@jasonhill, Thanks for bringing up this topic, and for your objective contribution.

Having said that, I believe, as someone has mentioned above, that other cultures existed before the west colonised us.societies survived and polygamy was 'normal'. A first wife could tafuta a good lady and convince the hubby to marry a second wife. Then came the west and everything an african did was either devilish or backward. sample these
a. Busaa or changaa is ILLICIT while Diageo's beer is the best
b. African traditional/hebal medicine ni ya WACHAWI but processed one from Mzungu is the best (thou might be true to some)

c. African names must be baptised and named either Jane, mark, Moses etc(Did jesus change his name on baptism?)but not Judas(apparently their was Judas brother of Jesus, Judas(also called Bathlomew) adn Judas iscariot)

In short, everything African must be seen to be bad while Mzungu's ni sawa.
Bure Kabisa
Thats why we export unprocessed coffee/steel etc to Europe and buy Mac Benz from their.

Modern society is surely guilty of overthinking some things. Our forefathers had this relationship stuff figured out, but then we thought and rethought the concept until now its just a state of confusing confusion!

Difficult not to be drawn by @jasonhill arguments. So eloquent, so persuasive, almost dangerous

I'll take a different slant. The bible does in fact, show irrefutable polygamy and goes further to allow bigamy, just as there's evidence of wive inheritance. Apart from an 'eye for an eye', mass murder is common place, and prescriptions to kill witches, homosexuals, fortunetellers, adulterers, fornicators, non believers etc.


Harden not your hearts:
"Why then," they asked, "did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?"
"Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning." Matthew 19:7-8

"But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one. Mark 10:7-8


None would argue it takes more sacrifice and greater love for a man to commit to one woman.
Let thy fountain be blessed; And rejoice in the wife of thy youth. Proverbs 5:18

I agree with Jason - polygamy is NATURAL. Its ironic that western culture makes this wrong YET they tolerate homosexuality which, from whatever angle you look at it, is UNNATURAL. Funny enough, polygamy may help mop up the excess women left over in society after men have seen fit to plug each other....(I make no excuse, I am a homophobe and very closed minded about it)

Yes man has both of those. And the Western way is intellectually and conscientiously destroying the Earth and going against God's plan, all while forwarding the Western agenda at the expense of Africa. We are perpetually chasing the proverbial carrot-on-a-stick in trying endlessly to adapt to "their way" of riddle-infused thinking and interpreting what God has made plain.

It seems as though you are hinting that monogamy and the Western way is "intellectual", yet most all of Western technology is borne of war and destruction, and here in 2011 we all plainly see that the Earth cannot sustain the Western way of life without resource scarcity, global climate change, and imminent disaster. And what you are hinting runs counter to your argument that fact the the West embraces abortion and gayism to the fullest- even pays millions of dollars to NGOs and media "journalists" in Kenya to spread the sick message- when nature itself, which you hint at as being primitive, is smarter than to practice gayism for that would surely end any species with the injury and anti-procreative nature of such deplorable acts.

No, I will add to MY family as I see fit, as my forefathers did, and no one has the right to tell me otherwise. My family is the most important institution on earth, to me. It will be big. It will be strong.

We need to take from our Western experiences only what is useful and prudent to Africa, and leave what is not; we need to rediscover and reapply western "education" and "technology" in a purely African way and through an African lens, which respects the African way of life, our love and care for the earth, and respect for nature and God's way, lest we continue in the endless cycle of confusion, doubt, and self-hate- the three hindrances that keep us, the Black African not only in Africa, but all over the world, from fully realizing the completeness and oneness of a people that we once long ago possessed.

Best,

Hill