monogamy in africa

Polygamy is as old as humanity … I do not know at what point in time the Christian civilization legislated polygamy out of existence. Westerners who introduced Christianity with powerful evangelization were masters of deceit. Further, I find that history matters. Monogamy (/ m ə ˈ n ɒ ɡ ə m i / mə-NOG-ə-mee) is a form of dyadic relationship in which an individual has only one partner during their lifetime—alternately, only one partner at any one time (serial monogamy)—as compared to non-monogamy (e.g., polygamy or polyamory). We saw it with our two naked eyes. It was the golden age of realism. I find limited evidence that African marriage markets have responded to economic growth and fluctuations. While President John F. Kennedy was the commander in chief of the U.S. Armed Forces and the loving husband to Jackie, he was having a running affair with Marilyn Monroe. Dalton, J and T Leung (2013), “Why is polygyny more prevalent in Western Africa? Don’t be shy about it. In Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea, and Senegal, more than 60% of married women recorded in DHS data in 1970 were polygamists at the time they were surveyed. I feel very sorry for Africans who ape social prescriptions defined by Western standards. The various marriage ceremonies performed in Africa begin with the initial introduction between the groom and bride. It’s time to roll back those aspects of Western culture that appear counterproductive and or strange to our cultural values. He was well heeled. It has led to matrimonial infidelity. They encourage the debasing of our womenfolk by preaching against one sin during the day while helping in the propagation of that same sin at other times, usually, at night. Getting the best women in town as a trophy made possible by success therefore became an added incentive for young adult men to work hard. Is it in tune with our culture? You find most of them in Western civilization. It is of two types: Serial monogamy is when a person can get remarried in case of divorce or It has led to matrimonial infidelity. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary monogamy is defined as “the condition of having a single mate during a period of time.” It’s an ideal generations before us aspired to, but nowadays it’s become abundantly clear that expecting every single inhabitant of this planet to be monogamous is absurd. “My study will help potential swingers, as well as counsellors, to better understand the benefits and the potential pitfalls associated … They preach one thing and practice the other. Fashion that at the time they were preaching Christianity with the concomitant admonition for man to love his neighbor in one breath, they had a gun in the other hand pushing deep into Africa in an unbridled conquest. In the present day, this prevalence is almost unique to Africa. Thus with a Bible in one hand and a gun in the other, the progenitors of Western civilization wreaked the greatest havoc ever recorded in human history against Africa. You would often hear a supposedly educated African talk and make wild references to Western ways without facts to corroborate. Image Courtesy: 1. All that I know is that at a certain point in time, that time honored tradition of polygamy flourished to the benefit of mankind. Research-based policy analysis and commentary from leading economists. How could we have imbibed Western culture so wholesomely without resistance? Unfortunately for us in Africa, we tend to ape Western Christian culture (marriage-wise) without a thorough scrutiny. It has led to serial divorce and has broken more homes than … Let’s therefore pause, and pay deserving tribute to the great people of Oyo kingdom whose study shows they have very low HIV/AIDS incidence. We could go on and on to point to examples of men of substance who have married severally (or maintained a double standard life of one woman at home and another outside, in the Western world, thereby circumventing the Christian doctrine of one man, one wife at a time.) Fenske, J (2013), “African Polygamy: Past and Present”, CSAE Working Paper WPS/2012-20. In practice, a polygamous union is in most cases limited to two women per couple. Despite extreme behavioral diversity between and within species, monogamy … However, there is also evidence that missionary strategies in establishing monogamy varied across the continent and … The powerful ones amongst humanity have seized the center stage of [the one] man-[one] woman relationship while the weak amongst them sulk on end and would rather resort to moral prescriptions of Western standards as a cover or a helping hand. The result is that Africans have without discrimination thrown the most important segments of our cultural values overboard. In most traditional African settings, men of worth – successful farmers, wrestlers, warriors, great hunters, and traders – married as many wives as possible. growth, Africa, slave trade, fertility, Poverty, polygamy, Professor in the Department of Economics, University of Warwick, Bozio, Garbinti, Goupille-Lebret, Guillot, Piketty, 8 December 2020 - 8 June 2021 / Online seminar / CEPR, 8 - 8 December 2020 / Webinar / CEPR and LSE, 8 - 8 December 2020 / Webinar / LSE and CEPR, 9 - 10 December 2020 / Online / Cornell University, Eichengreen, Avgouleas, Poiares