 In 1421, Yongle Emperor ordered 2,800 concubines, servant girls and eunuchs who guarded them to a slow slicing death as the Emperor tried to suppress a sex scandal which threatened to humiliate him.In Africa, many chieftains have traditionally had harems.The Zulu king currently has six wives, for example, and members of the 
Nigerian chieftaincy system have historically had as many as three hundred of them.