How do Zulus explain polygamy?

South African president Jacob Zuma, on a visit to the UK, has been criticised by some in the British press for having three wives. But while the practice raises eyebrows in the West, how is it justified in his home country?

Trade talks and his nation's hosting of the World Cup are on the agenda for Jacob Zuma's three-day state visit to the UK. But interest has mainly focused on his consort - Thobeka Madiba, the latest woman to join his polygamous marriage.

In the UK, to be married to more than one person at a time is illegal. But the Zulu ethnic group, of which Mr Zuma is part, practises polygamy by tradition. This clash in attitudes dates from the 19th Century, when white missionaries preached that conversion to Christianity entailed divorcing one's "extra" wives, says Ndela Ntshangase, a lecturer in the school of Zulu studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

And British colonisers "pushed [monogamy] down the throats of black people" through taxes that rose for each wife, and land allocations with insufficient space for polygamous family units, says Mr Ntshangase.

However, polygamy in South Africa is still a fact of life for many. While urban Zulu communities have found it difficult to uphold the arrangement, those in the rural homelands have maintained the tradition. Muslim populations and other cultural groups in South Africa also practice polygamy.

While some in the British press have seized on Mr Zuma's attitudes to marriage, he defends his private life as part of his culture.

"When the British came to our country they said everything we are doing was barbaric, was wrong, inferior in whatever way," he told Johannesburg's Star newspaper this week. "I don't know why they are continuing thinking that their culture is more superior than others."

So how do they explain the tradition?

Boy-girl balance

In southern Africa, the population skews slightly female, says Mr Ntshangase, who says the male population is partly depleted by "unnatural deaths" in war and other dangerous activities.

"If you say it's one-to-one, you will have a big chunk of ladies who aren't going to have husbands. What do you do with them then?"  But this gender imbalance argument holds no sway for Protas Madlala, an independent political analyst, who declares it "unsophisticated".  Elders also use polygamy to warn young men that they could lose out on love if they don't behave.

"In order to win a girl, you must be a good boy," says Mr Ntshangase. "Responsible young men become responsible husbands."

In Zulu culture, "every family member must work for the betterment of the family". And a way to improve a family's status and income is to add extra members, he says, and adds that additional wives can be particularly advantageous in an agricultural society.

And polygamy offers women a degree of economic well-being they might not otherwise attain, says Mr Madlala.

"Polygamy fits into the socio-economic inequalities we have. It gives [the wives] insurance of sorts."

But the theory that polygamy favours equality for women holds little water for Leslie Mxolisi Dikeni, a research associate at the University of Pretoria.

"On paper there is total emancipation of women, but traditional forms of polygamy are not allowing for that," he says. Even in so-called equal polygamous marriages, there's innate gender imbalance between the husband and his wives.

Spectre of Aids

Some of those who support polygamy believe a monogamous system would mean more unattached women, who would then have affairs with married men, says Mr Ntshangase. He claims that in a polygamous marriage, a woman will share her husband instead of getting divorced. "[Divorce] is another type of polygamous marriage. It's just not happening simultaneously or concurrently."

But polygamy does not stop men and women straying. South Africans who are uneasy about their president's lifestyle point to the fact that he recently fathered an illegitimate child, says Mr Madlala.

Nor does it necessarily mean an end to separation - Mr Zuma has already been through one divorce.

Even though polygamy is a part of its traditions, there is a new reality that raises questions about whether this lifestyle has a place in modern South Africa. More than 5 million people in South Africa are HIV positive - the most of any country in the world.

"South Africa is almost the Aids capital of the world," Mr Madlala says. "Our president is not really a good model." 

By Elizabeth Diffin
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