Polygamy or divorce is the question
The Domestic Relations Bill has attracted fresh interest this past week. The main issues emerging seems to center around whether polygamy should be allowed in the law or not, and if so, who the key players should be in introducing polygamy in the home
By Chibita wa Duallo
The Domestic Relations Bill has attracted fresh interest this past week. The main issues emerging seems to center around whether polygamy should be allowed in the law or not, and if so, who the key players should be in introducing polygamy in the home.
An issue in the draft Domestic Relations Bill that has not attracted as much interest as polygamy, is divorce. Yet divorce is not only related to polygamy, but its proposed procedures are so liberal and permissive, that they make some western divorce laws seem conservative in comparison.
The current law on marriage for sure, makes divorce quite difficult for a woman to attain. On the other hand, there are laws on marriage that allow polygamy, like the Customary Marriages Registration Decree.
Indeed, any man who wants to take on a second wife can easily do it. The law will either help him do so, or at worst, look the other way, by not charging him with bigamy, if he does so without going through established legal procedures.
So, it would seem that the current laws make polygamy quite accessible while making divorce inaccessible.
The draft Bill, either deliberately or unwittingly, aims at reversing this trend, by proposing to make polygamy very difficult while making it very easy to divorce a partner.
This new proposal will inevitably make our society similar to the western world, for better or for worse.
In the west, polygamy is almost unheard of. In fact, it is illegal in many western countries. Conversely, divorce is quite rampant and easy to access. The most common ground for divorce being irreconcilable differences between husband and wife.
Our own draft Bill seeks to have marriages terminated on the sole ground of ‘irretrievable breakdown of marriage.’
Any trivial matter in marriage can easily be termed an ‘irreconcilable difference,’ or for that matter, a cause of an irretrievable breakdown of a marriage.
Ultimately, the Ugandan society will have to decide whether they would rather have polygamy or divorce. The two do not co-exist comfortably in the same community. So, it would seem that a society is either polygamous or is divorce-prone. We may be faced with a choice between two evils, and may have to decide which is the lesser evil.
The way it works in most Africa countries is that a man gets another wife without separating from the first one. The marriage may be dead, for all intents and purposes, but as far as the society and their children are concerned, the two people are still husband and wife. Polygamy is therefore generally accepted.
In the west on the other hand, a man has to officially divorce his current wife before he can take on another one.
As a result there is a high divorce rate and an almost non-existent rate of polygamy.
The draft Bill does not outlaw polygamy per se, according to the women. After all, polygamy is provided for, as long as the consent of the present wife is sought.
As far as men are concerned, however, the requirement to get a wife’s consent to bring a rival into the marriage is the same as saying that polygamy is prohibited!
Which wife in their right mind, they ask, will be willing to give her husband consent to marry another wife?
Thus polygamy or divorce may end up being the real question in the Domestic Relations Bill.
The Domestic Relations Bill has attracted fresh interest this past week. The main issues emerging seems to center around whether polygamy should be allowed in the law or not, and if so, who the key players should be in introducing polygamy in the home.
An issue in the draft Domestic Relations Bill that has not attracted as much interest as polygamy, is divorce. Yet divorce is not only related to polygamy, but its proposed procedures are so liberal and permissive, that they make some western divorce laws seem conservative in comparison.
The current law on marriage for sure, makes divorce quite difficult for a woman to attain. On the other hand, there are laws on marriage that allow polygamy, like the Customary Marriages Registration Decree.
Indeed, any man who wants to take on a second wife can easily do it. The law will either help him do so, or at worst, look the other way, by not charging him with bigamy, if he does so without going through established legal procedures.
So, it would seem that the current laws make polygamy quite accessible while making divorce inaccessible.
The draft Bill, either deliberately or unwittingly, aims at reversing this trend, by proposing to make polygamy very difficult while making it very easy to divorce a partner.
This new proposal will inevitably make our society similar to the western world, for better or for worse.
In the west, polygamy is almost unheard of. In fact, it is illegal in many western countries. Conversely, divorce is quite rampant and easy to access. The most common ground for divorce being irreconcilable differences between husband and wife.
Our own draft Bill seeks to have marriages terminated on the sole ground of ‘irretrievable breakdown of marriage.’
Any trivial matter in marriage can easily be termed an ‘irreconcilable difference,’ or for that matter, a cause of an irretrievable breakdown of a marriage.
Ultimately, the Ugandan society will have to decide whether they would rather have polygamy or divorce. The two do not co-exist comfortably in the same community. So, it would seem that a society is either polygamous or is divorce-prone. We may be faced with a choice between two evils, and may have to decide which is the lesser evil.
The way it works in most Africa countries is that a man gets another wife without separating from the first one. The marriage may be dead, for all intents and purposes, but as far as the society and their children are concerned, the two people are still husband and wife. Polygamy is therefore generally accepted.
In the west on the other hand, a man has to officially divorce his current wife before he can take on another one.
As a result there is a high divorce rate and an almost non-existent rate of polygamy.
The draft Bill does not outlaw polygamy per se, according to the women. After all, polygamy is provided for, as long as the consent of the present wife is sought.
As far as men are concerned, however, the requirement to get a wife’s consent to bring a rival into the marriage is the same as saying that polygamy is prohibited!
Which wife in their right mind, they ask, will be willing to give her husband consent to marry another wife?
Thus polygamy or divorce may end up being the real question in the Domestic Relations Bill.