Though legally prohibited since 1962,
polygamy
Crimes
Polygamy (from Late Greek (') "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is married ...
is still marginally practiced in
Rwanda
Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...
.
Polygyny
Polygyny (; from Neoclassical Greek πολυγυνία (); ) is the most common and accepted form of polygamy around the world, entailing the marriage of a man with several women.
Incidence
Polygyny is more widespread in Africa than in any o ...
is the only form traditionally practiced. It is most prevalent in rural areas, older generations, and adherents of traditional/animist religion. In 2012, 5.4% of rural men were in polygynous unions; this included 15% of rural men over 80 years old but less than 3% of men under 30, with the average number of wives being two. Animism has the greatest proportion of polygynous men, followed by non-religious men and Islam. However, the vast majority of polygynous men are Christian. Polygyny has been in decline since the first census data in 1978.
History
It is estimated that 30% of marriages in pre-colonial Rwanda were polygynous. The number of wives for polygynous men rarely exceeded 4, and while polygynous Hutu men averaged more wives than their Tutsi and Twa counterparts, this number could be exceeded by high-ranking Tutsi chiefs pursuing more wives to establish larger familial networks. Supplementary wives were culturally preferred to bear more children and to serve as economic assets for managing a rich husband's cattle or land plots. It was also a solution to a man's only wife being sterile.
A polygynous husband's wives lived separately and did not raise each other's children. For husbands who could afford it, each wife resided in separate, economically self-sufficient compounds that they each managed in addition to their domestic duties. When husbands owned a single compound, the wives would live in separate huts. The first wife married by a husband was equal in status to his other wives. Her compound was not considered a primary household, though if she bore his first son, his status as his father's successor would gave her a particular importance.
Polygyny began to decline in the early to mid-twentieth century, partly due to a combined effort by the
White Fathers and Belgian colonial administration to stop the practice as part of a broader campaign to Christianize the population. This included deposing
King Yuhi V Musinga for his refusal to convert, limiting administrative positions exclusively to Christians, and a 1931 polygamy tax on additional wives. Despite organized resistance from the Nyabingi cult in northern Rwanda, the conversion of
King Mutara III Rudahigwa led to a mass adoption of Roman Catholicism. Additional factors included the introduction of a monetary economy and the increasing cost of
bride price.
[Koff 1997, p. 92]
Legality
Polygamous
Crimes
Polygamy (from Late Greek (') "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marriage, marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is ...
marriages
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...
are not lawful in
Rwanda
Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...
, nor is the practice itself. The
Rwandan constitution explicitly bans all forms of non-
monogamous
Monogamy ( ) is a form of Dyad (sociology), dyadic Intimate relationship, relationship in which an individual has only one Significant other, partner during their lifetime. Alternately, only one partner at any one time (Monogamy#Serial monogamy, ...
marriages from being recognized under
civil law and does not allow for customary law to recognize such unions either.
The text from the constitution reads:
Notes
References
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{{Polygamous marriage
Polygamy in Africa
Rwanda
Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...
Society of Rwanda