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Polygyny among Urban Shona and Ndebele Christians
A Case Study
by G. L. Chavunduka'
(Editor's note: According to the Oxford English Dictionary polygamy denotes marriage with several spouses at once. Although the practice of one man having several wives is generally termed polygamy, the specific term for this form of polygamy is polygyny.)
Introduction
The introduction of Christianity, industrialisation and urbanisation has led to a decline in the number of polygynous marriages in Rhodesia. Many people have embraced Christianity which teaches the doctrine of one man, one wife. Moreover, many of the factors which favoured polygyny have disappeared.
In traditional Shona and Ndebele societies polygyny offered a number of advantages. When wars were still common, clans or tribal groups, which won these wars were usually those that among other things, had a good supply of human resources. Thus in order to have an adequate supply of manpower for the defence of the territory, society encouraged every grownup man to marry as many wives as he could afford and produce many children.
From the point of view of the men, polygyny offered several advantages. Plural marriage made farm work easier. Wives and children provided most of the labour needed for farm operations such as ploughing, planting, weeding, harvesting and looking after livestock. Then there was the prestige value of many wives. Since it is generally expensive to enter into plural marriage, a man's wives served as a measure of his wealth. Thus the more wives a man had the more society looked upon him as a man of wealth. In fact, some women were keen to become wives of polygynous men because of the belief that such men had the wealth to keep them happy. Children were also an important source of political power. In general men with many children and descendants were more likely to occupy positions of influence than those without. Lineages and clans were the building bricks of the political system. A man also looked to his children and other descendants for support in times of illhealth and old age. The larger the number of children the greater was the expectation and continuity of such social support. Some men entered into a plural union because of the sexual outlet offered by polygyny when continence was demanded during pregnancy and lactation. It was taboo for a husband to have sexual intercourse with his wife during the lactation period. Furthermore, the lactation period was long two to three years in many cases. There was no artificial milk for child feeding. Polygyny was also sometimes resorted to as a means of preventing divorce. If the relationship between a man and a woman became bad because of the woman's laziness or other reasons, she could be retained as a wife for some other quality of hers such as beauty, and another married for her industry. The rule of widow inheritance (levirate in the case of the Ndebele) also led topolygyny. When a man's brother died, society generally expected the surviving brother to look after the widow and her children.
Some women felt that there were some advantages in entering into a plural union. In the home the woman was expected to bear the whole of the domestic burden. Because of this, some married women urged their husbands to marry more wives so that they did not have to bear the whole of the domestic burden alone. Companionship was another advantage. In traditional society it was not necessary that husband and wife should share the same interests and activities or that they should be with each other all, or nearly all, of the time. A man was expected to seek companionship with his fellow men, and a woman with her fellow women. Thus for the sake of companionship some wives urged their husbands to bring another woman into the establishment. To some women the rule of widow inheritance also offered some advantages. It ensured continued social and economic security after the death of the husband. Partly because of this need for social and economic security some widows encouraged their husband's surviving brothers to enter into a husbandwife relationship with them.
Nowadays many of the advantages of polygny have disappeared. The need to have many wives and children for the defence of the society has largely disappeared because of the absence of such wars. In farming children are no longer an economic asset in many areas.2 Nowadays children, wherever possible, have to spend most of their time in school and after completing their education move into the towns and other employment centres in search of work. Many parents today pay school fees, often at great sacrifice, with the hope that their children later on will gain those urban jobs that now provide better financial rewards and prestige. Farming in many parts of the country is increasingly becoming unprofitable due partly to the diminishing amount of land, lack of finance, insecurity and poverty of soils. And since it is difficult nowadays for many men to provide good education for the children born of only one wife, many men refrain (usually because of the wife's concern for the children's education) from entering into a plural union because of the extra economic burden it would place upon them.
The economic inability of many men to support plural wives is another factor which has made monogamy more popular than polygyny. Many adult men are no longer selfemployed on their farms. They now work in towns and other employment centres as wage earners and depend for their livelihood largely on their wages which can barely meet the now numerous needs of modern society. Some wealthy men argue that polygyny would divert capital from more profitable uses such as investing It in business. In general economic wealth now confers more prestige than polygyny. In competition for modern jobs polygyny can sometimes restrict one's opportunities for social advancement. Some business managers, government officials and missionaries are not keen to hire or promote polygynous men mainly because of Christian education which has propagandised for a long time in favour of monogamy. Many employers also feel that chances of wanting a leave of absence from work to attend to family problems are greater among poiygynous men than anong monogamous workers.
