Khadijah Darboe

Ask your typical NCCU student what polygamy is and chances are the student won’t have any idea.

But once you inform them that polygamy is when a man has more than one wife, students often react negatively.

“It’s like you’re sharing him,” says sophomore LaTanya Rhodes,who added that she worried about contracting diseases from a man with several wives.

“Women are expensive enough,” says junior, Damon S. Smithwick.

But it’s not about contracting a disease or the expenses that come along with being in a relationship with women, but about traditions, the freedom of religion, and family rights.

But polygamy is about much more than these issues.

Polygamy is a tradition with a long history.

In the 16th century, King Diarmait of Ireland had two queens and two concubines. Charles the Great of England had two wives and many concubines.

In many parts of modern day Africa Christian Africans practice polygamy.

Even Muslims, Ultra-Orthodox Jews and a few Mormons still practice polygamy in the United States.

Muslims can have up to four wives, as long as the husband can treat and maintain them equally.

Traditional Mormons believe that polygamy is a divine institution. Despite this long tradition, students still reject the idea of polygamy.

Robert Wortham, a professor in NCCU’s Department of Sociology, says students have difficulty accepting polygamy because they are so used to monogamy.

“It is very hard not to judge another practice without falling back on your own cultural setting,” said Wortham.

But isn’t this what being at college is all about? As students, shouldn’t we try to understand others?

Should the children of these marriages face harassment and torment?

This is not about men having the right to have a legal harem, but about individual rights.

Great Britain is considering a Human Rights Act that would make polygamy legal. This will be great news to the 300 polygamous who live in that country. Britain is a strong Western nation and just like the U.S., a very large diverse population. Britain is willing to take a chance with change, why aren’t we?

I have grown up as a Muslim in America, and I have always known families that practiced polygamy.

They lived in fear that they would be reported to the police and arrested.

It makes me sad that these loving families have to live in fear.

It doesn’t matter if people like polygamy or not, what really matters is having the freedom and choice to live in a polygamist relationship without fear of breaking the law.

The only way we are going to become a better and stronger nation is to face the reality of our increasingly diverse nation.

And NCCU has the responsibility of teaching students to accept and cherish diversity.