The Ugandan villager married his first spouse in 1972.
Butaleja:
Musa Hasahya Kasera has so many youngsters he cannot bear in mind most of their names. The Ugandan villager is struggling to supply for his huge household that he says contains 12 wives, 102 youngsters and 578 grandchildren, and now feels sufficient is sufficient.
“At first it was a joke… however now this has its issues,” the 68-year-old advised AFP at his homestead within the village of Bugisa in Butaleja district, a distant rural space of japanese Uganda.
“With my well being failing and merely two acres of land for such an enormous household, two of my wives left as a result of I couldn’t afford the fundamentals like meals, training, clothes.”
Hasahya, who’s at present unemployed however has turn out to be one thing of a vacationer attraction in his village, mentioned his wives now take contraception to cease the household increasing additional.
“My wives are on contraceptives however I’m not. I do not count on to have extra youngsters as a result of I’ve learnt from my irresponsible act of manufacturing so many youngsters that I am unable to take care of.”
Hasahya’s brood lives largely in a quickly dilapidating home, its corrugated iron roof rusting away, or in about two dozen grass-thatched mud huts close by.
He married his first spouse in 1972 at a standard ceremony once they have been each about 17 and his first youngster Sandra Nabwire was born a yr later.
“I used to be suggested by my brother, family members and associates to marry many wives to supply many youngsters to increase our household heritage,” Hasahya mentioned.
No combating
Attracted by his then standing as a cattle dealer and butcher, Hasahya mentioned villagers would supply their daughters’ hand in marriage, even some under the age of 18.
Baby marriage was solely banned in Uganda in 1995, whereas polygamy is allowed within the East African nation in line with sure non secular traditions.
Hasahya’s 102 youngsters vary in age from 10 to 50, whereas the youngest spouse is aged about 35.
“The problem is I can solely bear in mind the title of my first and the final born however among the youngsters I am unable to recall their names,” he mentioned as he rummaged by means of piles of outdated notebooks on the lookout for particulars about their births.
“It is the moms who assist me to establish them.”
However Hasahya cannot even recall the names of a few of his wives, and has to seek the advice of one in all his sons, Shaban Magino, a 30-year-old major college trainer who helps run the household’s affairs and is without doubt one of the few to have obtained an training.
To resolve disputes in such an enormous set-up, Hasahya says they’ve month-to-month household conferences.
An area official who oversees Bugisa, a village of about 4,000 folks, mentioned that regardless of the challenges, Hasahya has “introduced up his youngsters very nicely” and there had been no circumstances of theft or combating for instance.
‘Barely sufficient’
Bugisa’s residents are largely peasants concerned in small-scale farming of crops equivalent to rice, cassava, espresso, or elevating cattle.
Many members of Hasahya’s household attempt to earn cash or meals by doing chores for his or her neighbours, or spend their days fetching firewood and water, typically travelling lengthy distances on foot.
These at residence sit across the grounds, some girls weaving mats or plaiting hair, whereas the lads play playing cards underneath the shelter of a tree.
When the noon meal of boiled cassava is prepared, Hasahya saunters out of the hut the place he spends most of his day, and calls out in a commanding voice for the household to line as much as eat.
“However the meals is barely sufficient. We’re compelled to feed the kids as soon as or on day twice,” says Hasahya’s third spouse Zabina.
She mentioned if she had recognized he had different wives, she wouldn’t have agreed to marry him.
“Even after I got here and resigned myself to my destiny… he introduced the fourth, fifth till he reached 12,” she added in despair.
Two of his wives have already left Hasahya, and one other three now dwell in one other city about 2 km (1.2 miles) away due to the overcrowding on the homestead.
When requested why he thought extra of his wives didn’t abandon him, Hasahya declared: “All of them love me, you see they’re blissful!”
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
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