Ethiopia’s Bodi or Me’en people love a man with a big belly. This tribe which lives in Ethiopia’s Omo Valley has a very interesting tradition of making their young men drink cow blood and milk and crowning the fattest man.
Six months before the contest begins every family chooses one unmarried man to prepare for the challenge.
He goes into a hut where he drinks cow’s blood and milk and, he must not have sex while he prepares for the contest.
He drinks blood at sunrise quickly before it coagulates, but this is not a walk in the park as many men vomit. I mean, who wouldn’t?
After six months of intense blood-drinking, the men come out and show off their enlarged bellies, and the champion would be a hero for life.
On the day of the competition, the men strut in their large bellies covered in clay and ashes.
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Some men are reportedly so fat, that they can’t walk properly.
On the day of the contest itself, the men cover their bodies with clay and ashes before emerging from their huts to where the ceremony will take place.
During the ceremony, the men walk in circles around a sacred tree, and women give them alcohol to cheer them up while wiping their sweat.
The fattest man is chosen, and a cow is slaughtered. After the ceremony, he has to lose the weight he struggled to amass. Interestingly, every young man dreams of being crowned the fattest man.
