Polygyny and Christian Marriage in Africa: The Case of Benin

African Studies Review, Sep 2008 by Falen, Douglas J

This ideological ambiguity was matched, in terms of practice and behavior, with a great deal of variety and inconsistency among congregations. Some nineteenth-century missions to Congo and the Gold Coast accepted polygynists (Hastings 1994:319), and in colonial Lagos, of those men participating in Christian marriage ceremonies, 60 percent had multiple wives (Mann 1994: 172-73). Missionary attitudes were also variable across time: mild tolerance in the nineteenth century turned into staunch opposition at the turn of the twentieth century and then pronounced tolerance beginning in the mid-twentieth century (Hastings 1994:317-19). The Catholic Church in Uganda was always strict regarding marriage (Hastings 1967:166), but Protestant churches tended to be more tolerant; to be married as a Catholic meant having one true Church marriage, whereas Protestant churches would often legitimate customary marriages and the children born of them. In many missions, although the official policy denounced polygyny, multiple wives were recognized if the man had married them before he received his Christian calling (Groves 1948:220). Missionaries were also sometimes willing to bend the rules rather than expel a woman from a family. G Hartmann, a Cape Province missionary, wrote, "I feel that by our narrow approach of the problem influenced by European theories, a tremendous harm is done to African people. I myself shall never ask a man to dismiss his wives. It is cruel, immoral and has nothing to do with Christ at all.... I have done it once in my life and never again (quoted in Helander 1958:15-16).

Despite these inconsistencies, however, early missionaries to Africa usually required or encouraged monogamy and fidelity, and this position has largely shaped the association of Christianity with monogamy. As Hastings (1967:171) writes, "If polygamy is not sinful, it is certainly un-Christian and expresses a view of society incompatible with the Christian way of life. Full conversion to Christianity does involve destruction - of beliefs, customs, a whole shape of society." When missionaries encountered polygynous marriages, many tended to recognize only the first of a man's partners; all others were dubbed "concubines" (R. Gray 1990:47). In many congregations, if a polygynous man wished to attend church, he would be forced to break up his family, separating himself from his so-called illegitimate wives and children (Hastings 1967:171; Simensen et al. 1986). Children of polygynists could be labeled bastards (Hastings (1967:168), and churches could excommunicate polygynous men (Mann 1994:169). The prevailing missionary view contended that monogamy, as an imitation of the marriage between Christ and church, was indispensable to accepting God (Bediako 1995:184; Roussé-Grosseau 1992:238). Although Hastings (1973:79) advocated a "steadfast but compassionate monogamy, not an intolerant one," he also wrote that

Christian society without Christian marriage and family life is unthinkable. We have pagan patterns of marriage including polygamy, the consideration of women as a possession rather than a person, wife-beating, divorce and so on, and we have a Christian pattern presenting fellowship, complementary mutual service, love, the mirror of Christ and his Church. The former provide the greatest abiding barrier to the growth of an effectively Christian society in mission lands. (1967:162)