Concentrated in West Africa, polygamy has declined in recent decades. It is by no means limited to West Africa. Areas with more educational investment in the past have less polygamy today. Conflict and lower rainfall lead to small increases in polygamy. Lower child mortality leads to large decreases in polygamy. National policies appear to have little effect on the rate of polygamy, according to James Fenske,
an economic history lecturer in the Department of Economics, University of Oxford.
In Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea, and Senegal, more than 60 percent of married women in 1970 said they were in polygamous marriages, according to Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data. In 2000 in these countries, the polygamy rate was less than 40 percent. Several other countries with DHS surveys experienced similar declines in polygamy.
Source: VOX
Three types of marriages are recognized in South African law. Civil marriages, the most common; customary marriages which recognize polygamy; and civil unions.
About 158,000 civil marriages were registered in 2013, according to data published by Statistics South Africa.
Customary marriages have decreased dramatically over the past decade from 17,283 in 2003 to 3,498 in 2013. Unfortunately, StatsSA does not say how many of these marriages are polygamous.
Nearly 70 percent of the customary marriages registered in 2013 were in KwaZulu-Natal.
Source: Mail&Guardian
A new law went into effect in Kenya making it legal for men to marry as many women as they want, formally recognizing what has long been a cultural practice in the country. A clause in the law was rejected that would have allowed the first wife to veto the husband’s choice of additional spouses. Some female lawmakers opposed the law saying it promoted inequality.
Christine Ochieng, executive director of Kenya’s Federation of Women Lawyers, approved. “Before this, customary marriages were treated as inferior with no marriage certificates. This opened up suffering for the women because they could not legally prove they were married to a particular man.,” she said.
Source: CNN
Depending on the source, Senegalese-American rapper and solar lighting entrepreneur Akon has multiple wives. A staunch defender of polygamy, he said he can have as many wives as he “can afford to have.” In September 2014, MGAfrica reported that he had five.
He admitted to being a polygamist early in his music career, according to NewsOne. Since 2006, he said, “I’m a polygamist … All Africans believe in it. My dad has four wives.”
With four wives and more than 20 children, Zuma’s polygamy has been the stuff of tabloid fodder, and helped make him one of the most controversial presidents in South African history.
He has married six times and at age 73, has four wives. He has married twice since becoming president in lavish traditional ceremonies at his equally controversial home in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal.
One of his wives, Mozambican Kate Mantsho, committed suicide in 2000. His ex-wife, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, is chairwoman of the African Union commission.
Source: BBC
Pre-colonial inequality, the slave trade, and colonial education all predict polygamy rates in the present, according to James Fenske, an economic history lecturer in the Department of Economics, University of Oxford. Fenske said there’s limited evidence that African marriage markets have responded to economic growth and fluctuations. Rather, he said polygamy is a strategy for men to increase fertility.
Source: VOX
Polygamy has been legally abolished in Ethiopia, Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Benin, Angola, Rwanda, Burundi and Tunisia— surprising considering the latter is Muslim-majority country and Islam allows men to marry up to four wives.
In Guinea and Benin, men seem to be “hiding” their second or third wives.
Source: MGAfrica
In Swaziland, polygamy is legal and entrenched in the country’s culture. King Mswati, 47, has 15 wives.
He has been accused of kidnapping women he wants to marry, but no charges have been brought against him. In 2000 he allegedly called for a parliamentary meeting to debate if HIV-positive people should be “sterilized and branded.”
Mswati has been criticized for his lavish lifestyle. In the 2014 national budget, parliament allocated $61 million US for his annual household budget while 63 percent of Swazis live on less than $1.25 per day.
Sources: MGAfrica, Wikipedia.