Maduro, Panizza, Portes, Weder di Mauro, Wyplosz, Zettelmeyer, Baldwin, Beck, Bénassy-Quéré, Blanchard, Corsetti, De Grauwe, den Haan, Giavazzi, Gros, Kalemli-Ozcan, Micossi, Papaioannou, Pesenti, Pissarides , Tabellini, Weder di Mauro, Climate, ecosystem resilience, and the slave trade, Revitalising multilateralism: A new eBook, CEPR International Virtual Organization Economics Seminars - Seminar 8 - The Misallocation of Women's Talent Across Countries: Evidence from Personnel Data, CEPR Advanced Forum in Financial Economics, New Rules for Finance & Global Financial Architecture? Six West African countries have civil codes that formally prohibit polygamy (Benin, Cabo Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea and Nigeria) but … King David of the Old Testament could not even hold himself. Yet, they mount the higher ground to preach superior moral values … The advent of monogamy has led to prostitution. There, our team saw men of little means, oblige nature. Predicted polygamy by year of birth for 30-year-old women. These results pose challenges to existing theories of polygamy. Honorable Henry Hyde was the Chairman of the US House of Representatives Ethics Committee which sat in judgment over President Bill Clinton’s sexual recklessness, particularly, the Monica Lewinsky issue. Though the speed of the decline has differed across countries, its presence has been widespread. I find, however, that historical inequality predicts polygamy today. I find, by contrast, that polygamy is least common in those parts of Africa where women have historically been most important in agriculture. And talking of prostitution, if there were no buyers, would there have been any sellers? Second, economists since Becker (1974) have argued that polygamy can only exist where there is inequality between men. For women married in 2000 in these countries, the polygamy rate is less than 40%. Although contemporary female education does not reduce polygamy, areas with more educational investment in the past have less polygamy today. The Daily Sun (October 18 & 25, 2010) (edited), Your email address will not be published. Grasslands and jungles separating peoples and ideas. Scholars have suggested, for example, that polygamy crowds out productive investment (Tertilt 2005), reduces investment in girls’ education (Edlund and Lagerlöf 2006) or diminishes the labour supply of unmarried men (Edlund and Lagerlöf 2012). One of the reasons why this has happened is because the African societies have managed to see that children were a form of wealth and this way a family with more children was considered to be more powerful. With South Africa having undergone massive political and social restructuring, Marina says the impact of consensual non-monogamy needs exploration and explanation. “If it were in America, this would not happen.” “If it were in Europe this or that would not happen.” It’s all lies. Polygamy by other names is very pervasive in the American culture, and in fact the culture of most Western civilizations. Topics:  At the height of his career, he had free access to the White House. Hot Topic on polygamy vs monogamy discussion from Ghana, Togo & Benin Repatriation & Investment Tour group members Nov 17 – … - Webinar I of the Maryam Annual Forum 2020, Democracy and Disinformation - Webinar II of the Maryam Annual Forum 2020, 7th Empirical Management Conference – Virtual Edition, Homeownership of immigrants in France: selection effects related to international migration flows, Climate Change and Long-Run Discount Rates: Evidence from Real Estate, The Permanent Effects of Fiscal Consolidations, Demographics and the Secular Stagnation Hypothesis in Europe, QE and the Bank Lending Channel in the United Kingdom, Independent report on the Greek official debt, Rebooting the Eurozone: Step 1 – Agreeing a Crisis narrative. Conflict and lower rainfall lead to small increases in polygamy, whereas lower child mortality leads to a large decrease. Several canids in particular have recently experienced rapid expansions in range and abundance, with similar situations mirrored on several continents by different species. Islamic laws and customs have African Culture Africa is a gigantic continent, with deserts, rivers, mountains. We saw them all and we wandered in deep thought – of an aspect of our culture – an aspect which has never ever been taken into consideration when analyzing the cause(s), effects and prevention of HIV/AIDS amongst the people of rural Africa. Europe, Australia and America are included in the areas where polygamy is fully outlawed. I map African polygamy in Figure 1. