Can Uganda ban polygamy?
Dec 02, 2003
The Domestic Relation Bill (DRB), soon to be tabled in Parliament, has excited women groups. The general thrust of the DRB is to have a fair law on family relations
By Asuman Bisiika
The Domestic Relation Bill (DRB), soon to be tabled in Parliament, has excited women groups. The general thrust of the DRB is to have a fair law on family relations.
However, women rights activists are so excited that they are now lobbying for legislation banning polygamy.
Polygamy is a marital union where a man is married to more than one woman. Although it is more common in Africa, it is not unique to Africans. Some African countries have made serious attempts to outlaw polygamy. However, these attempts have not removed polygamy as a socio-cultural phenomenon.
In Rwanda, polygamy is outlawed and there is only one legally recognised marriage, the civil marriage solemnised by the Burgomaster (District Commissioner in Uganda). But there are cases where men have many wives or mistresses. All the children who have the misfortune to be born outside a legally constituted marriage are not considered the children of their biological fathers.
Ugandans would hate circumstances (legal or otherwise) where innocent children are the ones bearing the consequences of an illegal act. That is why people who are calling for a legislation outlawing polygamy should be careful with what they are bargaining for.
Legislation occasioned by elitist contemporary trends cannot end a phenomenon that has strong roots in socio-cultural traditions. Wherever polygamy is outlawed, a phenomenon I will call exponential polygamy tends to come up. Exponential Polygamy can be described as a situation where a man is officially married but has a mistress.
There is also single parenthood. This is a situation where one of the partners in parenthood is not disposed to participate in the upbringing of a child or children. In most cases, this indisposed partner is constrained by an official marriage he or she contracted with another person. The negative socio-economic implications from the situations illustrated above cannot be ignored.
The issue of polygamy is a legitimated subject of debate at this time. However, this debate should not be limited to ‘banning or not banning.’ We all agree that polygamy has negative socio-economic effects on society. Some reports say there are higher incidences of domestic violence in polygamous than in monogamous marriages. But there is more to polygamy than meets eye.
A legislation that does not derive legitimacy from a tradition or contemporary mass demand will always be tricky to enforce. It should be noted that Europe, as a cultural entity that constitutes the states that devolved from the Roman Empire, fed on the socio-cultural dispensation of Imperial Rome to negatively appreciate polygamy and consequently outlaw it. Even in Rwanda, there was a tradition of repugnance to polygamy that was merely codified into a legal regime.
Jackie Asiimwe, the Executive Secretary for Uganda Women Network (UWONET) supports the banning of polygamy. She, however, says that she recognises the socio-cultural sensitivities that obtain in Uganda.
“That is why I say that for the time-being, we should have a polygamous regime that spells out what is expected of partners in a polygamous union. We want a law that would restrain the hitherto unbridled behaviour of partners in a polygamous union. But this should not obstruct us from our main objective of outlawing polygamy altogether,†says a confident-sounding Asiimwe.
History has shown that social changes tend to be gradual. Given the circumstances, we can only expose and discourage polygamy as an abnormal socio-cultural disposition.
The Domestic Relation Bill (DRB), soon to be tabled in Parliament, has excited women groups. The general thrust of the DRB is to have a fair law on family relations.
However, women rights activists are so excited that they are now lobbying for legislation banning polygamy.
Polygamy is a marital union where a man is married to more than one woman. Although it is more common in Africa, it is not unique to Africans. Some African countries have made serious attempts to outlaw polygamy. However, these attempts have not removed polygamy as a socio-cultural phenomenon.
In Rwanda, polygamy is outlawed and there is only one legally recognised marriage, the civil marriage solemnised by the Burgomaster (District Commissioner in Uganda). But there are cases where men have many wives or mistresses. All the children who have the misfortune to be born outside a legally constituted marriage are not considered the children of their biological fathers.
Ugandans would hate circumstances (legal or otherwise) where innocent children are the ones bearing the consequences of an illegal act. That is why people who are calling for a legislation outlawing polygamy should be careful with what they are bargaining for.
Legislation occasioned by elitist contemporary trends cannot end a phenomenon that has strong roots in socio-cultural traditions. Wherever polygamy is outlawed, a phenomenon I will call exponential polygamy tends to come up. Exponential Polygamy can be described as a situation where a man is officially married but has a mistress.
There is also single parenthood. This is a situation where one of the partners in parenthood is not disposed to participate in the upbringing of a child or children. In most cases, this indisposed partner is constrained by an official marriage he or she contracted with another person. The negative socio-economic implications from the situations illustrated above cannot be ignored.
The issue of polygamy is a legitimated subject of debate at this time. However, this debate should not be limited to ‘banning or not banning.’ We all agree that polygamy has negative socio-economic effects on society. Some reports say there are higher incidences of domestic violence in polygamous than in monogamous marriages. But there is more to polygamy than meets eye.
A legislation that does not derive legitimacy from a tradition or contemporary mass demand will always be tricky to enforce. It should be noted that Europe, as a cultural entity that constitutes the states that devolved from the Roman Empire, fed on the socio-cultural dispensation of Imperial Rome to negatively appreciate polygamy and consequently outlaw it. Even in Rwanda, there was a tradition of repugnance to polygamy that was merely codified into a legal regime.
Jackie Asiimwe, the Executive Secretary for Uganda Women Network (UWONET) supports the banning of polygamy. She, however, says that she recognises the socio-cultural sensitivities that obtain in Uganda.
“That is why I say that for the time-being, we should have a polygamous regime that spells out what is expected of partners in a polygamous union. We want a law that would restrain the hitherto unbridled behaviour of partners in a polygamous union. But this should not obstruct us from our main objective of outlawing polygamy altogether,†says a confident-sounding Asiimwe.
History has shown that social changes tend to be gradual. Given the circumstances, we can only expose and discourage polygamy as an abnormal socio-cultural disposition.