Written by Michael Thervil
Vaginal tobacco products
When it comes to sexual stimulants and enhancers, oftentimes it's targeted and sold to men. But what happens when women become the target of such campaigns? This is the case in several countries in Africa, but specifically in Gambia and other west African countries within the region such as Senegal, Mali, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, and Burkina Faso. It was also found that “taba” or “tabba” is currently being sold and exported north into Europe. “Taba” is a Mandinka word for tobacco. However, taba is often mixed with other substances such as heroin in order to significantly increase its potency. Now, taba is not smoked, even though it’s a tobacco product; instead, taba is inserted in the vagina of women by the women themselves.
For local government and health officials in countries where taba is used for self-medicating, the issue comes not from its use but from the health complications that come from the use of taba. Taba whether used “as is” or “mixed” with other ingredients like shea butter, alcohol, ashes, plants, caustic sodas and cannabis. In “stepping on” and “cutting” the taba, it causes many of its users to fall victim to dependency and addiction, drug abuse, other reproductive physical complications pelvic inflammatory disease, diarrhea, vomiting, burning sensations, as well as vaginal bleeding, chemical injury to the vagina, infection, infertility, vaginal deformity, and sexual dysfunction. It sounds like a lot, and it is.
A sizable number of women who use taba have also reported not wanting to have sex with men or their husbands, with one of the women who use taba resulting in her husband filing for divorce from her because her addiction to taba was so strong because it “satisfied” her sexually. She was not the only woman who became addicted to taba and its sexually satisfying properties. There has been reports of many other women who have had “success” with taba describing its use as sexually satisfying. However, the use of taba is not only utilized for sexual stimulation. Many women insert taba into their vagina as a way to cure headaches. Medical doctors who have conducted research on taba use by women discovered that the reason why women are becoming addicted to taba and are willing to forgo the negative side effects of it’s use is because of how quickly taba is absorbed through the bloodstream via the vagina which is the equivalent of placing tobacco under the tongue.
Even though taba use has been going on for generations in the region, there are several myths about taba use. The first myth lies in the fact that taba use would "give them [older women] an ideal [more]‘youthful’ and ‘tight’ vagina, enhancing pleasure for their partners during sexual intercourse.” Another myth that is widely held by taba users is that it can “cure a wide variety of illnesses, including epilepsy, hypertension, infertility, candidiasis, diabetes, arthritis, general body pain, fistula, hernia and bedwetting among children” and that “it can increase the CD4 T lymphocyte count (an indicator of the immune system’s health) of patients with HIV/AIDS and can also be used to prevent respiratory infections including COVID-19.”
The shocking thing for many people that are reading about this for the first time is that parents, typically mothers, are inserting taba into the vaginas of their daughters in an effort to get them to stop peeing in bed. Again, it’s also a wide belief that taba aids women in keeping their vagina “tighter”, thus giving them an edge in the bedroom – so they believe. Because of these widely held beliefs, it was reported that STD/STI, HIV, and AIDS have been on the increase because of taba use. Again, we at VEDA Communications are not making a judgement call on the users of taba and how it's used but we understand that for many people around the world this is considered an odd practice.
According to research conducted by medical doctors in the regions where taba is used, the average taba user lies between the ages of 25 to 45 according to Gambian gynecologist Dr. Musa Marena, Head of Reproductive Maternal, Neonatal, Child, and Adolescent Health at the Ministry of Health. It should also be mentioned that the average age increases to 40 and over in rural Gambia. In terms of the youth, it was also stated that taba use, especially in its enhanced form, is becoming more popular via peer pressure by school age girls. On the religious front, Sheikh Ebrahim Jarju, Vice President of the Supreme Islamic Council located in Gambia has deemed the use of taba as “Haram” or “forbidden” amongst practitioners of Islam citing the following:
“If a woman uses Taba, she denies her husband the rights to the pleasure that should come from their union”
It was also reported that the most likely of users tend to come from the uneducated populations of people in the region and that friends and family also play a pivotal role in the promotion and use of taba amongst women as well. Although most women use taba in secret, it's an open secret that a lot of women in the region are using it and may be using it way into the future despite the health risks associated with its use.
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