Musa Hasahya Kasera, a 68-year-old Ugandan villager, is struggling to provide for his vast family of 12 wives, 102 children, and 578 grandchildren.
His health is failing and with only two acres of land to support such a large family, he has come to the realization that he can no longer keep up. Two of his wives have already left him because he could not provide for the basics like food, education, and clothing.
At first, having multiple wives was seen as a joke, but now it has become a major problem for Hasahya. His family lives largely in a rapidly deteriorating house or in about two dozen grass-thatched mud huts nearby. Despite being unemployed, Hasahya has become somewhat of a tourist attraction in his village, Bugisa in Butaleja district, a remote rural area of eastern Uganda.
Attracted by his status as a cattle trader and butcher, villagers would offer their daughters’ hand in marriage, including some below the age of 18. Child marriage was only banned in Uganda in 1995, while polygamy is allowed in the East African country according to certain religious traditions.
Hasahya’s wives now take birth control to prevent the family from expanding further. “My wives are on contraceptives but I am not. I don’t expect to have more children because I have learned from my irresponsible act of producing so many children that I can’t look after,” Hasahya stated.
Hasahya’s 102 children range in age from 10 to 50, with the youngest wife being around 35 years old. The challenge for Hasahya is that he can only remember the name of his first and the last born but not all the names of his children. It is the mothers who help him to identify them. Hasahya cannot even recall the names of some of his wives and has to consult one of his sons, Shaban Magino, a 30-year-old primary school teacher who helps run the family’s affairs and is one of the few to have received an education.
To resolve disputes in such a large family, Hasahya says they have monthly family meetings. A local official who oversees Bugisa, a village of about 4,000 people, said that despite the challenges, Hasahya has “brought up his children very well” and there have been no cases of theft or fighting.
Many members of Hasahya’s family try to earn money or food by doing chores for their neighbors or spend their days fetching firewood and water, often traveling long distances on foot. Those at home sit around the grounds, with some women weaving mats or plaiting hair, while the men play cards under the shelter of a tree.
To resolve disputes in such a large family, Hasahya says they have monthly family meetings. A local official who oversees Bugisa, a village of about 4,000 people, said that despite the challenges, Hasahya has “brought up his children very well” and there have been no cases of theft or fighting.
Many members of Hasahya’s family try to earn money or food by doing chores for their neighbors or spend their days fetching firewood and water, often traveling long distances on foot. Those at home sit around the grounds, with some women weaving mats or plaiting hair, while the men play cards under the shelter of a tree.
Bugisa’s residents are largely peasants involved in small-scale farming of crops such as rice, cassava, coffee, or raising cattle. When the midday meal of boiled cassava is ready, Hasahya saunters out of the hut where he spends most of the day and calls out to his family to come and eat.
It is clear that Hasahya is facing a difficult and overwhelming challenge in trying to provide for such a large family. The situation is further compounded by the lack of resources and opportunities available in the rural area where they live.
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Source: MandyNews.com
