Men with so many wives and children are rare. Indian Ziona Chana left a household crowded with 39 wives, 94 children and 33 grandchildren when he died at age 76 in 2021.
Funlisthub.com lists Daad Mohammed Murad Abdul Rahman, 75, from the United Arab Emirates, as having over 93 children with 17 different wives, plus 50 grandchildren.
In the Philippines, Godolfredo “Fr. Fred” Retuerto of Lianga, Surigao del Sur is among the prolific polygamist men. The former seminarian and now leader of the cult Divine Arch Victory Instituted in Sion Omnipotent in this Latter Days of Christ or Davisol fathered 41 children from seven wives, KMJS reported.
Retuerto’s wives live in different houses in the 800-hectare Davisol community in Barangay Manyayay. All residents there bear his surname. His spouses help him administer the community, taking charge of the family’s education and health, agriculture, budget and communication, according to KMJS.
The polygamist supports his families through fishing and carving. Half of his children reportedly have finished their education.
Meanwhile, polygamist Musa Hasahya Kasera, 68, of Butaleja, Uganda, no longer wants to have children, admitting he can no longer support them.
“My wives are on contraceptives but I am not. I don’t expect to have more children because I have learnt from my irresponsible act of producing so many children that I can’t look after,” the unemployed Kasera, who married at 17 in 1972 and became a father the following year, told Agence France-Presse.
“We are forced to feed the children once or on a good day twice,” Kasera’s third wife, Zabina, told AFP.
Besides, there’s another challenge of having so many children that Kasera is shamelessly struggling to cope with.
“The challenge is I can only remember the name of my first and the last born but some of the children I can’t recall their names,” he said, according to AFP. “It’s the mothers who help me to identify them.”
When he can’t recall the name of a wife, Kasera consults one of his sons, Shaban Magino, a 30-year-old primary school teacher.
Two of his 12 wives have left him but Kasera insists that they all love him and they are happy.
His 102 children range in age from 10 to 50, while the youngest wife is aged about 35.
WITH AFP