New Forms of Polygyny
Although monogamy is now more popular than polygny there are still a number of factors which favour plural marriage; factors which will be described below such as the strong desire for children, the rule of widow inheritance, family conflicts and poverty. These factors put many Christians in a dilemma. Faced with this situation some Christians have found some way of acquiring additional wives without abandoning their Christian faith. This takes two main forms.4 One form is where an additional wife is taken after all customary marriage obligations have been fulfilled. The man regards the new marriage as a temporary arrangement to be terminated when he has achieved his objective. The second form which is more common than the first, is what has become known as mapoto marriage. The term mapoto comes from the English word, "pots". The new form literally means, "cooking together" or "sharing pots". Although mapoto marriages are not registered, they are regarded as marriages by those involved.
They can be distinguished from ordinary love affairs in that the woman agrees to sexual fidelity in return for social or economic support although the man may have another wife. In an ordinary love affair a man may also want and expect his lover to be sexually faithful, and she may be faithful or pretend to be so to please him, but the man has no authority to demand it. Urban "traditional" courts regard unfaithfulness on the part of a woman who has a mapoto marriage as adultery.6 Moreover, as in free marriages In Kampala described by Mandeville (1975) the man in a mapoto marriage must acknowledge any children born as his own. There is also emphasis that the partner is husband or wife and not a mere lover.
One factor which often leads to plural marriage among Christians is the strong desire for children. This is mainly a desire to have children, par ticularly male children, who will succeed the father after death, inherit hi property and perpetuate his name and lineage. To many people absence of children causes more heartburning than anything else.
One consequence of this strong desire for children is the great temptation on the part of many Christian men nowadays to try and prove before marriage that the girl they are about to marry is fertile. In other word. while a polygynist could tolerate one barren wife, it is much more essential nowadays for a man to ensure that his one wife is fertile. Although there are no figures which indicate the percentage of women who now enter Christian marriage already pregnant, the number of such women could well be rising. Sterility on the part of the husband although shameful is not generally regarded as a sufficient cause for the dissolution of marriage. In the past the husband could make a secret arrangement with a close relative to impregnate his wife in his name. Many people no longer accept this device and as a result relations between husband and wife may in some cases become intolerable because of the man's failure to satisfy his wife sexually and may result in the dissolution of the contract.
Other Christian men do not try to prove before marriage that the girl they are about to marry is fertile. However, should the woman prove to be barren after marriage the temptation to divorce her is often very great. Many such marriages end in divorce. Before taking this action many Christians in this position often consult traditional and scientific medical specialists in an attempt to improve their chances of getting children.
Some Christian men who are married to barren wives do not divorce them. But faced on the one hand with the great urge to have children and on the other with the church's ruling on polygyny, many Christians in this position often find some way of producing the desired children without abandoning their Christian faith. They generally do this by taking a leave of absence from the church, and devote a few years of their lives to the production of children. For this an additional wife is acquired. The man regards the new marriage as a temporary arrangement to be terminated when he has achieved his objective of getting a reasonable number of children.
Take the case of J who married his first wife in 1942. This wife is barren. In 1949 Jmarried another wife with whom he produced two children. This marriage was dissolved in 1956, J told me that he found it difficult as a Christian to continue with his second marriage. The children have been adopted by his childless first wife. Today J is a leading member of his church and also an active member of the Moral Rearmament Association.
Another example is that of G, a prosperous businessman and a member of the Methodist Church. His legal wife has seven children all girls. What forced G to look for another woman was the desire to have at least one son who will inherit his property and name. The second wife who now has one son lives in another part of town some distance away from the first wife. No bridewealth has been paid for the second marriage. G's first wife as well as other kinsmen know about the second marriage.
