This question has elicited a lot of fascinating information and I'm very
interested by everyone's responses .
I wonder under what conditions Gambian women, in the current or in past
generations, have felt content with a marriage with co-wives? There was
mention that rates of polygamy go down as education goes up. This doesn't
seem surprising to me. Yet, when you look at marriage in US society, it
is often not very edifying, what with conflict, abuse, neglect and
abandonment being all too common. Perhaps our divorce rate is just
polygamy in another guise?
In the minds of most Americans, I think polygamy could be a synonym for
sexual infidelity. But what interests me about it is how it relates to
traditions, both Islamic and cultural, and if it holds a key to the proper
provision of the needs of men, women and children living in a community.
From my limited experience, it has seemed to me that relations
between Gambian men and women are marked by a degree of formality and
separation. I have wondered if that structure (if that is what it is)
has something to teach us in the US, where I think men/woman relations are
often characterized by suspicion and neediness, even to the point of
contempt. I also think that these characteristics have a negative impact
on the work of families--to raise children, and on the possibility of
community, that rarest of rare things in American life.
Jane
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Jane Zainab Warner-Tholley
University of Washington
Seattle, Washington 98195
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