The Phiri aristocrats later owned most of Malawi's tea estates which was repossessed by the Malawian government in the early 1980s. There is a fable that Tea was brought to Malawi by an English family who planted it at the foot of Mulanje Mountain, and still to date own the same Tea Estate, The Dorington Family. Then came other European families, namely the Conforzi's (Italian), Cathcart-Kays (English), Barrows (English). The first Malawian owned Tea Estate was a Government Estate, Established by Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda, under the Tea Growers Association in the early 1970s. However the truth is that herbal plants used to make tea are native to the region.