is polygamy a feminist issue?

In Africa polygamy has been practiced for years and still dominates in some parts of Africa. Swaziland is one of the African countries known for carrying this practice from generation to generation and still continues with it today. It is very common in Swaziland that one man marries a woman and also marries her brother’s daughter (Niece). This is done especially if the woman gets too old to perform the duties of a house-wife and thus her brother’s child would help to keep the family together and possible bare more children. Problems start when a woman is forced to marry someone they don’t love. This is normally an issue and the victims are mostly young girl being forced by their fathers who are also practising polygamy. Unfortunately this has not benefited women but it is one of the issues of woman and child abuse which needs to be addressed.

The issue of poverty is one of the major problems surrounding the issue of polygamy. Back in the days people were not using money to trade and the more wives you had the richer you could became. Women were used to cultivate and to produces kids who will also work the fields and make one man richer and thus take more wives. More women would then be interested in joining the polygamy because of the riches obtained through exploitation of other women and kids.

Very few people in South Africa are still practicing pure polygamy, and this is simply because of the financial stress that this practice can great. People are no longer living in rural areas and because of the cost of living which have tripled in less than a decade, people cannot afford to have more than one wife. For men to be able to have more than two wives, they will need to be able to provide for them. A love relationship between two individuals who are committed to each other is not the same as when there’s more that two people involved. There will always be one wife who is getting more attention from the husband than the other, and thus creating hatred amongst the woman.

This is just a tip of an ice-burg, the problem surrounding polygamy are a lot. We have more reasons not to allow this practice than we have reason to keep it. Women have rights to choose and in most case women in polygamy relationship are given no option. This issue doesn’t only affect woman but also children born in polygamy marriages.

By Simphiwe Anthony Otto
For Media Studies III