Swaziland: royal wedding. King of Swaziland: personal life, reign, interesting facts Title of Queen of Swaziland
Swaziland is a small African country whose name comes from the people swazithat came to southern Africa from the central continent in the Middle Ages.
Swaziland borders South Africa and Mozambique.
State symbols
Flag - is a panel with an aspect ratio of 2: 3 with 5 horizontal stripes on top: blue, yellow, red, yellow and blue. On the central, red stripe, there are two spears and a staff, on top of them an African shield. The staff and shield are adorned with decorative bird feather tassels that represent the king.
Red symbolizes past battles and struggles; blue - peace and stability; yellow - natural resources of the country. The black and white color of the shield symbolizes the peaceful coexistence of the black and white race. The flag was approved on October 30, 1967.
Coat of arms - is an azure shield, in the field of which an oval shield wavyly crossed into silver and niello on top of two gold spears in a pillar. Above the shield is an azure-gold windbreak under a stylized crown of green feathers. The shield is supported by the marching lion and elephant in natural colors. Below is a silver motto ribbon with the motto: "We are a fortress."
The spears symbolize protection, the lion the king, the elephant the queen mother.
State structure
Form of government - dualistic monarchy (constitutional monarchy, in which the power of the monarch is limited by the constitution, but the monarch formally and in fact retains extensive powers).
Head of state - monarch. The legislative and executive powers are concentrated in his hands. He is also the Supreme Commander of the Army. Parliament has no real legislative power and is in fact an advisory body to the king.
Acting monarch since April 1986 king Mswati III
Head of the government - Prime Minister.
Mbabane
Capital Cities - Mbabane (official), Lobamba (royal and parliamentary).
The largest city - Manzini.
official languages - English, swathi.
Territory - 17 363 km².
Administrative division - 4 districts.
Population - 1,185,000 people The country has the highest rate of AIDS infection in the world (more than 26% of the adult population). The average life expectancy is about 50 years.
The majority of the population is Swazi, with a small number of Zulu, Europeans and immigrants from Mozambique. Urban population 25%.
Religion - syncretists 40% (beliefs based on a combination of Christianity with aboriginal cults), Catholics 20%, Muslims 10%, other 30%.
Currency - lilangeni.
Economy - the main sector of the economy is agriculture. The main agricultural crops: sugarcane, corn, cotton, tobacco, rice, citrus fruits, pineapples. They are engaged in cattle breeding. Industry: production for the processing of agricultural products, mining (coal and asbestos), cellulose production, textile production. Transport: railway 297 km, highways 2853 km. Export: juice concentrates, sugar, wood, cotton, citrus fruits, canned fruits. Import: industrial goods, vehicles, food, oil products.
Education - the education system is not sufficiently developed, education is not compulsory. In primary schools, the term of study is 7 years (from 6 years of age).
Secondary education (5 years) begins at the age of 13 and takes place in two stages - 3 and 2 years. Primary education covered 98% of children of the corresponding age (2002).
Higher education: University of Swaziland, Agricultural and Pedagogical Institutes.
Sport - football is popular. Swaziland took part in the Olympic Games for the first time in 1972. Swaziland's first and only participation in the Winter Games happened in 1992 in Albertville. Swaziland's athletes have never won a single Olympic medal.
Military establishment - the Swaziland Self-Defense Forces and the Royal Swaziland Police. The Swaziland army has never participated in external conflicts and is mainly engaged in maintaining order within the country and protecting the borders.
Nature
Basically, Swaziland is located on the highlands, which descend to the coastal plain of Mozambique in three steps: High Veld (dissected relief), Middle Veld (favorable for agriculture) and Low Veld (pastures, east of Mount Lebombo).
Mineral reserves are significant: diamonds, asbestos, gold, iron, coal, kaolin, tin, pyrophyllite, semi-precious stones (beryl, quartz, etc.) and talc.
Dense river network, the largest rivers are Komati, Ngvavuma, Umbeluzi, Usutu. Swaziland's major rivers cut through the mountains and flow into the Indian Ocean.
Climate subtropical and tropical.
The flora is rich: about 2,400 species - from lichens and ferns to magnolias and ficuses. 25 types of aloe, 12 types of orchids, 10 types of lilies.
Antelope
There are different types of antelope (including horned), hippos, white rhinos, zebras, crocodiles. The tsetse fly is common throughout the territory.
