While many are very much bothered about curtailing over increasing population and encouraging couples to have fewer kids, 80-year-old Togbui Kofi Asilenu, who lives in Amankrom village in the eastern region of Ghana seem far from being bothered.
At the moment Togbui Kofi Asilenu is regarded, unofficially, as the living man with the highest number of children with his over a 100 children from his 12 wives.
His large family reportedly makes up about a third of the population of the 600 people in his small village.
To make up for the fact that he was an only child, Asilenu says he decided to have a large family.
“I don’t have any brother or uncle that’s why I decided to have many children so that they can give me a befitting burial when I die. In my home town if you give birth to one child, they will say you are impotent so I want to have many children.” He said.
Asilenu is a farmer. He processes cassava into starch with the help of his wives and children for upkeep, says he intends to father even more children.
“If I get a lady today, I will marry her and have more children. As for men, even in old age, we can still father children. I’m not impotent,” Asilenu declared.
He has also lost count of the exact number of his children. When asked to do a roll call, He was unable to mention the name of all his children, he got stuck along the line in mentioning their names and the order in which they were born to him.
It was also not surprising when one of his sons narrated how his father proposed to one of his daughters whom he met in town.
Mr Asilenu gave an interesting excuse that his eyes were worrying him, that was why he didn’t notice it was his own daughter and they laughed over it.
The son also suspects they are more than 100 children: “In fact we’re plenty, we’re almost 100 and something,” he added.
Asilenu’s first wife, Nayome , described the family as mostly happy, adding that all the wives in the polygamous union have a good relationship with one another.
“When I married my husband and he decided to marry more women, I didn’t have any option. He’s able to take care of us, pay the children’s school fees. They are healthy and strong, so there’s nothing wrong with that,” Nayome said.
Asilenu admits that the cost of maintaining a large polygamous household can be a drain on resources, but he adds that he now receives financial support from some of his older children.
One of his older sons described him as a caring and responsible Father who did his best to provide for them during their growing years.
“He helped us from infancy up to SS level before I joined the Police service, so he tried a little bit for me.”
