Polygyny and Christian Marriage in Africa: The Case of Benin

African Studies Review, Sep 2008 by Falen, Douglas J

It must be considered, however, that even aside from the religious or spiritual draw of Christianity, women may be attracted to Christianity as a marker of elite status, rather than for the purpose of entering a monogamous union. It is also true that women who become Christians with the goal of monogamy will find themselves greatly outnumbering their male counterparts (E. Gray 1956; Daneel 2000; Isichei 1995; Tall 1995; see also Hastings 1973:130) and therefore may opt for a union with a polygynous husband (E. Gray 1956:272). Other women, perhaps seeking financial support or themselves desirous of a more flexible arrangement than monogamy allows, often consent to informal unions with married men. These women become so-called outside wives (Dinan 1983; Karanja 1994; Lacombe 1987; Little 1979; Locoh 1994), a practice that emerged in late nineteenth-century Lagos at the same time that Christianity became established in Africa (Mann 1994:167,174). The existence of such extramarital liaisons creates enormous tension between the inside wives, who are generally educated, elite, Christian women who aspire to monogamy and the "Western concept of love, affection, companionship and fidelity" (Karanja 1984:8), and their husbands, who may embrace the elite status of Christianity but still are drawn to polygyny (Karanja 1994:204).

In general, therefore, the role of Christianity in man's and women's views of monogamy seems to have been insufficiently problematized. While there is evidence that many women prefer monogamy, their motivations are not always clear. It is also not clear that Christian monogamy always satisfies their desire for marriage based on love and fidelity. Furthermore, many of the discourses ignore the possibility that women may choose a polygynyous husband. The rest of this article examines these issues in the context of one West African country-the Republic of Benin.

Christianity in Benin

In visits to Benin in the late nineties, I heard men condemn monogamy as foreign. Based on some of the literature cited above, I was tempted to blame the West and Christianity for introducing new ideas and destabilizing "traditional" customs. Yet I also knew monogamous men (both Christian and non-Christian) who defied this all-too-neat view of polygynous "tradition," and I also learned about independent Christian churches that allowed polygyny. These inconsistencies aroused my curiosity about Christianity's influence on marriage in contemporary Benin. My main goal was to assess the notion that men and women have divergent opinions of polygyny and monogamy, and if so, whether this is reflected in church membership and marriage practices. My second goal was to determine, in the case of Benin, how accurately the discourses portray the conceptual divide between "African" and "Western" identity. Is the divide meaningful to Beninois people? Does it motivate their choice of religion or marriage?

Although some information was collected during earlier fieldwork between September 1998 and August 2000, most of what follows is based on fifty-three semiformal interviews and numerous informal discussions conducted from May 25 to July 3, 2006. The interviews, most of which were recorded, were conducted by me either in French or Fon, with occasional interpreting assistance from Fon-speaking friends. Sixteen interviews took place in Benin's largest city of Cotonou, while nineteen were conducted in the inland towns of Abomey and Bohicon and eighteen interviews were done in villages near Abomey. I interviewed twenty-six men and twenty-seven women, including a number of longtime friends and other individuals contacted through a snowball effect. I spoke with priests and pastors, merchants and teachers, farmers and government employees, Christians and non-Christians, married and single people, those who were monogamous and polygynous, old and young. In Abomey and Cotonou I attended services in the Catholic Church, the Celestial Church of Christ, and the Protestant Methodist Church of Benin.