Apanel discussion at the first Chief Theresa Kachindamoto public lecture has stirred demands for renewed urgency and coordination to eradicate child marriage in southern Africa.
The Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum (Sadc PF), with funding from Sweden in collaboration with Care International, held the honorary lecture at the University of Zambia in Lusaka on Monday last week.
“We gather to reaffirm a collective promise that every girl across the Sadc region deserves to dream freely, to learn fully and to live her childhood without compromise,” said moderator Lynn Chinene, from Care Zambia.
The gender advocate challenged participants to boldly dismantle systems that allow child marriage.
Kachindamoto, a Ngoni chief from Dedza District along Lake Malawi, terminated over 3 500 illicit marriages.
Chief Chamuka VI of Zambia is proud to have met her.
“We exchanged notes and I’m proud to say that all that she did, I’m also doing. I have even gone an extra mile,” he said.
Zambia’s sparsely populated rural settlements make tracking child marriages difficult, but Chief Chamuka has hit the road outlawing child marriages; supporting affected girls to return to school, sponsoring vulnerable learners and vetting brides’ birth certificates and school letters before registering marriage.
The chief, who has ended over 500 child marriages, also promotes law reforms and women’s land rights together with parliamentarians.
He warned that allowing children to consent to sexual intercourse at 16 fuels sexual violence.
“A child is defined as a person below 18, yet we allow sexual consent at 16. This opens the door to HIV infections, teen pregnancy and forced marriage,” he argued, calling for harmonisation of all laws with the constitutional definition of a child.
Girls Not Brides gender and development specialist Mundia Situmbeko said the gross human rights violations rob girls of their childhood.
“If someone is considered too young to drive, vote or sign a contract, why should they be considered ready to marry?” she asked.
Situmbeko called for national reforms backed by data and political will to implement regional standards, including the Sadc Model Law on Eradicating Child Marriage and Protecting Children Already in Marriage.
“Unless we address the root causes of gender inequality, we’ll still be talking about child marriage a hundred years from now,” she stated.
Zambian legal expert Chipo Mushota Nkhata asked authorities to make progressive laws and policies work.
“We have progressive laws, but we are not monitoring their impact. Things that worked 10 or 15 years ago may no longer be working today,” she said.
Kachindamoto petitioned lawmakers in Malawi to outlaw sex and marriage involving girls below 18, but declines remain sluggish. According to the Malawi Demographic and Health Survey released this year, about 45 percent marry before their 18th birthday and one in three become a mother before reaching 19.
Despite similar legal reforms, nearly one in three Zambian girls marry before 18 despite major legal reforms.
“Our Children’s Code Act outlaws child marriage, but is silent on what to do with children already in marriage,” Nkhata noted.
Zambia’s Parliamentary Sexual and Reproductive Health Caucus chairperson Dr Joseph Musanje reaffirmed lawmakers’ commitment to ending child marriage as required by the Children’s Code.
The Parliament of Zambia and the House of Chiefs have signed an agreement to apply the Sadc Model Law.
The pact requires every chief to develop by-laws, register marriages, support every child to learn and tackle SRH barriers.
Campaigner Womba Wanki called for stronger collaboration and sustained investment.
She leads the network of 63 civil society and community-based organisations working to end child marriage in Zambia.
The coalition runs a vibrant girl-centred advocacy platform, called Power to Girls!, to bridge the gap between law and lived realities.
“We have girls who sit in the same rooms as members of Parliament, traditional leaders, religious leaders and parents to discuss the laws that govern their lives. This gives girls the agency that has so often been missing,” said Wanki.
She praised parliamentarians for integrating civil society recommendations into the Children’s Code Act of 2022 and the Marriage Act amended in 2023.
“We are now focused on ensuring these laws are implemented effectively,” she said, bemoaning climate change for worsening hunger, poverty, displacement and girls vulnerability to marry too young.
Wanki saluted the Kachindamotos of Zambia—chiefs like Chamuka, Chikaza-Munyama and Chief Madzimawe—for cancelling child marriages, creating by-laws and supporting girls’ return to school.
“We have strong laws on paper, but weak coordination on the ground,” she said. “However, these leaders have shown us how good aspects of culture can be a powerful tool when used to uphold the dignity and rights of girls.” she said.
Nelly Njobvu, a young advocate from Plan International, called for genuine youth inclusion, saying young people should be at the policymaking tables when discussing matters that affect them.
She stated: “Young people have the authenticity that adults often miss when discussing early and child marriage.
“We are the same age as the girls being married off. We are the now generation that can rewrite the story. There is nothing for us without us.