The rule of widow inheritance is another factor which may lead to some form of polygyny among Christians. As mentioned earlier, when a man's brother dies, society generally expects the surviving brother to look after the widow and her children. Pressure from kinsmen (some of whom may not be Christians) to make the relationship between the man and his dead brother's wife strong, is often very great. The widow too, partly because of the need for social and economic security, may encourage her husband's surviving brother to enter into a husbandwife relationship with her. Some relatively wealthy widows encourage their husband's surviving brother to enter into a husbandwife relationship with them because of the desire to remain with their children. Refusal to be inherited by the husband's surviving kinsman can mean separation between the widow and her children. The widow may (although this is not often done nowadays) be sent back to her family of origin while the children remain with their father's kinsmen. If the man is of little faith he may be forced to work out an arrangement whereby the relationship with the widow is strengthened without placing his Christian identity in an embarrassing position.
All close kinsmen of the widow's husband may, of course, refuse to inherit her. In this case the widow remains with her children or may remarry. On the other hand some relatively wealthy widows who want to retain their social identity avoid actual inheritance by appointing their sons as their future "husbands". This device is acceptable and some Christian women use it nowadays.'
The case of L is a good example of how the rule of widow inheritance often presents a dilemma among Christian men and women. L been a leading member of the Anglican church for over ten years. He is a very successful carpenter. He is married and has seven children. During the last three years he has been maintaining his dead brother's wife. In fact, people around them now regard the widow as the man's second wife. This relationship is not known by many members of L's church as the widow lives at a place remote from that of his legal wife. In his community L poses as a monogamist. He told me that as a Christian he did not want to live with his brother's wife as husband and wife, but pressure from some of his kinsmen and the widow herself was so strong that he had to show his Christian charity by agreeing to the arrangement.
Serious family disagreements may also lead to some form of polygyny among Christians. Today as in traditional society polygyny, or at least some form of it, is sometimes resorted to as a means of stabilising marriage. Some men believe that if a wife has a rival she does her best to please the man in order to retain his love which would otherwise be transferred to her rival.
Polygyny may, of course, create family problems as well. An internal family struggle may develop between one wife and her children on one side, and another wife and hers on the other. Inheritance problems may arise as well as sexual jealousies and adultery, but many marriages, too, have been saved by it.
0, who was a supervisor in a business firm in Salisbury for thirty one years also had a mapoto marriage for seventeen years. He told me that his first wife "is a troublemaker". They could not get on well together particularly during the early years of their marriage. The first wife lived at their rural home while 0lived in town with the other wife. The mapoto marriage has now been terminated and 0 now lives at his rural home in retirement.
Economic difficulties nowadays may lead to plural marriage. This happened in the case of R, who until 1976 was a lorry driver in Salisbury S, his legal wife lives at their rural home with their four children. They married in 1960. In 1972 R established a mapoto marriage with Swho had just completed her nursing training at Harare Hospital in Sails bury. Pis now a nursing sister and receives a relatively good salary. She didn't know that R had another wife until early 1975 after the birth of her daughter. By 1976 R and P had saved enough money between them to open a butchery shop in the rural area which is now being run by S . told me, "Had I not married P, I would be in very serious financial problems today. My children would never have gone to school. Although my first wife was mad when she heard about now she is happy because she runs our butchery"
Other reasons which appear to force some Christian men into a plural union are, interest in some other woman, loneliness, and reluctance on the part of some divorcees and widowers to contract another Christian marriage.
0, a senior clerk in a transport firm established another union because of his love for J. He married his first wife in the Methodist church in 1958. They have five children. He began living with his second wife J a divorcee in 1970. He does not intend to have any children with this second wife. In the case of X, loneliness appears to have played a part in the establishment of his second union. He loves his first wife who lives with their seven children in the rural area about 100 kilometres from Salisbury. He told me that he could only visit his first wife about two or three times a year. The last example is that of M who established a mapoto marriage because of his reluctance to contract another Christian marriage at least for the time being.8 He has been living with N as husband and wife for over four years. They have two children. He divorced his first wife in 1969.
It should be pointed out that men do not always acquire the additional wives described above without the knowledge of their Christian wives. In fact, in some cases the Christian wife may be in sympathy with the husband, particularly where she is barren, and so may tacitly give her blessing to the husband's practice, and connive at whatever he does in this respect. One woman living in the rural areas told me that she doesn't mind what her husband does in town as long as she receives financial support enough for her and others living with her. T's first wife made the same point. She did not oppose his second marriage because as she put it, "it was my fault. I only have one child. I can't produce any more children. The second wife will produce more children for us".9 Some women who are opposed to polygyny succeed in preventing their husband from marrying a second wife. A Christian wife can, in fact, succeed in an action for divorce on the grounds of adultery in the Rhodesian Courts (Child, 1965; p. 57) if her husband takes another wife without her consent.
