At the close of the electoral campaign in Senegal, the winner and new president, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, took the stage hand in hand with his two wives, an unprecedented gesture in this African country.
Faye, an opponent who campaigned with the promise of radical change and a pan-African policy, wanted to send a message in a Muslim-majority country where Polygamy is a very widespread traditional and religious practice.
The wives of the new president of Senegal
The first spouse of the elected president, Marie Khone, She is originally from the same town as Faye and they married 15 years ago and have four children.. The politician He celebrated his second wedding with Absa a year ago.
“This is a consecration of the tradition of polygamy at the highest level of the State, a situation that reflects Senegalese tradition,” said sociologist Djiby Diakhate.
Polygamy is a topic that generates controversy and the appearance of Faye with his two wives, applauded by a crowd, has been at the center of debates in the media, on the internet and in homes, generating mixed reactions. “I’m better at being a second wife than being the first,” said singer Mia Guisse proudly in a video that went viral.
The sociologist Fatou Sow Sarr defended on the X network that “polygamy, monogamy or polyandry are patrimonial models determined by the history of each people.” “Now these models compete with homosexual marriage,” added the academic, in a country where homosexuality is punished with sentences of between one and five years in prison.
“I think the West has no legitimacy to judge our cultures,” he added. But many women in Senegal are against this practice, which they describe as hypocritical and unfair, and a report by the UN Human Rights Committee indicated that it contributes to discrimination against women.
A change of protocol
The Senegalese author Mariama Ba harshly criticized polygamy in her 1979 novel “My Longest Letter“, in which she describes the suffering and loneliness of women when their husbands decide to take a second wife, who is usually younger.
He andxMinister of Culture and academic Penda Mbow stated that The marital situation of the new head of government is something unprecedented. “This implies that the entire protocol must be reviewed,” he highlighted.
The Polygamy is widespread in Senegalespecially in rural areas. Islam allows men to have up to four wives, as long as they have the means to maintain them and spend equal time with each one.
A powerful message from the president of Senegal
In Senegal many marriages are not registeredwhich makes it difficult to estimate the prevalence of polygamy, but a 2013 report from the national statistics office reported that 32.5% of married people are part of a polygamous union.
For Diakhaté, The president-elect “sent a powerful message for other men to assume that they are polygamists.”
In response to his detractors, Faye claimed that he is proud of his marital situation. “I have beautiful children because I have formidable wives. They are very beautiful. I thank God because they are always by my side,” he said during the campaign.
Source: Ambito
