Polygamy in African Fiction

Abstract

Polygamy in the form of polygyny is still practised all over Africa and remains an obstacle to female emancipation in many countries, including South Africa, where it is recognised legally by the Customary Marriages Act. This article examines the rhetoric surrounding polygamy in a number of African texts, including critical articles, the thirteenth-century epic Sundiata, Rebecca Hourwich Reyher’s biography of Christina Sibiya and novels by Mariama Bâ, Buchi Emecheta, Chinua Achebe, Es’kia Mphahlele, Ama Ata Aidoo, Lazarus Miti and Onuora Nzekwu. Although a small number of these texts argue in favour of the stability and order of traditional African polygamy, the overwhelming majority indict the institution as totally incompatible with any hope of female happiness or selfexpression. Sisterhood among women, which is memorably portrayed in many of the texts, especially the female-authored ones, is seen as impossible among co-wives in a polygamous marriage.