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The Economics of polygyny

Polygyny in Africa is widespread and nobody seems to doubt that its occurrence is closely related to economic conditions. A report by the secretariat of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) affirms this point: one of the strongest appeals of polygyny to men in Africa is precisely its economic aspect, for a man with several wives commands more land, can produce more food for his household and can achieve a high status due to the wealth which he can command. Over much of the continent of Africa, tribal rules of land tenure are still in force. This implies that members of a tribe, which commands a certain territory, have a native right to take land under cultivation for food production and in many cases also for the cultivation of cash crops under this tenure system, an additional wife is an additional economic asset, which helps the family to expand its production.

Shifting Cultivation

In regions of shifting cultivation, where women do all or most of the work of growing food crops, the task of felling the trees in preparation of new plots is usually done by older boys and very young men, as already mentioned. An elderly cultivator with several wives is likely to have a number of such boys who can be used for this purpose. By the combined efforts of young sons and young wives he may gradually expand his cultivation and become more and more prosperous, while a man with a single wife has less help in cultivation and is likely to have little or no help for felling. Hence there is a direct correlation between the size of the area cultivated by a family and the number of wives in the family. For instance in the Bwambe region of Uganda, in east Africa, it appeared form a sample study that men with one wife cultivated an average of 1.67 acres of land and a man with two wives cultivated 2.94 acres of land, or nearly twice as much. This is in female farming communities; a man with more than one wife can cultivate more land than a man with only one wife. Hence the institution of polygyny is a significant element in the process of economic development in regions where additional land is available for cultivation under the long fallow system.

West Africa Sierra Leone

A study of the Mende in the west African state of Sierra Leone concluded that a plurality of wives is an agriculture asset, since a large number of women makes it unnecessary to employ wage laborers. The study is from the 1930’s and the incidence of polygamy has declined since then. But although households with large numbers of wives seem to have more or less disappeared in most of Africa, polygyny is still extremely widespread in rural Africa and is considered and economic advantage in many rural areas. In some cases, the economic role of the additional wife enables the husband to enjoy more leisure.

Desire For Progeny

The desire for numerous progeny is no doubt the main incentive. Where both desire for children and the economic considerations are at work. The incentives for polygyny are likely to be so powerful that religious or legal prohibition avails little here. Most research into the determinates of polygyny has focused on macro level factors. Widespread polygyny is linked to the kinship groups that share decent from a common ancestor. . Polygynous marriages may serve the interests of and benefit both men and women under diverse circumstances. Polygyny also served as “a dynamic principle of family survival, growth, security, continuity, and prestige” especially as a socially approved mechanism, which increases the number of adult workers immediately and the eventual workforce of resident children

Wives View in Farming System

In a family system where wives are supposed both provide food for the family or a large part of it and to perform the usual domestic duties for the husband, a wife will naturally welcome one or more co-wives to share with them the burden of daily work. The second wife will usually do the most tiresome work because the first wife does not want to do it. The second wife will almost be a servant to the first wife she is inferior to the first wife.

Economic Burden

Polygamy offers fewer incentives in those parts of the world where because they are more densely populated than Africa, the system of shifting cultivation has been replaced by the permanent cultivation of fields ploughed before sowing. But in farming systems where men do most of the agriculture work a second wife can be an economic burden rather than an asset. In order to feed an additional wife the husband must either work harder himself of he must hire laborers to do part of the work. In such regions, polygyny is either non-existent or is a luxury in which only a small minority of rich farmers can indulge.

Women in Polygyny

Polygyny is generally studied by anthropologists rather than by sociologists. Thus, nearly all studies of African polygyny have treated it as a traditional form of marriage inevitably destined to disappear under the pressures of urbanization, wage employment, Christianity and general "modernization" it would appear that no African woman has written in praise of polygyny, although some have accepted it as a lesser evil given the probable alternative of statusless concubinage. The issue of women's perceptions of polygyny has been gravely neglected.

