Portrait
Education, an inalienable right
The traditional leader of the Dedza District in Malawi, Theresa Kachindamoto is a stalwart campaigner against early marriage and for access to education for girls and boys. Her country has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world (one girl in two is married before the age of 18), with rates particularly high in rural areas.
In 2015, at her urging, Malawi’s National Assembly passed a law banning marriage before the age of 18. During the following year, Paramount Chief Kachindamoto was able to cancel 850 marriages and return over 2,500 children to school.
To wage her campaign, she works with local community members, including mothers’ groups, traditional chiefs and teachers, but also with civil society organisations, clergy members and NGOs. Her efforts run up against tradition, which is entrenched in rural areas, and by the resistance of parents for whom marriage, owing to the dowry, represents a source of income. Malawi is one of the ten poorest countries in the world.
The education of young girls, and their resulting financial independence, is also at the heart of her campaign. She likes to quote the Ghanaian intellectual James Emman Aggrey, who said, “When you educate a girl, you educate a whole nation.”
Through its political and cultural dimensions, Paramount Chief Kachindamoto’s work aims to both change mores (“I want to abolish the bad aspects of our culture”) and transform her country’s laws. Her struggle embodies the fight against patriarchal patterns and for the lasting establishment of education for all.
Theresa Kachindamoto will be introduced by Professors Anne-Sophie Gijs (Professor of Contemporary History, UCLouvain) and Chris Van Geet (Vice-Rector for Biomedical Sciences, KU Leuven).
Meet Theresa Kachindamoto
Thursday 15 February from 12.45pm to 2pm
- Screening of the documentary “Malawi : une femme contre les mariages d’enfants” (“Malawi: a woman against child marriage”) (ARTE) followed by a discussion with Theresa Kachindamoto
- In the presence of director Dominique Mesmin
- Open to all
- Venue: Aula Magna (Foyer du Lac), Louvain-la-Neuve
- Registration: register on the form