Polyandry is a strange concept for south Africans
It would be rather taboo for Africans to engage with something that is practised and associated with dogs.
The issue at hand is polyandry, and I will apply the miniskirt approach; the article will be long enough to cover the subject, but too short to arouse interest. Polyandry, defined as the practice or condition of having more than one husband or male mate simultaneously, is a foreign concept to many Africans. Unlike polygamy, which is a well-known and accepted concept, polyandry is practised only by a tiny minority.
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Tibetans are known to excel in this mating arrangement, followed by certain tribes in South America. It is acceptable in these societies for a woman to marry more than one man, even brothers for that matter.
Africans view women who practice polyandry as being possessed by spirits. February for instance, is known as a mating month for canines and it is a mating arrangement that is acceptable and enjoyed by the animal kingdom. It would be rather taboo for Africans to engage with something that is practised and associated with dogs. In cultures where polyandry is acceptable like in Tibet, they even go as far as arranging such marriage at childhood wherein brothers will share a woman and of course the elder brother will be the leader of the household.
Such arrangement is called fraternal polyandry. There are tribes in South America like the Bari, Canela, Mundurucu and Achu who practice polyandry and believe that a child cannot be conceived by one man.
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Even though that is known to be practised worldwide and is even in the Bible, no man can admit that he ever engaged in such an arrangement as it is normally done under the dark sky and there is no formal romantic relationship except that it is a jab and go.
Hence, this shows that this type of practice does not fit the definition of polyandry in the deepest meaning of the word. It is just a look alike, yet different practice. My own take is that in South Africa, practising polyandry might be a challenge as statistics reveals that numerically women folks outnumber men.
Over and above that, many men are either incarcerated or suffering from many ailments. That alone is a cause for concern as there is a vacuum in the mating world which is a disjuncture and the opposite of the acceptable norm.
There are many widows and such arrangement can pose serious social hiccups. Let me not be misconstrued as being implying the opposite of this practice, suffice to say that both monogamy and polygamy are acceptable compared to polyandry. African terms that can be given to polyandry can be bitter to swallow as they can show disrespect for the other gender.
