Until colonization and the introduction of Christianity by white missionaries in Africa, polygamy, the custom of marrying more than one spouse, was prevalent and culturally accepted by a majority of the tribes in the continent.

There are two kinds of polygamy: polygyny and polyandry. The latter is the least popular custom which is when one woman marries more than one man. This was practiced in the Lake Region of Central Africa and among some Maasai people in Kenya.

However, polygyny – which is when a man marries more than one wife – is the widely accepted practice in Africa, yet abhorred by the New Testament of the Bible which was preached by the colonialists.

Christianity is the only major religion in Africa today, besides Islam and traditional African religions, that has rejected polygamy. According to the World Book Encyclopedia, Christians represent about 45% of the continent’s population.

This explains why 21st century Africa sees everything wrong with the age-old custom that has contributed to the creation of large families, and traditionally curbed the problem of single motherhood.

Here are some popular polygamist African leaders and heads of state.

Jomo Kenyatta (Kenya)

Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya’s first president and father of current president Uhuru Kenyatta, was a polygamist who was married to four wives in his lifetime.

He married his first wife, Grace Wahu in 1919 before he travelled to England. In 1942, he married English woman Edna Grace Clarke and they divorced four years later. In 1950, a Senior Chief gave Kenyatta one of his daughters to take as his third wife. Grace Wanjiku died the same year while giving birth to his child.

In 1951, Kenyatta married his fourth wife, Mama Ngina, who was one of the few female students at the teacher training college where he was teaching at the time. They were married until his death in 1978. He had 8 children in total.

King Mswati III (Eswatini/ Swaziland)

King Mswati III is Africa’s last absolute monarch who rules Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, as its King.

The 50-year-old is a polygamist and has married 14 wives. He has divorced three of them and has 24 children.

Senteni Masango, his eighth wife, is reported to have committed suicide in April after overdosing on amitriptyline, a drug used in treating chronic pain and depression and related disorders.

King Mswati III married his latest wife, 19-year-old Siphele Mashwama, a few weeks after last year’s annual Umhlanga or Reed Dance ceremony participated by about 40,000 maidens.

He is traditionally mandated to pick a new wife every year from the virgins who partake in the traditional chastity rite held at the Ludzidzini Royal palace near Swaziland’s capital Mbabane.

Mswati became the Crown Prince in 1983 and then in 1986, he was crowned King at the age of 18. He succeeded his father King Sobhuza II who married 70 wives and had 210 children.

Adama Barrow (Gambia)

Gambia’s third and current president, Adama Barrow, who was historically elected into office in 2017 is a polygamist.

The 53-year-old Muslim has two wives: Fatou Bah, Sarjo Mballow. His marital status was of interest during his election in 2017 when it was unclear as to which of his wives would be the First Lady.

He clarified the matter after the election by saying the first wife, Fatou Bah, will be the First Lady. Barrow normally attends formal events with one wife interchangeably.

Jacob Zuma (South Africa)

Former South African president Jacob Zuma is a popular polygamist whose planned 7th marriage was revealed last month by the wife-to-be, 24-year-old Nonkanyiso Conco, from KwaZulu-Natal.

Conco will be Zuma’s 4th wife after the marriage as he is currently married to three women: first wife Gertrude Khumalo whom he married in 1973 after he was released from prison; Thobeka Madiba and Gloria Ngema who he married in 2010 and 2012 respectively.

The troubled ex-president was married to the former African Union Commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, a marriage that ended in divorce. He lost his second wife, Kate Mansho, to suicide in 2000.

Zuma separated from his youngest wife Nompumelelo Ntuli whom he married in 2008. She was removed from his house in Nkandla in 2016 after she was accused of infidelity and planning to poison him.

Yahya Jammeh (Gambia)

Former Gambian president Yahya Jammeh, who was ousted by a West African joint force in 2017 after refusing to accept election defeat, is a polygamist.

The dictator divorced his first wife Tuti Faal in 1998 after four years of marriage and then married Zineb Jammeh in the same year.

In 2010, he married Alima Sallah who was believed to be 18 at the time. He divorced her after a year of marriage following a strained relationship with his first wife.

It cannot be independently verified if he married a 22-year-old Ghanaian called Nora in 2012, as widely reported by Ghanaian media.

