‘Polygamy Doesn’t Work’ Says Father of 77
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An Ethiopian man who has 77 children by 11 wives has urged others not to get married and has taken to dispensing advice on family planning to his neighbours.
Ayattu Nure, 56, says he used to be a wealthy man and married out of a desire to share his money around but claims he is now peniless because of the competing demands of his brood.
“I want my children to be farmers but I have no land, I want them to go to school but I have no money,” he says.
Seven of Mr Ayattu’s wives live in run-down huts around the compound while the other four live on the other side of the valley in Giwe Abossa village, 300 kilometres from the capital Addis Ababa.
In total, they have given birth to more than 100 children but 23 have died.
Mr Ayattu says he tries to share his time equally between his wives and children but is at a loss to keep them happy and often cannot feed them all.
“I feel like killing myself when I see my hungry children whom I cannot help,” he says.
“People see me as a funny man, but there is no fun in my condition. I am a desperate man struggling to survive,” he says.
He blames Ethiopia’s government for failing to support him and his children.
The local authority of the school which 40 of his children attend is requesting photographs of each one for their files but Mr Attayu says he has not got the money.
“I know I have done wrong by marrying many wives and begetting many children but I think I deserve help from the government.”
Unfortunately, even his own son has ignored his warnings about the pitfalls of polygamy.
Unemployed Dagne Ayattu, who at 33 is the oldest of his sons, has seven children and is about to marry his fourth wife.
(Posted on April 30, 2008)
Comments
Seventy-seven children by 11 wives? Has anyone told Mr. Nure what is causing all this?
Of course, in Africa this is only the norm carried to great extremes. African culture tends to encourage men to father as many children as possible to show their “masculinity.” Providing for and raising the children is, of course, quite another matter. The case of a Kenyan immigrant to the U.S. who fathered about nine children by four different women, one of whom became a U.S. senator from Illinois, springs to mind.
It is also typical of Africans that Mr. Nure compounds his fecklessness by expecting that the government should do the providing for his clan-sized brood. Prove you’re a “real stud” by impregnating a harem-full of wives repeatedly, then expect someone else to deal with the mess that results.
Posted by Wayne Engle at 6:26 PM on April 30
I don’t grasp this man’s poor planning: He should have immigrated to a Western nation, and THEN had his dozens of children and multiple wives. The native taxpayers would gladly have supported his entire brood; in fact, he would have been publicly praised as a great patriarch and importer of diversity.
Posted by at 6:31 PM on April 30
Looks like an outstanding candidate for our refugee program to me. Let’s get him, his wives and his children on a plane and over to some small midwestern town, pronto.
Posted by at 6:39 PM on April 30
How can we compete with this insanity? Only strict immigration laws will keep them from like locusts devouring the whole earth.
Posted by Diamed at 7:57 PM on April 30
This should be used as the model article for why foreign aid to Africa should be immediately terminated.
This man regrets having 77 children now. That’s all very well and good, but whatever happened to thinking ahead when he had one or two? He can’t support his families, his government won’t help him, so naturally he turns to soft-hearted whites for assistance - assistance which will soon allow all of his children to have massive amounts of grandchildren. Assume a very conservative average number of 3 children per adult surviving to reproductive age. That’s 231 grandchildren and then 693 great-grandchildren, all of whom are progressively less and less able to care for themselves!
Compare that with the typical white family - a generous estimate would be 2 children per adult which is 4 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren maximum.
This is extremely disturbing.
Posted by ODDL at 8:17 PM on April 30
I’m an African, and I must say that this is sickening. I really can’t fathom having 77 children regardless of one’s financial estate in life.
Posted by An African at 9:25 PM on April 30
Can’t we help them by bringing them to Maine and giving them food stamps. Where is the Catholic Church? Maybe Teddy can put up tents for them in Martha’s Vineyard.
Posted by at 9:49 PM on April 30
He should have kept his drawers on! It is a common thing for blacks from all nations to want assistance with the kids they bring into the world without a care.
Posted by Spartan24 at 10:01 PM on April 30
You have got to be pretty STUPID to have more than ONE wife.
Posted by at 10:02 PM on April 30
Can You Breed to Extinction?
Posted by pat at 10:43 PM on April 30
Nure’s attitude is just like that of American blacks, except that American blacks only care that the government support themselves, and couldn’t care less about their children or the unfortunate women who gave birth to them.
Posted by Flamethrower at 10:58 PM on April 30
Heaven forbid he should support his own progeny. The best thing the west could do to and for Africa is just to leave the whole place alone.
Posted by at 7:41 AM on May 1
Not so different than in America. One man fathering multiple children by his many baby mamas, and looking elsewhere for a means of support.
Posted by at 10:51 AM on May 1
Can You Breed to Extinction?
You (as a society) can breed until the point where the system is so overburdened that it collapses, an then there is mass starvation.
Unless, of course, some group off idiots comes along and says that we’re obligated to let you come into OUR country and breed to extinction. Then the mass starvation will take longer and it will include more people - us.
Posted by Alan at 3:18 PM on May 1
No problem! This fellow has merely provided the latest fashion accessory for an additional 77 self-loathing Hollyweirdo celebrities.
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 4:46 PM on May 1
Several years ago I read an article about young black men along the East Coast cities (Boston, Baltimore, Washington D.C etc…) that belonged to an exclusive club referred to as the 20/20 club. The objective was to father (breed) 20 children by as many women as posible by the time they were twenty years old.
The women received welfare, food stamps, subsidized housing, daycare and so forth. All paid for by the whites, of course.
I often get the idea we are being forced to finance our on destruction.
Posted by at 9:13 PM on May 1