BACKGROUND
INTRODUCTION
What is polygamy? Polygamy is a multiplicity of practices that may set women against each other or, contradictorily, may bond them together in collective pleasure and mutual benefit. Polygamy in the eighteenth century was defined as a husband’s taking more than one wife, marrying after the death of his first wife, and even his seducing a woman while married to another and therefore being responsible for her ruin. Johnson Dictionary (1755) explains polygamy as “plurality of wives”, but polygamy may also mean simply having sexual commerce with more than one woman on an on-going basis.
Polygamy dates back to a long time ago, and it has been practiced by many countries of different cultures all over the world. The Hebrew
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It is monogamous in nature, where similar personality traits, habits and virtues are shared. It has been expressed that families are the primary agents for perpetuating social class, values, and concomitant cultural histories. There has been a drastic breakdown in the family structure which weakens the existence of a typical Basotho family. The profile of a typical family is a mother, father and children living together under one roof. Due to the phenomenon of polygamous marriages, we cannot continue rely on the myth of typical family. Now let me see if God condone polygamy or condemns it. The bible shows us that God intended monogamy to be the ideal for man. God himself created only one wife for Adam. Jesus even used Adam and Eve for his teaching in Matthew 19:9 about marriage that is applying to monogamy was the ideal for marriage and the verse goes like “I tell you, then for any cause other than her faithfulness, commit adultery, if he marries some other woman”. Judging from Old Testament you would swear that God condoned polygamy but I get to understand that God forbade the kings of Israel from taking more than one wife when he said “and he shall not multiply his wives for himself, lest his heart turn away again (Deuteronomy 17:17) polygamy is associated with worshiping false gods. Living with multiple wives always caused many problems in the household with jealousy and rivalry being two prime examples. Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah (Genesis 29:31). This caused problems with all the children of Jacob as there were 12 sons of different mothers. Hannah and Peninnah in 1 Samuel 1:6 they were considered rivals and this caused many problems in the house as these two women would compete among themselves, are jealous and mostly are not satisfied with the previous and one on one relation with their fellow wives in the marriage, finding themselves having to