Power to Woman: goodbye to early
marriages in Malawi.
In Malawi, as in many other countries, girls are forced to marry early and, many times, with men much older than themselves. This sort of “tradition” goes against the law that says that the minimum age to get married is 18 years old. Girls of 12 and 13 years are forced to leave studies and families to undertake married life. Theresa Kachindamoto thinks about saving them.
Theresa Kachindamoto biography
Theresa Kachindamoto is the paramount chief, or Inkosi, of the Dedza District (a district in the Central Region of Malawi). She has informal authority over more than 900,000 people. She is the youngest of twelve siblings in a family of traditional rules in Dedza District around Lake Malawi. She worked as a secretary for 27 years at a College in Zomba District in southern Malawi. She married and become the mother of five boys. In 2003, the chiefs of Dedza District chose her as the next senior chief of the district. She accepted the position and returned to Monkey Bay, where she assumed the traditional red robes, beads and leopardskin headband. Theresa become the Inkosi of the Chidyanoga line of the Maseko or Gomani dynasty as Kachindamoto VII in succession to Justino Kachindamoto VI, who had held the title from 1988 to 2001 after the regency of Sunduzeni from 2001 to 2003.