It’s unlikely that many people have heard of a hero quite like Theresa Kachindamoto. It turns out that she was the youngest of 12 children who direct descendants of the former village chiefs who watched over Monkey Bay in Malawi, Africa. When she learned that she had been picked to serve as the new senior village chief, Kachindamoto had been working at a city college as a secretary for the past 27 years. Once she took office, she immediately began the process of abolishing the practice of child marriage within her village. Incidentally, Kachindamoto never expected to ever serve in this position, considering that she lived in a different city, had older qualifying siblings, and she was raising five children of her own.
However, due to her reputation as a person who was “good with people,” Kachindamoto became the new chief after a surprise election. And her people informed her that the job was hers “whether I like it or not,” she
recalled. And while child marriage is a practice that is a normal part of the culture in her area, mainly because of the high levels of poverty, it was made illegal in her country back in 2015. That said, this law did not put an end to the practice since young girls were still able to be married so long as they had parental consent. However, Kachindamoto was determined to abolish the long-standing tradition of stealing the childhoods of young girls by forcing them to marry older men and bare children before they turn 18.
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While touring Monkey Bay, she also met with many of the people she was to govern. Kachindamoto met with many young girls, as young as 12-years-old who were married to older men and already had given birth to several children.
“I told them: ‘Whether you like it or not, I want these marriages to be terminated.’”
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Kachindamoto’s story may not seem like a huge deal to some; after all, she’s only a village chief. However, don’t be fooled by her simple title. Kachindamoto actually presides over a number of villages that total 900,000 people. That’s right. She’s actually more like the mayor of a major U.S. city or even the governor of a state. Plus, consider the fact that she serves
more people than the governors of Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska, South Dakota, and North Dakota. So far, Kachindamoto has annulled at least 850 child marriages and ensured that those girls were sent back to school.
Mawlawi is rated as one of the poorest nations in the world. And, a 2012 survey by the United Nations says that over half of the country’s girls were married before the age of 18.
However, there are organizations within Mawlawi that try to educate parents about the dangers of child marriage as well as underage childbirth.
Tragically, many of the parents are so poor that they cannot afford to house and feed their daughters, so they often resort to marrying them off to older men.
Source: Swathi Sridharan via Wikimedia Commons
The harsh reality of child marriage is that it can often lead to complications in childbirth. This is mostly due to the fact that these young girls’ bodies are too small to deal with the stress of giving birth safely.
And, perhaps even worse, these young girls are often bused to camps for “kusasa fumbi,” which translates in English as “cleansing.” But, in reality, this practice is actually a sexual initiation.
The camps train girls as young as seven-years-old to perform sexual acts on men so that they can appease their older future husbands. That’s right; these are basically child rape camps.
Kachindamoto was the very first chief to implement a hard-line stance against anyone involved with these abhorrent practices, threatening to take action against any sub-chief who sanctioned it.
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When some of the parents protested Kachindamoto’s law, she stood her ground. She understood that while she may never change their minds, she could at least change the law to protect the children.
With that in mind, she brought in her 50 sub-chiefs and had them sign an agreement that abolished child marriage and annulled any existing child marriages in her area.
As you can imagine, not everyone complied with the new law and continued the practice anyway.
But, Kachindamoto demonstrated her resolved and proved that she was not bluffing by firing four male sub-chiefs who were in charge of areas where this practice was still taking place. She did not give them their jobs back until they agreed to enforce the law by annulling the marriages and sending the girls back to school.
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Despite the fact that she faces numerous death threats, Kachindamoto remains determined.
“I don’t care, I don’t mind. I’ve said whatever, we can talk, but these girls will go back to school,” she said.
The new chief also devised ways to pay for the girls’ schooling, considering the fact that their parents are too poor to pay the fees.
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That said, Kachindamoto is far from satisfied and isn’t just sitting back, thinking she’s done enough. The chief also hired a network of “secret mothers and secret fathers” throughout the villages to make sure parents are not removing their girls from school.
And when it comes to her critics, she says they can keep on hating.
“I’m chief until I die,” she said, laughing.
What an inspiring story of courage in the face of a long-standing cruel tradition. Please be sure to share Kachindamoto’s story with your friends and family.