Tourism
Tourism in the country is developing dynamically. Tourists are attracted by picturesque mountain landscapes, a variety of fauna, the possibility of a safari, as well as the original culture of the local population. Hiking and horseback excursions are offered.
The main tourist attraction is the traditional Reed dance (Umhlanga) - an annual mass celebration in Swaziland, the culmination of which is the dance of several thousand half-naked Swaziland girls who want to become one of the wives of the King of Swaziland - Mswati III. The holiday takes place in August-September.
The celebration lasts 3 days and ends with a dance. On the first night after arriving at the camp, the girls set out for the reeds. The next day they bring the plucked cane to the palace of the Queen Mother of Swaziland, where it is used as construction material for wind protection. On the last day of the celebration, government vehicles deliver the girls to the stadium, where the culminating part of the celebration will take place. The stadium is attended by the king and royal family, as well as spectators. The King and specially invited guests give speeches on topics of current interest to Swaziland. After that, a dance begins, which lasts several hours. Spectators can join the dancers or encourage them by throwing money at their feet. Every year the king has the right to choose his bride from among the dancers.
Inkvala (Festival of the First Fruits) is also an important religious ritual for Swaziland that attracts tourists. It takes place in the second half of December and continues in January next year. This annual ceremony lasts 3 weeks and involves the unification of the people of Swaziland to receive blessings from their ancestors and serves the purpose of extending the reign of the Swazi people in the country and the beginning of the harvest.
The ceremony is attended by the king of Swaziland.
UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Swaziland
Ngwenya Mine
This mine is considered the oldest in the world. Ore containing hematite (iron mineral Fe2O3, one of the main iron ores. Synonym: red iron ore), was mined here in the "African Middle Stone Age". At this time, red ocher was obtained from it. Ancient people used red ocher for cosmetic and ritual purposes. Later, the ore was mined for iron smelting and for export.
Other attractions in Swaziland
Lobamba
Mantenga waterfall
Historic capital of the kingdom, seat of parliament and seat of the Queen Mother.
Sights:
Palace of King Embo Royal
Royal Kraal
National Museum
Parliament building
Memorial to King Sobhuz II
Cultural Village - a traditional ethnic beehive village that conveys the life of the local people
Mantenga waterfall
The Reed Dance (Umhlanga) is an annual celebration of the virgins in honor of the Queen Mother.
Reserve Muti-Muti
This unique place is actively used by practicing doctors and healers of the Inyanga and Sangoma schools to collect a variety of herbs used in their work.
The city of Siteki is a large trade and cultural center. Siteki is famous for its Inyanga and Sangoma schools. Here they receive the title of healers and experts in traditional medicine.
King Sobhuz II Memorial Park
King Sobhuz II Memorial Park is located in the city of Lobamba and is dedicated to the first king of Swaziland. The park consists of a memorial, a mausoleum and a memorial museum. The three-meter bronze statue of the king is surrounded by shields.
The memorial is surrounded by a pond; at the entrance there are bronze sculptures of lions. To ascend the throne, the leader of the tribe had to kill the lion. There is a torch next to the memorial, which is a symbol of the fact that the spirit of the king is still alive. The torch is lit on important days for the country.
The museum contains exhibits dedicated to the life of the first king of Swaziland. The mausoleum is located on the spot where his body lay during the funeral of Sobhuz II in 1982. The king is buried in the south of the country, in the mountains.
National Museum of Swaziland
The first and most famous museum of cultural history. Located in the palace of the XXVIII century. in the heart of Copenhagen, it covers 36 hectares and is a real open-air museum.
The National Museum was opened in 1892, it acquaints residents and visitors of the city with history, from the Stone Age and the Vikings to the Renaissance. Here are samples of various cultures of the peoples that live in the country.
Story
The ancestors of the Swazi people came to this territory in the middle from the central part of the continent. At first they settled on the coast of the Indian Ocean, but in the 18th century. they were pushed back into what is now Swaziland by other tribes.
At the beginning of the XIX century. the Swazis fought against the Zulu and other neighboring tribes, and they raided the Swazi lands.
In 1836, the Swazi leader Sobuza I (now called the king) defeated the Zulu, introduced a centralized system of power, subjugating other leaders. He is actually the founder of the Swazi state.
King Mswati I in the late 1830s annexed new lands in the north of the country and created a large state (its territory was more than twice the area of \u200b\u200bmodern Swaziland).
