Bello Maasaba of Nigeria, father to 185, husband to 107 so far, receives adulation wherever he goes. An Islamic faith healer, he commands a hefty price for his services, despite the fact that he eschews modern medicine. Although 87 years old, his youngest wife is 19, and he continues to marry new women who take his fancy.

According to Robyn Dixon, writing for the LA Times, he chooses his wives for obedience and submissive qualities. Given his great success with women, perhaps this explains something about what women themselves want. If taking a position of authority were not attractive to women, how could he possibly hope to attract so many?

To be honest, I’m sure there’s more to the story than this. However, according to the women themselves, there was never any forcible compulsion in the relationships. I’m sure that most of them are satisfied with the setup, and perfectly at ease submitting to their elderly husband’s authority. There is no doubt that, contrary to what feminists would have us believe, women actually prefer high-status husbands who can claim authority. This shows up time and again in high-status women’s complaints that there aren’t enough men for them, when in fact they have plenty of lower-status men to choose from.

But back to what’s really going on with Mr. Maasaba, I can state with some certainty that a high-status African man isn’t going to put up all those women without demanding that they provide to some extent for themselves. Additionally, faith healing often involves some “special medicine,” so I don’t think I’d be going too far out on a limb here in assuming that he is actually a very successful pimp who puts his “wives” to work for him.

It’s pretty funny that Westerners seem to take it for granted that he has an exclusive relationship with around a hundred women, but people tend to be unable to see past their own cultural paradigm.

In any event, there’s no denying that the man is the master of his own house, and lots – tons, actually – of women are perfectly happy with that.

Again, watch what they do, and don’t listen to what they say.