Many Christian women agree to enter into these unions for a number of reasons. Some do so because they consider themselves incapable of securing a good Christian marriage. These are women who may have had children out of wedlock or consider themselves too ugly to find a suitable young man. A 's case is a good example of this behaviour. She was made pregnant by one of her teachers before she completed her primary school education. The teacher refused to marry her. After the birth of her child, A moved into Salisbury and eventually obtained a job as a shop assistant. She now lives with a man as husband and wife, in a mapoto marriage. The man has another wife. A told me that she had lost hope of ever having a Christian marriage because single men are reluctant to take on responsibility for a woman's children by a previous marriage.
Other Christian women agree to marry or live with Christian polygynists because of their age. They fear that if they remain unmarried, they may be exposed to contempt in the society. To many women it is better to be married to a polygynist than not to be married at all. Thirtyfour years old Y gave this as her reason for agreeing to establish a mapoto marriage. Some women agree to marry polygynists in the hope that the first wife will eventually be divorced. This expectation is usually the result of the man's promises. Sophia who has a mapoto marriage reported that her husband had promised to divorce his first wife within a year of their mapoto marriage. "He has not done so after eight years of marriage; in any case it is useless now because I already have two children with him". Some young Christian girls are cheated by polygynists. Cwho now has three children with a polygynist reported that she had fallen in love with him while she was doing a nursing course at Harare Hospital. The man told her that he was single. She discovered after the birth of her daughter that the man had a wife and three children living in the rural area. A large number of women married to polygynists are divorcees and widows who want social and economic support even for a limited period.10 Many divorcees express reluctance to enter into a more formal union again. They know that a formal marriage does not guarantee a secure future. One woman with a mapoto marriage boasted that she was much happier than most women who have Christian marriages.
Some women mentioned the desire to retain their social identity, freedom, arid equality with the husband as reasons which make mapoto marriage more attractive then formal Christian marriage. One woman said, "I am happy as things are now, because I am free to do whatever I want in a mapoto marriage". Another said there was "equal responsibility in matters related to clothing, food and so on in a mapoto marriage". And E, a school teacher said she didn't like a legal Christian marriage, "because it ties the woman to the man thus making her subservient". These replies are an indication of the changing position of women in Shona and Ndebele societies.
When faced with a choice between customary and mapoto marriage, older working or professional women who intend to spend most of their lives in town, generally prefer mapoto marriage. In a mapoto marriage as mentioned by the three informants above, the woman largely retains her social identity. Relations between husband and wife are also more equal than those in a Christian or customary marriage. Another advantage in a mapoto marriage is that the woman need not be greatly concerned with maintaining good, orderly relations with kin and she is also less attached to the value and practices of traditional rural life.
Terminating the husbandwife relationship described above is not always easy. Some remain married for life. In some cases the marriage may become so strong that the legal Christian wife is eventually abandoned. In some Christian churches the man may then have a Christian wedding again with the second wife.
There are three courses of action open to the father of a woman who has entered into a mapoto marriage. He can demand bridewealth in order to make the marriage more formal. Some parents succeed in obtaining such bridewealth. But since formalization of the marriage may not be in the interests of the husband or wife or both, many men with mapoto wives avoid, by using a number of techniques, the payment of bridewealth. The most common technique is to promise to pay the bridewealth in the near future. This promise can and is often made a number of times as years go by." Parents know this and have devised their own techniques of forcing men living with their daughters to pay the bridewealth. They are not always successful. The most common method used by parents to force their sonsinlaw to pay the bridewealth is to impound their daughters and their children until the sonsinlaw produce the bridewealth.12 l's father tried this method without much success. He took Irene to his home leaving her husband alone. I's husband knew it was a trick to get him to pay bridewealth. He did not follow his wife. After about three months Irene ran away from her father's home and returned to her husband. No further attempts have been made by Irene's father to recover the bridewealth.
Urban "traditional" courts are usually more successful in getting the husband to pay the bridewealth than are the parents. When disputes arise in a mapoto marriage, they can only be referred to kinsmen or to the urban "traditional" courts. (The district commissioners' courts as well as magistrates' courts do not recognise mapoto marriages as valid marriages in terms of government legislation). In the course of the trial the traditional courts usually force the husband to pay the bridewealth or damages if this matter is brought to their attention.
