The scene is unprecedented in Senegal. Just a few minutes before the end of the presidential campaign, Bassirou Diomaye Faye walks with measured steps onto a platform holding the hands of his two wives, Marie and Absa. Applauded by thousands of jubilant supporters, the candidate of rupture and pan-Africanism chose to openly display his polygamy, a traditional and religious practice firmly anchored in Senegalese culture, before his triumphant election in the first round of voting. with 54.28% of the votes.
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Little known until now, Marie Khone, the first woman he married fifteen years ago and with whom he has four children, comes from the same village as him. He married the second, Absa, a little over a year ago.
Many women opposed to this practice
“It is a consecration of the tradition of polygamy at the top of the State with a situation which will stick to the Senegalese reality”, estimates the sociologist Djiby Diakhaté, adding that this practice is “popular” by many men but that many women remain “suspicious” of the principles governing it.
Many of them say they are against this practice, which they consider hypocritical and unfair towards them. And the UN Commission on Human Rights ruled in a report published in 2022 that polygamy constitutes discrimination against women which must be eradicated.
Although it is difficult to quantify because many marriages are not registered, 32.5% of married Senegalese live in polygamous unions, according to a 2013 report from the National Agency for Statistics and Demography. For the sociologist Djiby Diakhate, Bassirou Diomaye Faye launched a “strong signal for other men to also assume their polygamy, and for them to demonstrate transparency like him” with “no doubt a desire to put an end to the practice of hidden polygamy, called “Takou Souf” (in Wolof), which, according to him, “will be a good thing for the country's economy and for the marital situation”.