No more brides after 201 weddings !!!!!!!!!

[Daanyeer]

Source:iol.co.za
October 04 2006 at 10:51AM

By Aminu Abubakar


..........."My experiences with women are huge. I see myself as a professor as far as women and their psychology are concerned. There is no type of woman I have not handled."

Sokoto, Nigeria - Sheltered from the scorching tropical heat by a cool breeze wafting from the branches of the mango tree under which he sat outside his old bungalow in the ancient city of Sokoto in northern Nigeria, 68-year-old Shehu Malami declared his resolve to content himself with his four wives after 201 marriages in 48 years.

"No more marriages for me, this is the end. I will retain my four wives to the end as long as another misfortune doesn't befall me," Malami, who just recently solemnised his 201st marriage, said outside his home in this conservative, predominantly Muslim city.




In June 2004 Malami celebrated his 200 marriages which coincided with the bicentenary of the Sokoto Caliphate with a promise never to marry again, but he could not keep his vow as he married another wife last week to replace a 40-year-old spouse he divorced recently.

'No more marriages for me, this is the end'
Short, bald and eloquent, Malami who is popularly called Maisaje' (the whiskered one), for the gray whiskers he keeps, could be the world's most married person.

Now living in retirement, Malami's life has been characterized by "marital adventures".

"I'm now a groom. I took my 201st wife a week ago, I'm on honeymoon," Malami said humorously as he adjusted his faded green robe, relishing the serenity of his middle-class old parliamentary quarters' neighbourhood with its uniform bungalows whose faded yellow colours and dull corrugated roofing attest to their old age.

Alternating between flawless English and his native Hausa dialect, Malami recounted what he called "marital escapades" with ease, displaying a good memory.

He took his first wife, a divorcee, at the age of 20, two years after he had dropped out of secondary school. The marriage, which did not receive the blessing of the couple's parents, could not survive its first anniversary.

'They have to bear with me because it is my nature'
His next two marriages, also to divorcees, did not last despite general acceptance this time.

"I have an exceptionally high taste for women and my sexual urge is quite strong. I would always go for voluptuous women because women with sagging bosom would not excite me," Malami said as he vainly fanned his nose with the back of his hand to ward off choking fumes from a passing truck.

Despite his strong libido, he blames his incessant marriage-and-divorce adventure to misfortune and his older wives who would instigate any woman he married to leave for a younger man.

"All my marriages were done with good intent but I encountered misfortunes. For instance, four of the women I married were already pregnant from other men when I married them and I had no option but to divorce them when I realized it, because I could not live with dubious wives."

"I later came to understand that my older wives were also responsible for my divorces as they would, out of jealousy, tell any beautiful young woman I married that she did not deserve to marry an old man like me as young and beautiful as she was while young and handsome men would do everything to have her as a wife."

"Gullible and inexperienced, the young woman would either demand a divorce or would become too nasty for me to keep as a wife", Malami said in a sad tone.

As Islam allows for a man to marry up to four wives at a time, Malami made good use of this privilege by having four wives at every particular time, finding a replacement as soon as he divorces one or more.

He never hides his pride in his 29 surviving children out of 47 from 25 marriages, and his 39 grandchildren.

Although Islam discourages divorce and the people of the city find his frequent marriages reprehensible, Malami found nothing wrong, "despite the fact that people express disgust".

"In fact the Sultan (the highest traditional and spiritual figure among Nigerian Muslims) solemnized my 200th marriage, the only wife I married twice among all the 201.

"When I married say five times from a particular area, I would shift to a far community where my reputation had not reached,", he said mischievously.

"Even my children are not happy and sometimes they come to talk to me about it, begging me to stop.

"But they have to bear with me because it is my nature and Allah does not prohibit me from marrying," Malami said.

Malami cautions his children not to emulate him, saying times have changed. "I always advise them not to do like me and I caution young men not to engage in these useless marriages especially with the prevalence of HIV/Aids and poverty,"Malami said.

He expressed pride in the experiences he garnered from his marriages adding that if not for the death of a wealthy friend who was to finance the publication of his biography, the book would have been on the market. They had to stop at the 160th wedding.

"My experiences with women are huge. I see myself as a professor as far as women and their psychology are concerned. There is no type of woman I have not handled."

It remains to be seen whether this time, at 68, he will stick to his word. - Sapa-AFP