Did you know there is a tribe in Ethiopia called the Bodi or the Me’en tribe?
This tribe lives in a remote corner of Ethiopia’s Omo Valley and is home to young men who will do everything it takes to be crowned the ‘Fattest Man’.
To become the fattest man in Bodi isn’t all that easy, here is how it works;
Young men are selected and fed special meals and concoction for six months and after that, emerge to show off their newly engorged physiques and for a winner to be chosen. The champion “fat man” is then crown a hero for the rest of his life.
The food comes in the form of a cow’s blood and milk mixture, served regularly to the men by women from the village. The cows are sacred to the Bodi tribe so they are not killed for the purpose of the ritual. The blood is drawn by making a hole in a vein with a spear or an axe, and after that, they close it with clay.
Because of the scorching temperatures, the men have to drink the two-liter bowl of blood and milk quickly before it coagulates but not everyone can handle drinking so much at speed, so they vomit. These are the ones that are disqualified.
On the D-day, the men design their bodies with clay and ashes before emerging from their huts for the walk to the spot where the ceremony will take place. This long walk seems tortuous, no thanks to the excess weight gain and protruding stomach.
The ceremony involves spending long hours walking in a circle around a sacred tree, watched by the other men, and helped by women who ply them with alcohol and wipe away the sweat.
Once the fattest man has been chosen, the ceremony ends with the slaughter of a cow using a big sacred stone. Village elders will then inspect the stomach and the blood to find out if the winner’s future will be a bright one or not.
After the ceremony, the men’s lives return to normal and most lose their enormous bellies after a few weeks of eating sparingly and a few weeks later, the next generation of competitively fat Bodi men will be chosen and the cycle is repeated.
Becoming a fat man is the dream of every Bodi kid because he will remain a hero for life even though his stomach gets back to normal.
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