On Fat

Rahsheed told us a little story about one day when he had three friends, all American girls, over at his house. They were all watching a movie, and in the movie there was a skinny man and a fat man. One of the girls was skinny and two were fat. Rahsheed said to the skinny one, "That man is skinny like you and the other is fat like them." The two fat girls started crying and Rahsheed was confused.

Apparently, in Ghana, weight and its relation to appearance are completely opposite from America. In Ghana, if someone is fat, man or woman, it is completely acceptable to tell them they are fat or make reference to it. This is seen as a compliment. It's like saying, "You are well fed, you are living life, you enjoy yourself." When we were eating at Auntie Adua's, Albert openly called Auntie Adua fat (she is quite a large woman) because she told us her hobbie was cooking. We Americans (well, Tania's Mexican, but she says Mexico is very Americanized) were very surprised that he woudl say such a thing, but just as Ghanains mean no harm when they call me obruni, Albert meant no harm when he called Adua fat. He was simply stating a fact and sort of giving a compliment.

On the other side, someone who is very skinny has something wrong with them. "Why are you so skinny? Why don't you eat? You must not be healthy. You don't eat enough." Of course, I don't even need to explain to my fellow Americans that American culture tells us fat is bad (and really for health purposes being fat is bad, but I'll not get into that). Rahsheed really didn't know that you shouldn't call American girls fat. One of the CRA's, Chris, did something similar actually. One of the girls told him that he should eat more so he wouldn't be so skinny. Then he said, "Yes, I should eat more so I can be fat like you." So my message to all those self-conscious American girls out there... come to Ghana! You can be fat all day long! Of course, one must realize that there are not so many fat people in Ghana as in America. This is because in America, it is easy to buy all the food you want and get as fat as you want. In Ghana, things are not quite so, although I am surprised by the vast amount of food options here in Accra.