The other course of action open to the parents of a woman who has established a mapoto marriage is to sue for damages. Many parents, however, do not claim for damages because their own daughters may be opposed to such payments. Moreover daughters may use a number of techniques to frustrate the efforts of their parent to recover the damages. This is because payment of damages is not always in the interest of the husband or wife or both. An example of this is the case of R. She had a child with a Christian polygynist. They had a mapoto marriage. When her father and other kinsmen demanded damages, R by prior agreement with her husband argued to her parents that she was unsure about the paternity of the child since she had a number of lovers. No further attempts were made by her father to demand damages.
The last course of action open to the parents of a woman who has established a mapoto marriage is to accept the marriage as such and refrain from making any claims for bridewealth or damages. In many cases the payment of bridewealth or damages will lead to the breakup of the marriage. It has already been pointed out that the attraction of mapoto marriage as far as Christian polygynists are concerned is the expectation of impermanence. To many Christian women, particularly widows and divorcees mapoto marriage permits the leasures and comforts of a legal Christian union without its constraints. R, whose marriage has been mentioned above stated this point very clearly. Her father wanted her husband to pay damages. R frustrated this attempt. She told me: "If allow my father to claim damages this may lead to the breakup of the marriage. My husband will take away the child after paying the damages, and stop supporting me and my three children by a previous marriage as he is doing at present."
Although many men with mapoto marriages are reluctant to pay bridewealth, they remain an important economic asset to their wive's parents throughout the duration of their mapoto marriages. Many men send gifts of clothes, food and money to the woman's parents from time to time. One man whose two daughters are married one by Christian rites and the other established a mapoto marriage, told me that he was now more fond of the husband of the second daughter. Further investigations showed that the husband of the daughter with a mapoto marriage is a fairly wealthy man. He has built an expensive house for his fatherinlaw and sends him cash gifts from time to time.
Rationalisations and Techniques of Neutralisation
The question of how people who apparently uphold in theory the monogamous Christian teaching on marriage manage to depart from it in practice has not yet been fully explained. In other words we must ask how some Christians manage to avoid the impact of their Christian commitments.
There are a number of techniques of neutralisation which make such deviant behaviour possible, as well as rationalisations which protect the individual from selfblame and the blame of other Christians. One way of reducing selfblame and the disapproval of other Christians has already been mentioned; that is, talking leave of absence from the church. A Christian who enters into a plural union is regarded as having broken or betrayed his faith. He is denied certain rights which are the prerogatives of practising Christians. In order to reduce the impact of such disapproval the Christian polygynist makes it clear that the plural marriage is a temporary arrangement to be terminated as soon as he has achieved his objective of getting a reasonable number of children. The man argues that he has the opportunity of reforming his life at any time and becoming a good Christian again before he dies. In doing this, as Egboh (1973) points out the disapproval of self is reduced in effectiveness. There are many people who have abandoned polygyny and have become active members of the church.
A technique used by other Christians is what Sykes and Matza (1957) have called the denial of responsibility. In this case the individual defines himself as lacking responsibility for his deviant actions. He sees himself as helplessly propelled into a new situation. By so doing the disapproval of self or others is sharply reduced in effectiveness as a restraining influence.
The case mentioned earlier of L is a good example of this. He is a leading member of the Anglican church. He is married and has seven children. During the last three years he has also been maintaining his dead brother's wife. In fact, they now regard each other as husband and wife. L told me that as a Christian he did not want to live with his brother's widow as husband and wife, but pressure from some of his kinsmen and the widow herself was so strong that he had to show his Christian charity by agreeing to the arrangement. Many women use this technique as well. The woman blames the man for propelling her into this situation. As one woman put it, "it is my husband's responsibility. What could I do as a woman". A man who entered into a mapoto marriage told me that his barren Christian wife urged him to take another wife so that they might have children. The man argued that he has not abandoned Christianity.
