In Sudan, ‘a very happy family’
1 husband, 76 wives; one chief meshes love and economics.By Thomas Crampton PACONG, Sudan: Some men have problems with commitment, but Chief Majak Malok Akot is evidently the marrying kind. With wives numbering 76 and counting, Akot, a 68-year-old Dinka tribesman in southern Sudan, has created a nuclear family the size of a small African village. He has 65 sons and 86 daughters, and 38 of his wives are pregnant.”It is true that I have been turned down for marriage 12 times,” Akot said. “But I built a very happy family, thanks to my knowledge of how to deal with wives.”
Akot may have the most wives in Rumbek County, local officials said, but his vast marriage is by no means unique in the region. One neighbor has more than 50 wives, and many others have more than a dozen.
Insecurity amid the fighting, famine and disease of Africa’s longest-running civil war can be blamed for the distortion of the traditional Dinka practice of marrying several wives, officials said.
Health officials warn that this distortion has opened a dangerous infection route for AIDS. “From the health point of view it is a disaster when men have more than 12 wives,” said Daniel Dutmayen, a Rumbek County medical officer, who has three wives. “The wives will begin extramarital affairs, and normal marriage breaks down.”
While the two-decade war has prevented proper surveillance of AIDS in southern Sudan, the region’s remoteness is thought to have kept infection rates relatively low. But with thousands of displaced Dinka expected to return from AIDS-ravaged refugee camps in neighboring countries, the rates here could rise dangerously, Dutmayen said.
The war, which broke out in 1983 when southern rebels from the mainly animist and Christian south took up arms against the predominantly Arab and Muslim north, has displaced about four million people.
But physical health is not the only concern, according to local officials, who say wives suffer tremendously in highly polygamous marriages.
“By joining in a marriage with the chief, women may gain protection but they suffer injustice,” said Paul Machuei, the commissioner of Rumbek County, who has two wives. “It is just not possible to satisfy 76 wives.”
Seated outside one of his many mud huts with wives Nos. 16, 75 and 76 by his side, Akot, who is widely acknowledged to be the richest man in Rumbek County, painted a picture of domestic bliss for himself and his spouses.
“They all cook food the same way,” Akot said. “I do not pick favorites.”
Nobody fights very much, he said. Family issues are raised when his wives all attend the latest marriage, but most smaller problems are settled with a quiet chat in a mud hut.
“When I marry a wife, I supply all her needs and tell her to come directly to me if there are any problems,” Akot said. “She must not quarrel with other women.”
He offered this recipe for peace: “When she gets annoyed, do not fight with her, just console her. And do not slap her, not even on the cheek.” Neither he nor any of his wives has ever committed adultery, the chief asserted.
“I love them all equally,” Akot said. “I also have time to love them all.”
Government officials raise their eyebrows at Akot’s account, saying it is typical for such marriage arrangements to be loose.
“I do not believe his denial of adultery,” Machuei said. “The elder sons in such marriages usually have children with younger wives, and I know this is true with him.”
For their part, the three wives who sat alongside Akot emphasized the sense of physical safety assured by their marriage to him, and by their relationship to the other wives.
“When someone tries to fight me, I have many who defend me,” said Dabora Alual, who is the chief’s 16th wife, has had eight children with him and says she does not mind his younger, newer wives. “I am happy with his younger wives because when they produce a daughter we all get wealthier.” Prompted by security, such marriage arrangements survive economically only because of displacement caused by the war, which has claimed 1.5 million lives since 1983, officials said.
“People can only afford so many wives because land is cheap and families fled war or died,” said Daniel Deng Monydit, acting governor of Bahr El Ghazal Province. “If peace comes, people will look to live a luxurious life with just a few wives and 10 or so children.”
A peace accord is expected in January, after Khartoum and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army agree on final details of an accord on sharing oil wealth. They agreed in principle on the matter at talks Tuesday in Nairobi.
Built on the tradition of a groom’s paying cows to his bride’s family, Akot’s marital status came with an insight that would allow canny Dinka to finance marriages almost perpetually. Like a pyramid scheme built on credit card debt, Akot offsets the cost of a new wife with the revenue from a daughter’s marriage. “Our wealth comes from girls,” Akot said. “My father died when I was 15, so I took over responsibility for negotiating the marriage of my sisters.”
Starting with a modest inheritance of seven cows at the age of 20, Akot negotiated handsome dowry payments for his siblings. The first sister’s groom paid 70 cows to Akot; his second sister’s groom paid 50 cows; and the third paid 80.
In several tedious years of tending and breeding, Akot enlarged the herd, but then he had a revelation.
“At around the age of 30, I suddenly decided to use all my cows to marry more and more wives,” Akot said. “With the marriage of every daughter, we would get back cows.”
By then Akot had 1,400 head of cattle, and he intended to spend it all on dowries. “I began some months by finding a new wife, and the next month I would marry another,” Akot said.
Working at a pace of up to 10 marriages per year, Akot had 30 wives by the time he was 45, and finding more eligible women nearby became difficult.
Now, he says, “I move from tribe to tribe looking for beautiful women. When I find one, I talk with her and approach her family.”
Courtship could last just seven days, Akot said. His wives range from 18 years old to near his own age. In addition to six wives named Yar and four wives called Ayen, Akot has two wives each with the names Ajok, Yom and Rial.
While he paid 60 to 70 cows for each marriage in his youth, Akot said he now gives 130 cows to each bride’s family. He also gives cows to each new wife as well as to his sons and their brides’ families.
Although the marriages of 23 of his daughters brought in an average of 100 cows each, his herd has diminished to just 250 cows.
“The herd is small now, but I will soon have many more cows,” Akot said. “I now have 30 daughters mature enough for marriage.”
Having married so many of Rumbek County’s eligible women, Akot announced after wedding No. 76 in August that he would slow the pace of the nuptials.
“My sons have grown up, so I need to give them a chance to have wives,” Akot said. “My oldest son only has eight wives.”
He laughed at the notion of a man with only one wife. “There must have been a problem with your grandfathers,” Akot told a visitor. “When you love a woman and then love another, you should stay with both.
“When I had one wife,” he said, “it seemed I had nothing to do.”
The source: International Herald Tribune (USA)