This King has 100 wives

                                       Fon Abumbi 11 

   Fon Abumbi 11 in front of the palace, which was added to the  world         monuments watch list of the 100 most endangered sites of 2006


The wisest ruler in his time, king Solomon who had all sorts of women as wives and concubines would be envious of  Abumbi II, the 11th fon, or king, of Bafut, Cameroon, who has close to 100 wives. They weren't all his from the start. The local tradition demands that when a fon dies, his successor inherits all his wives and then marries his own queens. The monarch who "inherited" 72 wives and more than 500 children after his father's death, has ruled Bafut, the largest fondom in the region, for 47 years.
One wouldn't be mistaken to ask if they were yet to experience some sort of civilization. The King, according to CNN reports averred that,
"To run a kingdom nowadays in this era, you must be educated because things are moving very fast. Like they used to say, education is light, ignorance is darkness."
So, it is not lack of education that was responsible for the 'extra large' family but the dictates of tradition. 

photo credit: CNN