Educating Women

The decline in polygynous marriages is apparent in all age groups of women. Implying that the downward trend in the overall level of polygyny was not merely a result of changes in the age distribution of women. Another important outcome observed the inverse relationship between the education level and the rate of polygyny. The proportion of women in polygynous unions decreased from 33% for women with no education to 11% for women with at least some secondary education. Polygyny is less prevalent in societies where more women are literate .This demonstrates that higher levels of female education have a depressing effect on polygyny. Generally women with higher levels of education are less likely to accept being in polygynous unions because they perceive such relationships as being incompatible with their aspirations. Increasing women’s economic independence by enhancing their chances of participating in the formal labor market is one of the fundamental dimensions through which women’s higher levels of education effect societal changes in polygynous marriages. Interviews conducted with some of the Logoli Tribe in Kenya suggested they were scared of polygynous marriages because of what they have witnessed in the lives of other women who are currently in such relationships. The observed experiences of some of the women in polygynous unions have been discouraging because they tend to be characterized by frequent jealousy, conflicts competition, tensions and psychological stresses. Some of the husbands fail to share love and other resources equally, envy and hatred, and even violent physical confrontations become the order of the day among co-wives and their children. This discourages women from entering a polygynous marriage. . The Expression of university educated and financially stable women illustrate that todays women are more ready to defend their rights to equal treatment, Even those in polygynous unions, do not necessarily obey the first wife, even if she is twice her age. Some of the well educated women find it ridiculous that even today, with the demise of traditional normative systems and sanctions, men can boast about the number of women they have slept with, but they expect their wives to uphold the old values of fidelity. Men are therefore gradually replacing polygyny with careful management of extramarital affairs..

AIDS/HIV

The fact that polygyny facilitates the spread of venereal diseases has been pointed out in a number of studies. Among the Logoli of Kenya, the fear of AIDS or becoming infected with the HIV virus has awakened women’s sensitivity to polygynous marriages. Women who are against polygynous marriages argued that polygyny places individuals at risk for contracting various sexually transmitted diseases including AIDS. An infected individual who is in a polygynous marriage can either willingly and knowingly or unwillingly and unknowingly communicate such diseases to other spouses in the same union. Co-wives may not be equally faithful to the husband and even the husband may not confine himself sexually to his wives and the wives have been known to constantly blame the other co-wives. .

Feminist Perspective of Interventive and Affluent Polygyny in Sub-Saharan Africa

There are two possible ways of making reference to the phenomenon of polygyny in Sub-Saharan Africa. These are affluent polygyny and Interventive polygyny. The first type of polygyny is instigated by affluence or an urge for social prestige and economic ambitions. Most authors who comment on the practice of polygyny in Sub-Saharan Africa seem to give attention only to the existence to the first type of polygyny. The attitude of polygyny appeared to have been firmly grounded on the theory of institutional evolutionism, for which Africans would progress through civilization from the rule of custom to the rule of law from polytheism to monotheism and from polygyny to monogamy. The main factor behind interventive polygyny is not sexual incontinence, but the overriding desire and necessity of having children. Interventive polygyny is marrying another wife because the first wife did not have a son or daughter, Or even if the first wife did not have children at all.

Critics

Some Western (feminist)critics of African polygamy (polygyny) tend to condemn the institution of interventive polygamy outright. Such critics appear to entertain the general assumption that under such a system childless and sonless women suffer psychological and physical violence in African society especially in rural settings. The victims, such foreign critics point out, are often dispossessed of their material belongings, accused of witchcraft, and isolated from the children of the community due to suspicion that they are dangerous to children! The same critics, also, often go to the extent of concluding that "Interventive Polygamy" serves several purposes one of which appears to be a therapy to keep African women in a state of permanent insecurity in their marriages and seems to serve to control a difficult wife and used to spur women in into competitive relationships with one another.

Logoli Tribe Kenya

In the traditional Logoli society, marriage was a fundamental concern to more people than just the potential spouses. Polygynous marriage was preferred among the Logoli and other Abalulya sub ethnic groups. Taking additional wives was regarded as on of the fundamental indicators of a successfully established man. Large families enhanced the prestige of Logoli men. Logoli men with large families were also capable of obtaining justice, as they would be feared people, who would not forcefully dare take their livestock or other things away from them. In interviews with some of the contemporary Logoli men and women who recently ventured into polygynous marriages yielded data which suggests that marrying another wife is usually approached with considerable thought and deliberation which may or may not involve or require the consent of the other wives and prospective wife’s parents. Some of the men also indicated that they were pressured by their parents to marry another wife who could contribute additional income to the family. Some of the young polygynous men indicated that they found themselves trapped in polygyny as a result of the large number of single women who needed and were actually willing to have them as their husband regardless of the fact that they were already married. Most of the women were insecure older women who had not married yet due to the shortage of women in the area. .