NEITHER Islam nor African tradition (religion?) outlaws marrying more than one wife. Islam teaches that men can marry two, three, even four wives but with the proviso that they treat these wives “equitably”.

Yoruba Muslims capture this comically with the phrase: Me l’oLo’un wi —- God says (you can marry) me.  The  word “me” is a prefix for me-rin(four), me-fa (six)…me-edogun(15), me-rindinlogojo (156) ad infinitum.

The various interpretations to which the word “equitable” is subject do not alter the plurality inherent in the Islamic injunction. But the various interpretations are interesting.

First, “equitably” does not necessarily mean equally. It means fairly , impartially. Thus for three wives of clearly different sizes, ranging from slender to very large, equity implies giving yards of clothing sufficient for each. Thus the slender wife may get three-and-a- half yards while the large wife gets seven yards. The yards are not equal. But they are equitable.

Most traditional peoples are polygamous. Especially in Africa. The Ifa corpus of the Yoruba teaches for instance that okan soso poro l’obinrin dun mo lowo oko; bi won ba di meji, won a d’ojowu, bi wo ba di meta won a d’eta ntule, bi won di merin won a di iwo lo rin mi ni mo rin o…

(It’s best that men marry only one wife; when wives become two, rivalry begins. When they become three, they may bring the household to ruin. When they become four, they engage in needless bickering). And so it goes on and on.

The injunction here is quite pragmatic. While Ifa does not condemn polygamy as “sinful”, or the polygamist as a “sinner”, it points out the dangers inherent in a multiplicity of wives. The instructive thing in particular is that the sage of Yoruba tradition, orunmila, who (supposedly) gave the advice, married more than one wife.

Another Ifa verse cites Oosaala, chief of Yoruba deities, as a good example of a king/leader who avoided polygamy so that he could better focus on matters of state. The Ifa verse says “it’s pretty hard to live among 40 wives and not commit domestic blunders occasionally, that was why Oosaala, who presided over the affairs of Ile-Ife could not afford to emulate those with numerous (200) wives; rather, he stuck to only Yemowoo”.

Even among the Jews of old from whose religion (Judaism) Christianity sprang, the man reserved the freedom, not only to marry many wives but to also have concubines. However, the concubine, or her children had no right of inheritance. In fact, the personalties most beloved of Yahweh, the god of the Jews in the Old Testament (Abraham, the father of faith; David, the warrior after Yahweh’s heart; Solomon, “the wisest man”) were all celebrated polygamists. Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines.

Christians don’t speak with one voice on polygamy. Many Christian are polygamists. Many churches accept polygamy. And the nearest to explicit comments on monogamy in the New Testament comes from a source other than Jesus, the “founder” of Christianity.

Rather, the Source is believed to be Paul the Apostle (1Timothy 3:2, 1Timothy 3:12 and Titus 1:6) where he stated that a church leader should be the “husband of but one wife.” Paul did not extend this advice to the whole Christian community. It   shows the advice was dictated by the responsibilities that go with Church leadrship.

It is interesting to note however that the history of the Catholic Church which outlaws polygamy to the point of celibacy among its priests, is replete with scandals involving otherwise devout priests breaking their vow through multiple sexual escapades.

As it was then, so is it today. Even among non-Catholic monogamists, cases abound of “men of God” who preached monogamy all their lives only to be discovered after their deaths that they had wives “outside matrimony”.

And Europe which outlaws bigamy has a remarkably high incidence of “serial monogamy”—- where both men and women marry several spouses only to discard them consecutively for fresh ones.