One man with 39 wives

Man with 39 wives, head of ‘world’s largest family’, dies in India

Reuters, NEW DELHI, June 14 - The head of the allegedly largest family in the world, a 76-year-old man with 39 wives and 94 children, passed away in north-eastern India, according the chief minister of his home state.

Ziona Chana, the leader of a local polygamous Christian sect, passed away on Sunday, according to a tweet from Zoramthanga, the chief minister of Mizoram.

According to local media, the family is the largest in the world with 167 people overall, though this depends on whether you add the grandchildren, of which Ziona has 33.

The leader of a polygamous Mormon group in Canada, Winston Blackmore, has 178 persons in total, including over 150 children from 27 spouses.

According to Zoramthanga, Ziona resided with his family in a large, four-story pink building with about 100 rooms in Baktawng, a distant village in Mizoram that gained popularity as a result.

The father of Ziona started the "Chana" sect, which has hundreds of families as followers, in 1942. Ziona claimed to have wed ten wives in one year and that his first marriage occurred when he was just 17 years old.

Locals claimed that he preferred to always have seven or eight of them by his side. They shared a dormitory that was close to his private bedroom.

Ziona told Reuters in 2011 that despite the size of his family, he wants to continue expanding it.

The Sun quoted Mr. Chana as saying: "Now I feel like God's precious child. Lord has entrusted me with so many individuals.

I'm ready to start a family and will do whatever to get married, he declared.

"I consider myself a blessed man since I have so many people to take care of and look after."

• They all reside with Ziona Chana in a mansion with 100 rooms.

• His wives alternate nights in his bed.

• 30 entire chickens are required only to make dinner.

Nigeria man cl aims to still be "very much alive" despite having 97 wives.

The 92-year-old rose to prominence in 2008 as the nation's leading "superpolygamist," and he claims he is still engaged to be married.

The most well-known polygamist in Nigeria has dispelled rumours that he has passed away, insisting that he is still "very much alive" at 92 and intends to continue collecting new wives.

The local Islamic authorities have clashed with the cleric in the past and label his larger-than-average household as a cult. The cleric has no apparent source of income.

He told reporters that the most recent death rumours about him were the work of unidentified "detractors" and that he had outlived most of his 185 offspring. According to a news story, he passed away following a brief illness.

According to the most current calculation by the Punch newspaper, Mr. Bello has been married to 97 different women in all throughout the course of his life, 10 of whom he has divorced.

He shot to international popularity in August 2008, back when he had 86 wives, when he gave interviews to journalists and film crews explaining his odd living circumstances and that "God has instructed me to do it".

The majority of Muslim scholars concur that a man may have up to four wives as long as he can care for them all equally.

Later in 2008, the local Shariah Court requested his arrest due to that out-of-the-ordinary statement, and the emir of Bida accused him of "provoking tension" by speaking to journalists.

He was granted parole by the court in November 2008, but only after divorcing 82 of his 86 spouses. He refused to comply.

The nonagenarian has been rumoured to have passed away previously. He gave a rare in-depth interview to The Nation in June 2012, shortly after allegations of his death arose, in which he declared he was still engaged to be married.

"How many wives do I have? I have just 97 wives," he claimed. "I still intend to marry more people. I'll continue to wed them as long as I'm able.