"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it
from religious conviction"

-Pascal

Journeys in Polygamy
by Linda Bator Lô, translated from the French by Emmanuelle Saulnier-Depierre, 07/04/06

The polygamous system is nothing but a modern fairytale of abundance in which everyone is supposed to be always happy. Polygamy is a world where the feminine is plural and the masculine, singular. So, how does this multifarious ancestral custom get carried on? What part does social pressure play in upholding or rejecting this particular form of nuptial life? Is polygamy a way of life that is chosen deliberately by both men and women alike?

Mention the term “polygamy” and you’re sure to get a strong response; it may intrigue, frighten, upset or even trigger fantasies. A compound of the Greek lexical roots poly (multiple) and gamos (marriage), the adjective “polygamous” thus qualifies the one who contracts several marriages without dissolving or canceling the previous ones. That being said, the most frequent and best-known form of polygamy remains polygyny, i.e. the marital contract allowing a man to have several wives, as opposed to polyandry, which allows a woman to have several husbands.

The polygamous matrimonial system may be virtually non-existent in the West, but it remains a reality in other parts of the world. In places like Africa and the Middle East, polygamy is authorized by law and widely spread. An ancestral tradition as well as religious custom, polygamy first originated out of reproductive and economic needs, before evolving across the centuries.

Certain partisans of polygamy posit that because there are naturally more women than men in the world, polygamy actually developed in response to a shortage of men. Historically, though, the practice became hugely popular because of an increase in the number of widows and orphans after the religious wars led by Mahomet in VII century Arabia. Out of solidarity, surviving warriors were advised to support widows by marrying them. Such circumstantial solidarity underwent a progressive slide toward multiple marriages, which in turn was adopted, thus becoming a kind of religious duty for some. Besides, as a polygamous man usually marries younger women, there results an increase in the number of available women on the polygamous matrimonial market. In societies where life expectancy lies around 52 years, the age pyramid is unforgiving and indicates that there are more 20-year old women available than 50-year old.

Rural and traditional polygamy, such as can be found in non-Islamic Africa, was developed to reinforce labor in the fields and increase the number of children who could take care of the parents in old age. Instead of employing workers, men would marry several women with whom they’d produce a multitude of children, thereby providing them with a built-in workforce.

Today, Islam is the only religion to officially authorize polygamy. While the Mormon Church officially denounced the practice in 1896, thousands of its followers throughout the world live in undeclared polygamous households. However, the Koran, sacred book of Islam, limits the number of wives to four and stipulates that the husband must have the means to care for them and treat them ‘fairly.’ This tacit authorization thus underscores the import of the economic situation of any candidate to polygamy.

Contrary to a widespread idea, polygamy is far less frequent in Arabian and North-African countries than in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Algeria at the end of last century, less than 2% of men were polygamous, while the rates observed were relatively high in the less Islamic Togo and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Therefore, we must put into perspective the real influence of Islam on polygamous behaviors and ask if religion was not, in fact, used as a sacred pretext meant to regularize, legitimize and institutionalize traditional practices that were supposed to bring harmony within the home.

But reality tells another story. Promiscuity and poverty stir up rivalry between the wives, each of whom vies for their partner’s favor so as to reach the ultimate goal of favorite wife. Polygamy is not given to anyone. Keeping one’s nyarel—second wife in the Senegalese dialect, Wolof—without offending one’s first wife, all the while maintaining one’s virility and authority, is no piece of cake. Inherent in such a highly organized and codified matrimonial system is the need to respect a certain rigor as well as a number of pre-set specific rules, like the distribution of household chores, conjugal duty, the education of children, scheming and other underhanded practices.

By accepting polygamy, men and women alike know in advance the benefits and drawbacks. Interestingly enough, in West Africa, women sometimes offer themselves into a marriage with a married man because they find it harder to be single and endure the stigma of celibacy. Other women may choose to share their husband—going as far as proposing a newcomer themselves—because they are tired of taking charge of household and ‘evening’ duties. Under the polygamous regime, conjugal duty is planned ahead and every evening a different wife is in charge according to a preset schedule called ‘a turn.’

Indeed, in a context where social pressure remains high, a single woman cannot benefit from any respectability just as a man can only be seen as satisfied and definitively virile if he marries several women. Thus, anyone can get something out of polygamy. Funny enough, in the frantic quest to attain a certain social prestige or get out from the shadow of celibacy, some forget that they do not have the means to live under such a system. To make up appearances, baffle tricksters, benefit one’s progeny, all the while arousing respect and admiration—that’s what’s going on in this assuredly utilitarian type of marriage. Polygamy is a codified marriage and a choice of life in which everyone must be able to draw their own card.

While trying to understand how life is organized in a polygamous household today, it is tempting to consider that the success of polygamy lies in the intrinsic contradiction that defines it. Indeed, it holds the specificity of conveying too totally opposed images of women. On the one hand, polygamy objectifies and instrumentalizes women, making them an attribute of masculine power. On the other hand, it allows some wives to assert themselves and gain respect in a society that is patriarchal, and often infused with machismo.

Polygamy is then an original, as well as paradoxical, social contract that uses competition and differentiation to tend towards equity. This ongoing quest for rights and favors is indeed akin to a permanent and never-ending competition between co-spouses, as each remains driven by the hope to win the next game at any moment. Despite the repetition of dramas, such as the case of that lady (see box) disfigured with sulfuric acid by her co-wife in June 2005 in Senegal, there never seems to be any definitive winner in this type of union since each is supposed to draw some advantage from it, little and fleeting as it may be.

Ostentatious as it is, polygamy thus appears as a parallel world where the frequent dramas only seem to remind the protagonists—usually wary of exterior judgment—that they must not question, but rather respect, the essential rules of conduct that are equity and impartiality. Finally, on the whole, women are reluctant to share their partner but concerned with their social status, and thus adopt an ambivalent attitude prone to reinforce this institution.

Polygamy is also the culture of paradox where, in order to survive, one has no choice but to cultivate mutual help and solidarity in the heart of competition. That is why, in spite of the statistics that indicate its downslide due to the standardization of the monogamous family model, in spite of urbanization making it less practical, and in spite of the multiplication of the manifestos demanding its abrogation, polygamy still seems to be here to stay.

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