The other technique used to reduce selfblame and the blame of other Christians is to shift the responsibility for the behaviour onto the ancestors. The individual sees himself in a dilemma that must be resolved. On the one hand there is the church which teaches the doctrine of one man, one wife, and on the other hand there are the ancestors who may be offended in the case of failure to produce children who will perpetuate the lineage and clan. Faced with this situation the individual accords precedence to the believed demands of the ancestors while not rejecting the Christian doctrine. An example of this is the case of T whose Christian wife is barren. In town where he works he has another wife. He now has three children with his second wife. His first wife lives in the rural area. T me that the views of the ancestors are just as important as those of the church. "If I don't produce children the ancestors will be angry with me. They want descendants. I still want to be a Christian, but I must also please my ancestors".
A technique of neutralisation used by some men and women involves the condemnation of those who appear to be upholding the monogamous Christian teaching on marriage both in theory and practice. In this case the individual claims that others are hypocrites. One informant told me, "at least my husband and I are doing it publicly. We have not attempted to hide our mapoto marriage. There are many church men who have concubines, and many church women with boy friends. I know some of them". Thus by attacking others the wrongfulness of her own behaviour is then more easily repressed.
This does not mean that Christian women who have established mapoto or customary unions do not attach any value to Christian marriage. In fact, most of them do.
Conclusion
in conclusion it should be stated that there are many Shona and Ndebele Christians who uphold both in theory and practice the monogamous Christian teaching on marriage. But there are some who have lapsed into polygyny, others enter into some form of polygyny but hope to become active members of the church again when they have terminated their second marriage. This paper has been concerned with this last group.
The rationalisations and techniques of neutralisation that some people employ when they have departed from the church's ruling by acquiring additional wives are important in lessening the effectiveness of social control. This does not mean, however, that such people do not have feelings of guilt and shame when called upon to account for their deviant behaviour. Many often do.
1 I have benefited greatly from the Zambian, Zululand and Iboland studies of marriage by Gluckman 1960, Mitchell 1963. and Egboh 1973.
2 There is some evidence from Cheater (1974, p. 41) which indicates that children may still be an important source of labour in some commercial farming areas. In terms of cost, it is more profitable, to be a polygynist In the commercial farming areas than to be a monogamist. Labour costs In the farms studied by Cheater were in general, highest for monogamous farm owners and lowest for polygynlst farm owners.
4 This is not to say there are no businessmen with plural wives. Some wealthy men have plural marriages.
5 The research on which this article is based was carried out in one urban township in Salisbury, Rhodesia in 1976. Some of this material was collected by Mr. C. Murombedzi and Mr. T. Katandawa who were research assistants in the department of Sociology. University of Rhodesia. Thirtyfour marriages were studied. I am grateful to them and to Prof. D. H. Reader for their help and advice. I am also grateful to my colleagues Dr. A. P. Cheater and Dr. M. C. Dembetembe for their comments arid editorial help. A promise by the suitor to pay bridewealth was and still is in many areas essential for a marriage to be recognised as valid under Shona and Ndebele law. However, among urban populations nowadays the mere presentation of the woman to the man's close kinsmen is sufficient to make the marriage valid.
6 One traditional court which operates in an urban setting is the Hunyani Sabuku's Court in St. Mary's Township, Salisbury. At the court a man with a mapoto marriage was successful in suing his wife's lover for damages (Patrick v. Bernard, 18.9.77).
7 The African Wills Act (Chapter 108) has altered the status of women to a certain extent. The Act allows anyone who has been married by civil rites to make provision by will for the guardianship of his children on his death, even it such provision is contrary to African law. A husband may also bequeath the property to his wife. If a husband makes no such provision, however, African customary law applies.
8 This is not a plural marriage. It has been included, however, because it is a departure from the Christian teaching on marriage.
9 Women with little education are more likely to have this attitude than highly educated women.
10 The courts have decreed that a divorced woman (and a widow) is free to remarry without her guardian's consent, as her previous marriage had the effect of freeing her from the patria potestas (Child, 1965, p. 21).
11 Tribal courts can entertain actions for damages arising from a breach of promise.
12 Under Shona and Ndebele law the children belong to the woman's kin group until bridewealth has been paid. But nowadays partly because of the expense involved in bringing up children, guardianship and custody of children is not always claimed particularly in urban areas.
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African Systems of Kinship and Marriage. London, Oxford University Press.
MANDEVILLE, E. 1975. The Formality of Marriage: A Kampala Case Study. Journal of Anthropological Research. Autumn 1975, Vol. I 31: 183282.
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