Thirteen years ago, Theresa Kachindamoto worked as a secretary at a city college in Zomba, a district in Southern Malawi. It had been her job for 27 years. The youngest of 12 children, she was born into a family of chiefs — Malawi’s traditional authority figures — but she never expected to become a senior chief to more than 900,000 people. But when the chiefs called, telling her to pack her bags and come home, she did. She had been chosen as the next senior chief.
She was shocked when she saw girls as young as 12 with babies and teenaged husbands, and after her coronation rites, she was soon ordering the people to give up their ways and terminating underaged marriages.