King Nswati with his 14 wives and some of his children

Swazi girls paraded at the annual Umhlanga ceremony where the King selects an additional wife.

King Mswati III is Africa’s last absolute monarch who rules Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, as its King. The 50-year-old is a polygamist and has married 14 wives. He has divorced three of them and has 24 children. His father had 70 wives.

He is traditionally mandated to pick a new wife every year from 40000 maiden virgins who partake in the traditional chastity rite held at the Ludzidzini Royal palace near Swaziland’s capital Mbabane.

There may be all the the necessary interventions, but sometimes cultural barriers become the biggest challenge to healthy attitudes.

Sometimes it requires the intervention of strong women like Theresa Kachindamoto. She became the paramount chief in the central region of Malawi with informal authority over more than 900,000 people. She distinguished herself by her forceful action in dissolving child marriages and insisting on education for both girls and boys.

Kachindamoto ordered 50 of her sub-chiefs to sign an agreement ending child marriage in Dedza District. When a few male chiefs continued to approve the marriages, Kachindamoto suspended them until they annulled the unions. In addition to annulling the marriages (330 in June of 2015 alone!), this fierce chief sent the children back to school, often paying their school fees with her own money.

It takes the golden hearts of strong women to reverse some practices that make girls continuosly vulnerable.

And MWANZA, Salima, below from Malawi, married at the tender age of 14, Traditional Authority Mwanza, one of Malawi’s female chiefs, knows only too well the opportunities that are lost when girls are married off early.

Another female chief who continues to promote girls’ education and eliminate harmful cultural practices, including child marriage.