Forced to perform Labia Stretching in some tribes

Labia stretching is approached with the thought of elongating the labia minora permanently and needs regular attention till the time the process is going on. Ideally, a person needs to work at gently stretching the labia for 10 to 20 minutes a day to ensure that the required increase in length is achieved in a timely manner.

We know that young women would be introduced to this practice and would go on to practice it for a very long time. Many of them have even been known to continue post-marriage. Labia stretching could only be done by natural means in the past when there was no technological advancement to support it.

When a woman would reach an ideal age, she would be guided on how to elongate her labia by an aunt or her mother, or an elder woman in the family. The young women were not really told all the facts apart from the reason that the elongation would help them get married. Some of the women told them if they did not have elongated labia, then they wouldn’t get married and wouldn’t be able to have children.

However, that was only to get them to practice labia elongation and to keep the practice alive. The women were also taught to prepare and use the herbs that would help them hold the labia with ease as they would make the labia swell slightly. The most common herb used is the Butengotengo. These herbs are green and itchy and can also make the labia swell a lot so it is important that the user first learn how to apply them. This is why in the earlier days, the first few times a woman underwent labia elongation, it was done by one of the more experienced women.

What would need to be pulled was the labia minora and these are said to be deeply connected to the clitoris which is the house of stimulus for the women. So the origination and propagation of the practice seem to have stemmed from a very basic need; the need to have a satisfying sexual experience for the woman and her partner.

However, the need to have elongated labia was so that they could be a part of the community and would continue with the tradition, this made some mothers get very strict about it to conform to the practice without questioning it. This shows us the harsh side of how much this practice meant to these tribes and how important they considered it without considering the feelings of young women and their own personal decision to perform labia stretching or not, which should be a choice and not forced upon them.

In recent times, more complicated mixtures and processes are being used to help women elongate their labia. For instance, in Eastern Uganda, it was noticed that bats were burnt and mixed with Vaseline and lotions to be used during labia stretching. It was also noticed that the process of elongation had become more painful than it need be as the women were not stretching their labia for up to 45 minutes a day constantly for weeks to achieve the desired length. This sort of constant pulling would make their labia swell up and make it difficult for them to walk or even urinate. It was more difficult for the women who didn’t get it right, since they would show a lesser improvement than expected, they were made to wear belts that had weights attached to their labia to allow for constant pulling throughout the day.

The earlier days, when the practice of labia stretching began were probably the safest days for the women as they did it in their own time, they had a lot of support from their clans as they did not need to question the reasons as these were considered as practices of the clan and everyone, did it? There was pressure yes because at the time it seems that long labia were almost like a status symbol for a woman and men would want a woman who would provide them with maximum pleasure. Longer labia ensured pleasure not just to the man but to the woman as well and that is why it became really important for the young women to have long labia to be considered attractive and be married off to suitable men.

As time passed, things became somewhat confused in their logical reasons and the basics are what it looks like. Mothers began to punish their daughters for resisting the elongation, they still felt that no answers were required and their daughters just had to go along. They forgot that their daughters were growing up in a more exposed environment and needed answers to questions like how this elongation would help them. Why were they doing it? What would happen if they didn’t do it? Why were their peers not doing it? And so on…

Today, young women are more exposed and can dare to ask these questions and after receiving the answers, many of them have chosen to go along with labia elongation because they understand the benefits not just to their partners, but to themselves as well and take immense pleasure and pride in their long labia.

Many types of research and surveys have also shown that African men are very happy with their intimate lives as they are able to get their women to orgasm each time and that leads to a very satisfying relationship, which is a big plus for labia elongation.