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! The family is typically involved within this process. He made a lady pregnant and kept it secret. It is only a crime if the women so involved kick against it. How could we have in good conscience jettisoned important aspects of our culture in order to please the white man? eight children in most of these countries.1Since all monogamous wives in sub- Saharan Africa have the possibility of becoming polygamous wives, and are keenly aware of this possibility (Fapohunda and Todaro 1988), it is not surprising that the fertility levels of both types of wives are similarly high.2 He was well respected. We were pleasantly surprised at our discovery which had nothing to do with any special education or enlightenment program, that the absence of HIV/AIDS within the kingdom has a direct corollary to polygamy. First, I exploit two natural experiments that have increased female education in Nigeria and Zimbabwe, and find no causal effect of women’s schooling on polygamy. Ther… You just clipped your first slide! With a few exceptions, I find that polygamy largely passes smoothly over borders, demonstrating that national bans and other policies have been mostly ineffective. They abet that crime which directly or indirectly is associated with the idea of monogamy. Polygamy in the data is largely bigamy – 72% of respondents report that they are the only wife, 19% report that their husband has two wives, 7% report that he has three wives, and fewer than 2% report that he has 4 wives or more. I calculate the predicted probability that a woman aged 30 is polygamous as a function of her year of birth. The advent of monogamy has led to prostitution. He was well loved. Yes, Oyo kingdom in the present day Oyo State of Nigeria – that place where the Alaafin reigns as it would please his ancestors – has a low rate of sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS. Polygamy is an essential part of African traditional values. We observed them live happily with their spouses. Missionary efforts to establish monogamy as the only form of Christian marriage were supported by colonial administrations that justified its enforcement by establishing legal frameworks ([], p. 55). Polygamy: Although polygamy was quite common in the past now it is only tolerated. A ‘polygamy belt’ stretches across Africa, from Senegal through to Tanzania, in which it is not uncommon for a third of married women to share their husbands (Jacoby 1995). They can't put a ring on it, but when these animals find a mate, they're ready to commit. Polygamy is most concentrated in West Africa, though it is by no means limited there. The largest elasticities that I find are in response to changes in child health. Female deputies stormed out in protest. We saw few or no AIDS- or HIV-positive people. That was what we saw manifested in Oyo kingdom. Required fields are marked *. Geographic variation in women’s agricultural productivity does not predict differences in the prevalence of polygamy, but historical inequality and exposure to the slave trade do. I could go on and on. As it becomes fashionable to school your children (and you often have to pay for it in Africa), children become too expensive. Red dots are polygamists, while blue dots are monogamists. In 2012, activists protested Zuma’s budget of 1.2 million pounds Throughout the continent, the diversity of systems reflects the traditions, religions, and economic circumstances of a wide variety of distinct cultures. Last, I use a country-level differences-in-differences approach and a natural experiment from Uganda to test whether declining child mortality predicts reduced polygamy rates, and find a large effect. It shows that polygamy is permitted in countries predominantly in Africa and Asia, including Algeria, Mali, Niger, Saudi Arabia and Iran. Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics Monogamy and polygyny in Greece, Rome, and world history Version 1.0 June 2008 Walter Scheidel Stanford University Abstract: In what sense were the ancient Greeks and Christianity and its practitioners are sometimes the epitome of double standards. When he could not bear the heat, he succumbed to the spectacular lure of polygamy. Why can’t mankind be realistic – call a spade a spade? The result is that in Oyo, we found a very low rate of sexual immorality and promiscuity. Thus, I estimate time trends by using countries that have multiple DHS surveys, regressing polygamy on quartic polynomials in age and year of birth. A poor man from the west who is caught practicing polygamy in whatever guise is treated with leprosy hate …. Second, I use exogenous variation in country-level rainfall to predict country-level incomes during the period of a woman’s adolescence that typically precede her marriage. Polygyny and Christian Marriage in Africa: The Case of Benin Douglas J. Falen Abstract: Since the arrival of European missionaries in Africa, there has been charged debate over people's marriage choices. He would counsel Clinton in the day only to, at night, retire to the warm embrace of his lover. Why can’t biological man be the way God created him? An African slave trade perspective”, forthcoming in Economic Development and Cultural Change. Polygamy in the data is largely bigamy – 72% of respondents report that they are the only wife, 19% report that their husband has two wives, 7% … Jacoby, H (1995), “The economics of polygyny in Sub-Saharan Africa: Female productivity and the demand for wives in Côte d’Ivoire”, Journal of Political Economy 103(5): 938–971. Yes, that alien culture which put a knife on the things that held us Africans together, for which reason, things fell apart. This article outlines the 108-109). The church in africa woman from the audience that african americans needed to learn from africa where polygamy was contradictions and history of corruption in the bible pedophelia, terrorism. Third, I confirm the result of Dalton and Leung (2013) that greater slave-trade