Padded panties? Soup cubes? Ways to boost bottoms in Ivory Coast
ABIDJAN (AFP) — Some like creams, others pop pills or splash out on padded panties. In Ivory Coast where “big is beautiful,” bottom enhancers come in all shapes and sorts, and at any cost.
Emaciated catwalk queens are no role model in this West African nation which a few years ago wiggled its collective derriere to the tune of a smash hit titled Bobaraba — meaning “big bottom” in a local language.
“You need to have good hips to be dubbed a beauty in Ivory Coast,” said a saleswoman named Sarah. “Men like women with a bit of bottom best.”
Round is beautiful because it symbolizes wealth and health, said political scientist Jean Alabro. It also heralds “happy pregnancies” due to “the crucial role played by buttocks” in deliveries, he said.
At Abidjan’s biggest market, Treichville, a shop-owner who gave her name only as Evelyne does a busy trade in “grossifesse” ( butt booster) or “botcho” cream. In Ivorian slang, or “nouchi,” “botcho” means “vast rear end.”
The cream, which pot labels variously said is made of cod-liver oil, honey or shea butter, sells like hotcakes, and a couple of boxes stacked high with the cream lie on the floor waiting to be dispatched to neighboring Ghana.
“It’s my best- seller,” said Evelyne, and does far better than her pots of “nice breast” cream or tubes of “bazooka” to “firm up and enhance men’s members.”
Dozens fly off the shelves a day, she said, despite the fact that at 15,000 to 25,000 CFA francs (23 to 38 euros, $26 - 43) a shot, it remains expensive in a country where annual income was around 100 euros a month in 2014.
“Not a single customer comes back to complain,” she added, saying “you can guarantee a result after 30 days’ use.”
“It’s not like those pills where you puff up and then deflate.”
Other “enhancers” sold in more sophisticated packaging are also available at Treichville, mostly imported from Englishspeaking African nations, notably Nigeria.