As a teenage girl in Uganda, especially belonging to the Baganda culture,western Uganda and all the way to Rwanda you will be introduced to the tradition of "pulling" or in other words elongation of the Labia Minora. The reason for this practice is to apparently prepare the young girls sexually equipped for their men when they grow up. Pulling is believed to to create a more inviting and warm environment for the man when he slips in. For the women, it increases their sensuality driving them to maximum orgasm. Therefore the longer the labia Minora , the better.
This act is usually done by a "Ssenga", a tittle to mean a paternal aunt, but in this case the term is broadly used to refer to women who specialize in sex education. Ssengas general role is to tutor young girls and women in a wide range of sexual matters, and take the lead role in helping the young girls became the "best" , they can be, which includes pulling of their parts.
what happens is, during sex, the elongated "lips" a.k.a the labia minora tickles the penis as it gets in and squeezes it as it gets out. The Ssengas also state that the lips are good for oral sex. most women in Uganda, particularly belonging to the areas i mentioned earlier use this practice as a thing of pride in identifying one as a complete woman and distinguishing themselves from other women who do not engage in the practice.
I remember while in a boarding primary school in Uganda, the bigger girls use to take the part of Ssenga and practice pulling to the younger ones. I remember been terrified at the sight of this practice the first time i witnessed it being done, i must have been around the age of 11 and 12 . What used to happen is that at night, before we go to bed, the older girls would call upon the younger ones and start pulling their things" one by one.
They used a certain leaf (name forgotten), that they would squeeze and mix it in water. Its this leaf that used to help in making the labias longer.
each girl would lie down on their backs, with legs wide open , the Ssenga would squeeze the leave in her hand and use the juice to pull the Labias. She would hold each labia between the thumb and index finger, and pull it down, as if milking a cow. It is a very painful process as girls would cry painfully, each girls session would last about 10 minutes, or longer depending on your endurance.
It was a compulsory act for all the girls, but i not being Ugandan was exempted. i remember this one time though, after so much pressure and bullying that i will not be sweet for my husband, i decided to give it. I let the girls do it on me once, and i regretted it. the pain was unbearable. Never again, i told my self. On Sundays, the matron herself and other female teachers handled the operations, again , i was exempted. While respecting their culture, i could not help but wonder why they did it to the girls at a very young age, and was told the earlier they start doing it the better. Because by the time they are ready for intercourse (with focus on marriage) it will be long enough already to serve it purpose, in this case, the longer the better.
some western cultures have showed concern and frowned upon this act, calling it barbaric. in my opinion, i think such practices are outdated. But as we all may know, some African tribes are still so much into practicing cultural believes, even if such practices might be proven impractical.
On the other hand, it is not as bad , as compared to dehumanizing acts such as female circumcision, that some cultures still encourage its practice up to date.
I do not know how these women feel and if they are comfortable in their own bodies after elongating their labias.
what do you think? let me know in the comments.