every 5 minutes? This got me thinking about body image, and Gambian's thoughts on women's bodies, specifically size.
Before I lived in Gambia I thought Africa was the place that big women were queen. Statues I remember seeing never showed women with jutting collar bones but women with hips 3 times the width of their waist. Popular media led me to believe that African's didn't want a lean feather of a women but someone who could show off, through their voluptuous, that they were well off economically, healthy enough to bare children, and had a little extra in case times got tough with food.
I am often told I am big. This doesn't overly get to me since Gambia has made my skin thick but its interesting that they love this running joke. It's almost more of a compliment. A big ass seems to be on everyones mind when it comes to the erotic. Though women don't show their legs they never say "oh your legs are thick, thats nice!", but I do here "your ass is wide, your husband must be a happy man".
When asking my host mom about this she said "big is ok but too big isn't. When it gets hot, all those women say is "uh, ooo uh, this heat" and they sweat SO much". Big is ok but small is better. I have heard Gambian men say "I know some guys like bigger ladies, but I want someone small, petite, not a huge woman." Most Gambian women aren't small. They aren't huge either but one a woman has a child you rarely find tiny women. Most are made of muscle, and though they aren't fat at all, they aren't petite.
Most teenage girls are TINY and I think the ones that are a little chubby are treated the same way teen girls are treated in America. Some people are terrible attractive even if they are bigger and some tiny women aren't inherently attractive because of their size.
There is a compound in my village with two obese women. Their husband is a small man but he definitely has a type of woman he likes. In an attempt to get my host family to see me as a normal size woman I made a joke about that other compound, instead of being called Fofana Kunda (the last name is Fofana) it should be called Wide Kunda. My family loved it, but now they just tell me that I'm getting so big I will have to go live there. I can't win with this joke. They somehow know that western women tend to like to be small so any time I go running they say "Fanta wants to be small. She doesn't like being
big". I think they hold me to a American standard and themselves to their own. At least my host mom is hugely pregnant right now, so all the teasing can be given in return.This is the mosque in my village. Right after this picture they started to paint it white.
These kids are dressed up at Kangkorans. Their outfits aren't that good, but notice the weaponry.
Thought I did not plant Tomato in my garden the rouge Tomato and Okra plants cuddled up to my Bell Pepper and Cabbage are the first things to produce anything. This tomato si the first thing out of my beds.
The Corn is corn left over from the last rainy season. It's hard as hell and the family works the kernels to free them so later they can be pounded.
This is my bed set up outside. It's MUCH better outside.
The next three shots are of my hut. It's not always this dark but since it was in the evening it looks it.
