He struggles to remember their names. In Uganda, Musa Hasahya Kesera is the father of 102 children, the youngest being 10 years old and the oldest 50 years old. The man, who has 12 wives and 578 grandchildren, has become an attraction in his village of Bugisa in the east of the country.
At 68, he will have no other children as he struggles to support his family. “I learned from my irresponsible attitude of having had so many children that I can’t take care of,” he says.
Polygamy allowed in Uganda
His large family lives between a dilapidated house with a rusty tin roof and about twenty mud huts nearby. “With my failing health and less than a hectare of land for such a large family, two of my wives left because I could no longer provide for the essentials, such as food, education or clothing”, underlines this father, currently unemployed.
In Uganda, polygamy is allowed. To prevent the family from growing again, the wives of the sexagenarian take contraceptive methods. “Not me,” he blurts out.
A first child born in 1973
Musa Hasahya Kesera first married in 1972 at the age of 17 in a traditional ceremony. Her first child was born a year later. “Since we were only two children (in his family), my brother, my parents and my friends advised me to marry several women to have many children and increase our family heritage,” he explains. . Attracted by his status as a cattle seller and butcher, villagers then offered him the hand of their daughters, some of them still minors – a practice prohibited since 1995.
Over the years, he can no longer even identify his own children. “I only remember the names of the first and last born, I don’t remember most of the others,” he admits. “It is their mothers who help me identify them”. And Musa Hasahya Kesera also admits having trouble remembering the names of some of them.
Queue to eat
The village of Bugisa lives largely from agriculture, with small farms of rice, cassava, coffee, or cattle breeding. In Musa Hasahya Kesera’s family, some try to earn a little money or food by doing domestic chores for their neighbors or spend their days in search of firewood and water, often walking great distances foot.
When the midday meal, often consisting of boiled cassava, is ready, the father comes out of his hut, where he spends most of his day, and calls the family to line up to eat. “But we barely have enough food. We are forced to feed the children once or even twice on good days,” says Zabina, the third wife of Musa Hasahya Kesera, who says she would never have married him had she known he had other women. Seven still live with him in Bugisa. But five left it, for lack of sufficient resources or space on the family farm.