Polygyny - Economics

Economics

Throughout the "polygyny belt" stretching from Senegal in the west to Tanzania in the east, as many as a third to a half of married women are in polygynous unions.

A report by the secretariat of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) affirms this point: one of the strongest appeals of polygyny to men in Africa is precisely its economic aspect, for a man with several wives commands more land, can produce more food for his household and can achieve a high status due to the wealth which he can command. According to Boserup, Over much of the continent of Africa, tribal rules of land tenure are still in force. This implies that members of a tribe, which commands a certain territory, have a native right to take land under cultivation for food production and in many cases also for the cultivation of cash crops under this tenure system, an additional wife is an additional economic asset, which helps the family to expand its production.