ABSTRACT
Polygamy in contemporary Africa is variously described as increasing or decreasing as a result of modernity, often in the same areas. It is hence a challenging context for examining polygamy and modernity. African customary law and public opinion accepted polygynous marriages, however, and so polygamy was sanctioned by ‘native law and custom’. This duality meant that colonial governments generally did not pass any laws that directly prohibited polygyny. To many Africans, Christian opposition to polygamy appeared contradictory: it was common practice in the Old Testament, and there was no specific prohibition against it in the New Testament. Among the many concomitants of modernity are changing attitudes and definitions of marriage, but African men’s desire to be polygynous appears to remain unchanged. To be polygynous can indeed be to be modern. For men mostly; for many urban African married women, modern ‘outside wives’ are more likely to represent regression than modernity.
