A 70-year-old man from Uganda is the proud head of a family with almost seven hundred members.
Musa Hasahya Kasera is a villager from Mukiza in eastern Uganda and boasts a family that includes 12 wives, 102 children and an astonishing 578 grandkids. His remarkable story hit the headlines after it was shared on social media, where it went viral. Musa was married for the first time in 1972 when he was seventeen.
His first child, Sandra Nabwire, was born a year later, and his family expanded rapidly.
Musa worked as a cattle trader and butcher – occupations that gave him a high status within the village.
As a result, many families offered up their daughters to him in marriage, with polygamy legal in Uganda under certain religious traditions.
Over time, he became the father of 102 children, who today are aged between 10 and 50.
Due to its enormous size, Musa has difficulties remembering the names of all his offspring.
“I can only remember the names of my first and last born, but some of the others… I can’t recall their names,” he said.
His wives, the youngest of whom is 35, try and help him keep track, but even they struggle to keep up with the sheer number.
Looking after and providing for such a big family is no easy task, as Musa admitted to the AFP.
“At first it was a joke, but now this has its problems, » he said.
The family struggles to make ends meet, with Musa’s two acres of land providing little more than basic sustenance.
« We are barely making it,” his third wife, Zabina, explained. “The food is barely enough. We are forced to feed the children once or, on a good day, twice.”
Many of the children and grandchildren do odd jobs for their neighbours or spend their days fetching water and firewood from long distances.
Despite the difficulties he and his family face, local officials in his village, which has about 4.000 people, believe Musa has done a good job.
« He has brought up his children very well,” said a local administrator. “There have been no major issues like theft or fighting.”
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