Teniola Apata, a famous Nigerian singer and songwriter popularly called Teni, has given an account of how she was raised in a polygamous household where her dad had three wives and ten children.
Teni, in an interview with the Zero Conditions’ podcast, spoke about how she loved her life in a polygamous home and would still rather love to grow up in a polygamous family in the future.
Teni said that because of her siblings, she was safe and did not suffer harm. She also thanked her late father for keeping the peace in the family.
She said, “I grew up in a polygamous family with many people, so you can’t come and do rubbish. I received excellent care, a lot of love and protection. Three wives, ten children. Huge respect for my bloodline. All of my siblings and I get along well, though there are levels of closeness.
“I don’t know any other way, it is boring. If I come back to this life again, I want to come back to the same family. How can I be in a house with one mother and one father? Ah ah, then all of us will now be sitting down there. Ah ah. There’s no chaos.
“There is love in my home, but we change it, oh! Cuz ah, the person wey born us dey craze sha. Do you know what it is to hear gunshots and go to where the gunshots are? That’s not normal.”
She claimed that her father was very wise. “It was like he planned his future, and then he planned his death. So before he died, his wives knew about everything. He taught them everything one of my mothers knows how to shoot.
“He taught them how to be, and when he passed, they used the skill. That’s how our family was still able to be intact even after my dad passed.”