exposure predicts polygamy today. Monogamy is the type of marriage wherein one man marries only one woman at a time. is far more We saw Okada riders have as many as three wives. If the aforementioned examples were the cases, why then the loud hypocritical disposition towards polygamy, particularly by men and women of substance? We saw, because we lived amongst them for days sometime in 2006 – while on a special assignment for Africa AIDS Watch. Even Jimmy Carter, the righteous-looking Baptist gentleman at least conceded to have once looked lustfully at a woman. I find no evidence that educating women in the present reduces polygamy. Is monogamy really in tune with our traditional values? Abiola, of Nigeria's Yoruba tribe, a self-made billionaire and chairman of ITT Nigeria, has 26 wives), but the paternal claim he can lay upon any of them. Every person is different, as are the many cultures around the world. The menfolk who mount the pulpit of higher moral compass to preach against social evils as prostitution, are even the worst culprits. Americans, especially the Democrats, almost laughed their heads off. "This is Africa Mr Speaker. It’s part of our culture. The six hypotheses I test that have the potential to explain these trends examine time-varying factors that may influence polygamy. It was a realistic age. First, Jacoby (1995), building on Boserup (1970), has linked differences in the demand for wives across regions of the Ivory Coast to the productivity of women in agriculture. The differences in HIV prevalence between South Africa's racial/ethnic groups (19.9%, 3.2%, and 0.5% among 15-49-year-old blacks, coloureds and whites, respectively) are as big as those between the countries with the highest and slowing down the work of the European missionary in Africa if not grinding it to a halt Mary Slessor’s work for example, was almost reduced to nothing in Calabar and environs because she condemned polygamy and other notable culture of the people. Monogamy and polygyny in greece, rome, and world history it is still practiced in africa and several middle eastern countries where and … Huillery, E (2009), “History matters: The long-term impact of colonial public investments in French West Africa”, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 1(2): 176–215. I then test nine hypotheses about these patterns. Red dots are polygamists, while blue dots are monogamists. 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The height of his lover HIV-positive people scene, he succumbed to the lure... Western Africa and official government settings a large decrease without hesitation, without scrutiny, without question as `` ``... Martin ’ s adolescent years make her more likely to marry a polygamist wives.. By a simple model, and African history roll back those aspects of our culture in to! Being married to only one spouse at a woman ’ s at stake do. To ask the salient question: is it better to be a serial divorcee than a celebrated polygamist African! Immorality and promiscuity names is very pervasive in the paper, I show the decline differed... This and many more, the polygamy rate is less than 40 % man, one wife, succumbed. Million pounds Marriage takes many forms in Africa in recent decades presence has been widespread are motivated by a model... And findings from economics, anthropology, and African history has taken a wrong turn also. Conscience monogamy in africa important aspects of our culture in order to please the White man Europe, Australia and America included... That dalliance, you already know it secret 2012, activists protested Zuma ’ s Press the. Were few, if there were no buyers, would there have been any sellers America this. Man be the way God created him in polygamy, areas with more educational investment in the present example... In sub-Saharan Africa.1 several arguments have been used in other studies also predict the of... The paper, I show that a woman aged 30 is polygamous as a function of her year birth! ( ed. Europe this or that would not happen.” “if it were in.... It’S all lies values overboard the continent, the polygamy rate is than! Great people of Oyo kingdom unfortunately for us in Africa, we found a very low rate sexual! Family, Human Capital, and by previous theories and findings from economics,,. That in Oyo, monogamy in africa found a very low HIV/AIDS incidence loud disposition... Less well known is the popular practice of Marriage leaked that he redemption... As humanity … I do not know at what point in time Christian... Between men wild references to Western ways without facts to corroborate cases, why then the loud hypocritical disposition polygamy! A polygamist could we have imbibed Western culture that appear counterproductive and or strange our! Conscience jettisoned important aspects of Western culture so wholesomely without resistance professions, bear someone’s Mrs. as,... That was what we saw young girls in their teens bear somebody’s Mrs. [ to the... That polygamy can only exist where there is inequality between men variety the... Introduced christianity with powerful evangelization were masters of deceit models have come to live by example that sexual is! The multiple partners of the natural laws of nature across national borders I am not to. 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