Polygamy: The True African Culture

As I woke up this morning, I felt the urge to type a post base on my previous experiences and knowledge. Many topics were swirling in my head with each asking me to "pick me, pick me". In the middle of this thoughts, I heard a knock at the door, and when I asked, a voice roared" hey, na ya landlord". What! My landlord? My heart skipped and my body trembled, I am suppose to pay for the house rent because it is long overdue. Fast forward, I was able to pacify my landlord and seek for more time to pay up my house rent. I started thinking of a post I could make concerning my landlord and bammm! The idea purged out of me- Polygamy. My landlord is a polygamous man.

Polygamy evolved from the Greek term “polygamia”, which is the state of being married to many spouses. This definition, therefore, entails both polyandry – in which one woman is married to multiple men – and polygyny – which is, in fact, the actual term for the sort of union between one man and multiple women.
Here in Africa, the polygamous family system is attached to some African Traditional beliefs especially for her men. It is believed that a man is entitled to marry as many wives as he wish. This is especially if he has large farms and too many herds since these are the determinants of an African man's wealth in the past decades. In the modern world, many believe that this assertion is an abuse of the marraige institution because one is expected to cut his coat according to his size. It is preposterous to have many women under your roof as wives yet you can't cater for their needs adequately due to financial constraints.

Nowadays, in Africa, the marraige institution has taken another dimension towards the practice of monogamy- a state of one man for one wife- largely due to the introduction of some religions like Judaism and Christainity. Islam advises that if you must marry more than one wife (but not more than four), then you must be able to show equity to every one of them. We are yet to see if the practice of polygamy will phase out in this generation given that it has been an age-long practice of so many cultures even as recorded in the Bible about a certain king Solomon.