The world would be a better place without polygamy

I really don’t understand how a man can take so much pride in having over a dozen wives. Does he even remember each one of them by name? If you ask me I think it is very primitive and should e abolished wherever it exists. However, polygamous marriages are not lawful in Rwanda nor is the practice itself, thank Heavens. Muslims are we know them have the luxury of having more than one wife; in fact they can have even up to four wives if they want. I’m more than certain there are some men out there who envy them beyond explanation. But let us just be reasonable for a minute, who in the world wants to have a house that could be confused for a school? Seriously speaking, a polygamous family means every wife bearing hordes of children and only God knows how many kids some of these ladies can mean to let out! If the first wife has about 6 of her own and the second has another 4, leaving the other 2 wives to go between a total of 10, it is just ridiculous! How do you even feed those heads let alone clothe and educate them? It doesn’t even matter if you’re a tycoon and are very well capable of looking after them and more, it’s just not right. Why not have families that you can balance on your head and not feel the weight? The richest guys in the world usually have not more than 3 children. And they have enough money to run a small country! I think the problem is some people are out to prove a point or be entered into the Guinness Book of Records! King Solomon was one of the greatest people that ever lived and much as we were all blown away by his “great wisdom” you don’t have to emulate him to the point of marrying over 100 wives! I don’t even want to begin to imagine how many children he had. And obviously God gave him way too much wisdom that he sort of became stupid and married lots of foreign women, forgetting who gave him the power! The point is, nothing good can come out of polygamy because something always goes amiss and that’s why we have women killing each other with acid! That is why we have women poisoning other women’s kids or visiting witch doctors to provide juju that will make another go mad or something. It’s insane. Back in the day many African societies saw children as a form of wealth thus the more children a family had the more power to them. Polygamy was therefore part of empire building. It was only during the colonial era that it was perceived as taboo and we can thank the colonialists for that as well. Other countries such as South Africa clearly have no issues with the practice seeing as their president has an open 3 wives with a total of 20 children including the ones from 2 past wives. Now I don’t know whether his polygamous ways affect his leadership but what I do know is that he probably spends a lot of valuable time thinking about women and how and when he can bring in another! I’m not a mind reader but some things are just so easy to figure out. The countries that are not condemning this practice yet should join the ones that are and put an end to its primeval and backward nature. We are in a new era where lives are meant to be simpler, not harder! helgaruka@yahoo.co.uk