A few questions with Basiya Otmar

On a cool and sparsely-clouded February morning I had an awesome opportunity to sit down and talk with a local village leader and acquaintance named Basiya Otmar. Otmar, whose wife is Saa Bea (read “Saa Bea’s story”) has a family, in which a number are believers and so he has ostensibly heard the message of the Gospel. As I sat down and watched him build a thatched hut in his large garden there ensued a deep and insightful dialogue on marriage, the Bible and Aukaan culture. I made an effort to remember as much as I could of what was said between us. What was discussed helped me better understand the average Aukaaner’s perspective worldview.

Otmar: Ryan, there was a guy a while back who told me a lot about the Bible and read the stories and I’m telling you that I would become a Christian if it wasn’t for the fact that believers have a problem with a man having more than one wife. Why is God opposed to that?

Me: Well…there are plenty of reasons why: For starters, in the beginning God made Adam and Eve, male and female, Jesus reinforced that as being the way God intended it to be from the beginning.

I then went into how men had or chose to take more than one wife including some of the Holy men of God in the Old Testament but you see the magnitude of strife it brought on them.

Otmar: Yeah, yeah I understand that. It’s not an easy thing to manage. It takes skill and a wise man who knows what he’s doing. But let me tell you something, I was one of 21 kids by my father and five of his wives but I was the only child of my mother. If my dad had only had one wife, he would have only had one child! Look what a problem we have on our hands then.

This evaluation of this phenomena by Otmar and his perception that having only one child in a family was a serious problem put into perspective how truly different the views of family and child rearing are in Aukaan culture. I had to laugh considering Otmar himself has nine children by his only wife. I wanted to tell him how there are plenty of women who bear enough children to make up for cases such as his own mother.

Me: Otmar you know quite well how every woman is jealous of any other woman with whom she must share her man. You also know you can’t love each one the same.

This question was initiated by his bringing to my attention the case of one particular man in Godoloho who has four wives and lives harmoniously with all four. He told me they all go to the planting grounds together and each will cook a particular dish and bring it to him without quarreling. (I later found out from another source that one of the wives had left him so clearly there were a few false assertions concerning his situation)

Otmar: True! You can’t love all of them the same, no doubt about that. But that’s where you find out how who has the smarts, wisdom or shrewdness to make everything work well. You must deceive each one of them so they each feel that you love them the most. Each one must believe they are your favorite.

Me: Yeah, but I find it hard to believe you can successfully carry that out. It will become quickly apparent who is more favored by the way you treat each one.

Me: Otmar, what about adultery and mistresses by so many men here? I know because men tell me all the time how they sleep with women besides their wives. I also know how they expect complete faithfulness to their husbands in that regard. Is this so?

Otmar: Absolutely. That’s how it works and those are the expectations.

Me: Don’t you see how there is a double standard here? You know the majority of these women with whom men are unfaithful are married to a man somewhere and someone’s wife is being unfaithful when men do what they please.

Otmar: hmmm. Yeah. (There was a sort of confident indifference to my observation- his acknowledging the discrepancy but knowing change wasn’t anywhere in the future nor was any effort going to be put forth by a reality so advantageous to himself)

Me: Otmar, You yourself have only one wife and a good one at that (his wife is Saa Bea, a strong believer, see “Saa Bea’s story” –one of my earlier posts) and you’re a valiant defender of polygamy so why don’t you take another wife yourself?

Otmar: Well..I have nine kids and providing for another woman and additional kids would be tough right now.

You can see how lame his own defense in relation to his antecedents for support of polygamy was. He didn’t use any arguments such as status, masculine dominance, or pleasure. I later talked to another Christian woman from church who told me quite plainly that Saa Bea wouldn’t take it. She’d leave him and/or fight with the rival. Truthfully, Otmar knows how a good, faithful wife is not a given and Saa is just that. He benefits from her Christian morality and belief in being faithful to one man despite his own unbelief.

This discussion was too good and it was the proper time to bring up how Saa Bea had been miraculously healed with the whole village being a witness to it including himself. Saa Bea had told me how Otmar acknowledged a miracle but still didn’t accept Jesus but I wanted to here from his own mouth his take on it. His response was what I expected but all the while so powerful and gave a clear glimpse into the hearts and minds of so many Aukaaners regarding the Gospel.

Otmar: Yeah Ryan, Bea was sick and paralyzed for two years and she was in fact, healed instantly. “They” (numerous villagers) refused to believe it really happened but it did.

Me: So it was a miracle then?

Otmar: Yeah.

Me: So Otmar you know how your wife continually refused help from the witch doctor and she called on Jesus’ to heal her despite everyone else rebuking and cursing her for doing so. You see how Christ’s power was what did it.

You have see with your own eyes how the God we worship has amazing power and might so the only question I have for you is this: Why don’t you become a Christian?

Otmar: Well…Ryan, you see our people brought these set of beliefs from Africa, they stayed with them as they were on plantations as slaves and they carried them as they came up the river to where we are today.


Otmar’s response was simply stated and surprisingly brief. It didn’t explain details and expound on the sanctity or effectiveness of the Aukaaner’s religious practices over others’. However, Otmar’s shockingly succinct response told abundantly more than the few words he spoke. What it said was: I don’t need any justification for why I or my people group believes what they believe. I hold fast to these beliefs because that’s how we’ve always done it and I’m not turning my back on that despite evidence of truth outside of it-even within my own family. Otmar’s “testimony” is representative of many Aukaaners in the interior and it gives a small glimpse into the hearts of the lost in Suriname. But praise be to Jesus Christ our savior for those who see God’s power, do believe and ‘produce a crop 30, 60 and even 100 times what was sown’