After over 20 years in power, Jammeh was exiled to Equatorial Guinea with his family after he was guaranteed immunity.

Nnamdi Azikiwe (Nigeria)

Nigeria’s first president Nnamdi Azikiwe, who served between 1963 and 1966, was a polygamist. He married three wives.

His first wife Flora Azikiwe died in 1983 and he died in 1996 leaving behind two wives, Uche Azikiwe and Ugoye Comfort Azikiwe. He had seven children.

This article by Ismail Akwei was first published on face2faceafrica.com

eggae icon Robert Nesta Bob Marley did not die a poor man and his family escaped destitution, thanks to the wealth he left behind from his years of musical dexterity which shot him to global acclaim as one of the best musicians of all time.

Born on this day, February 6, 1945, Bob Marley lived a humble life as he promoted freedom for poor and oppressed people, social equality, and justice. However, his death on May 11, 1981, from cancer was followed by decades of lawsuits over his estate which was reported to be worth about $30 million when he died.

Bob Marley did not leave behind a will as per his Rastafari beliefs that characterize lawyers and legal documents as evil and tools of Babylon. His family could only depend on the Jamaican intestate law to decide on the distribution of his wealth.

His wife, Rita Marley, would have received 10% of his assets and would be entitled to another 45% throughout her life while his at least eleven children by seven different women would share the balance. This didn’t seem fair to some and it didn’t go down well.

Marley’s business attorney, David Steinberg, and an accountant, Marvin Zolt, convinced Rita to forge his name to a series of documents, and predate them to before he died. The plan was to transfer control of the large majority of Marley’s corporate holdings, along with much of his royalty rights and money, to her.

The scheme was uncovered by one of Marley’s former managers and it began a long series of legal battles which ended after the two accomplices were found guilty to fraud and other illegalities to the tune of $6 million.

Rita Marley also confessed and stated that she acted upon the advice of the attorney. She lost her administrative control of Bob Marley’s estate which she had since his death until 1986.

At the same time, other legal claims popped up from several children of Marley and their mothers; one from the Wailers, Marley’s eight bandmates at the time of his death; and another from Cayman Music, which claims to own some of Marley’s recordings.

Marley’s mother also moved to his $300,000 South Dade house in Miami in 1977 and Chris Blackwell, president of Island Records, Marley’s record label, wanted to include the property in an $8.2-million sale of Marley’s estate.

Blackwell would get royalty rights from Marley’s recordings, copyrights for his songs after 1976 and real estate including South Dade house if the deal sailed through. He expressed willingness to negotiate the sale of the house but Bob Marley’s mother contested the deal. The legal battle ended after a decade with both parties benefitting.

In another legal battle that ended in the early 90s, the Jamaican Supreme Court ruled that Rita Marley and Marley’s children had the exclusive right to use Marley’s name, likeness and image for commercial purposes.

This ruling prompted another lawsuit in 2011 when Rita Marley and nine of Bob’s children sued his half-brother, Richard Booker and two of his corporations. Booker was using Marley’s name and image to market the annual 9 Mile Music Festival in Miami and he owned a company which gives tours of the village where Marley was born and is now buried.

He was also trademarking the term “Mama Marley” for his line of fish products. Booker claimed that Bob Marley had given him permission to use the family name. After a year in court, the family reached a settlement agreement.

As of 2018, Bob Marley is the fifth top-earning dead celebrity, according to Forbes. His estate, now named House of Marley, is managed by four of his children, Rohan Marley, the brand officer of the estate; Cedella; Stephen and Ziggy, while the rest sit on a board and share the proceeds evenly.

The proceeds are derived from the sale of products in more than 48 countries, according to Forbes, which included headphones, Marley Natural cannabis, smoking accessories, Get Together portable speakers (which logged $6 million in sales in 2016) and Smile Jamaica earphones ($8.1 million).

There are also Uplift earphones; Marley Coffee (managed by Rohan) and Marley Natural (managed by Cedella) which sells herb-related products such as smoked-glass water pipe.

The Marley family have hired a team to help run House Marley and to deal with the unauthorized use of Bob’s name and likeness. Forbes estimates that unauthorized sales of Marley music and merchandise generate more than half a billion dollars a year, though the estate disputes this.

This article by Ismail Akwei was first published on face2faceafrica.com