Nelson, a self-reliant farmer lives with a large family in a remote village called Nasere of Nabiapai Boma in Gangura Payam.

“I am having eight wives so each of them can give birth to 6-10 children. In total, I am a father of 71 children.”

“Out of 71, seven have died. So I am currently staying with 38 children who are now with me here. Because the older ones are in schools in Yambio, others are also in Uganda,” Nelson told Eye Radio in a phone interview on Thursday.

Situated about 33 kilometers southeast of Yambio town, it takes at least 4 hours by bicycle to arrive in the area.

Like other villages in Western Equatoria, the area is covered with streams, grasses and trees that attract seasonal cultivation, hunting and small-scale fishing during the dry season.

In addition, residents in this area also keep bees as well as making palm oil for sale at Nabiapai market, located at the South Sudan-DRC border.

According to Nelson, having a large family is a sign of responsibility and blessing.

“If you are not responsible, you will not handle such a family. So it comes from God. Again, always be humble” Nelson told Eye Radio before going to harvest his rice.

Being a father of 71, Nelson and his eight wives mainly rely on farming as the main source of income for the family.

During farming seasons, Neslon and his wives would work hard in a two hecter land of mixed crops per each.

This year alone, they have planted and harvested varieties of seasonal crops like groundnuts, rice, cassava, maize and vegetables for both commercial and family consumption.

“We are not complaining of food. Being a farmer, I am not the only one cultivating but me and my eight wives are all cultivating.”

“A person can have 2 feddan, 3 feddan of groundnuts, maize, cassava, rice and all other things that make up our daily meal.”

Being in a diverse society, his home has multiple huts built of bricks and roofed with grass for his wives that share chores for easy caring of children.

In Western Equatoria state, a man having one wife for example has at least a sleeping hut for families and visitors as well as a kitchen.

This is in addition to a grain-store widely being used for keeping farm produce and sitting hut.

A report released in 2020 stated that fertility rates in North and Southern Africa have declined to around three children per woman.

It reported three other sub-regions of the continent – East, Central, and West Africa retain much higher fertility, between five and six children per woman.

Sub-Saharan Africa is often characterized as an outlier in terms of population dynamics and reproductive health.

While women are having fewer children around the world, even prompting some places to begin worrying about aging populations, the demographic transition is proceeding more slowly in Africa.

Nelson however told this reporter that most of his wives have higher fertility between four and nine children.

Despite facing challenges in handling differences when they arise between the eight wives, Nelson believes that the best option is home dialogue.

However, he is advising men to allow their wives go to work in order to put food on the table for the family.

In the mid 1980s, Nelson had a chance to complete only secondary level at Yambio Secondary school.

According to Nelson, he couldn’t continue with his studies due to the Sudan civil war.

In West Africa for example, a man called ‘Ghana’s King Solomon’ is believed to be having Ghana’s largest family, 47 wives with around 240 children.

He is a chief in Tenzuku, a village near Talensi in the Upper East Region of Ghana.