Swazi traditional dwellings
In the middle of the XIX century. the country began to attract European colonialists. In 1894, the territory of Swaziland was declared part of the Boer Republic (Transvaal).
After the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902. Britain declared Swaziland its protectorate, but retained the power of local kings and leaders there.
In 1964, the first local parliamentary elections were held, and on September 6, 1968, Britain granted full independence to the Kingdom of Swaziland.
In 1973, King Sobuza II abolished the constitution, dissolved parliament and outlawed the activities of all political parties, trade unions and other public organizations.
Sobuza II died in 1982 and was succeeded by Mswati III.
In April 2011, thousands of opposition rallies were held demanding the resignation of Mswati III. The opposition accuses the monarch of plundering the state treasury to ensure luxurious life myself and my 13 wives. The police, using special means, dispersed a rally in the capital of Swaziland, arresting 13 organizers of the rally.
Photo by Getty Images
Ma Konstanz Manka is the wife of the eleventh king of Bafut (Cameroon territory). His name is Abumbi II, and he has more than two dozen wives (although the press claims more than a hundred), but Constance is the first lady. She led the traveler Nikolai Nosov through her possessions. It is known that even half a century ago, the traditions of the "tribe" did not differ in civilization. On the territory of the kingdom, two large stones lie on the ground, one for the execution of women, the other for men. Princesses who violated the vow of chastity were chopped off different parts of the body in turn. In order for the victim to suffer longer, they were deprived of a finger, an arm, a leg, and only then a head. Traitors, murderers, thieves and witches were subjected to the same torments. Konstanz claims that now such rituals are no longer performed. And the stones lie as a reminder of the need for a righteous lifestyle.
And yet in Cameroon, some kingdoms still carry out a ruthless procedure - stopping breast growth. A terrible painful ritual is performed on girls of six years old. Hot stones and dull knives are pressed to the chest, after which the girls are left crippled with scars. As a girl, the breasts begin to flatten and smooth. Parents believe that it is necessary to delay the sexual development of their daughters so that they do not lead a promiscuous lifestyle and not be raped.
Nobody knows the exact number of children of Abumbi II. But who will get his throne will not be known until his death. So mothers of princes don't have to fight for dominion. Everything is decided by a secret council consisting of the king's relatives.
A girl can become the wife of a king only after she becomes pregnant
Photo by Getty Images
Albino girl at the cane party
Photo by Getty Images
The fortune of King Mswati III of Swaziland in 2008 was estimated at 140 million euros, and he can afford a lot of wives. But the modest king has only 16 legal spouses. In response to the spread of AIDS, Mswati III revived the traditional right to chastity by introducing in 2001 a ban on girls from having sex before they turn 21. The offender must pay a $ 152 fine or hand over one cow. However, the king of Swaziland himself became a delinquent, and his eighth wife was a minor, for which Mswati III fined himself a whole cow. The king's personal life is connected with another scandal - the abduction of his tenth wife, who was forcibly brought to the palace. There is also an ungrateful spouse - the 12th wife cheated on the king with the Minister of Justice. The king has 23 children.
To replenish his offspring, almost every year he organizes the "Reed Dance" festival of purity, at which he chooses his next wife. 80,000 virgins from different villages of the state are going to the bride, where the selection takes place. All of them, who have defended many kilometers of queue, will get free porridge with a piece of chicken. And he will give the chosen one a palace and an expensive car. But a girl can become a wife only after she becomes pregnant. By the way, the father of Mswati III Sobhuza II was married 90 times, he has 260 children and more than a thousand grandchildren.
"Difficult conditions" of the life of two wives in one castle
Photo by Getty Images
When in 2014 the king of the Zulu Goodwill Zvelitini married for the sixth time, his last wives were dissatisfied. They did not want to share one palace for two. It took $ 700,000 to build a new castle. By that time, Zvelitini had already spent. The wedding was arranged for 10,000 guests, 60 cows and dozens of rams were slaughtered to the festive table. The bride price was 20 cows, although according to local customs, 11 animals are sufficient. For the renovation of the palace of the fifth queen Nompumelo Mchiza, 1.4 million dollars were allocated, where they were hooked last wife Zolu Mafu. The opposition party accused the wives of the king of the province of KwaZulu-Natal of waste. The government spent about $ 7 million almost annually on the maintenance of the royal family. And then there's the poll public opinion showed that almost two-thirds of South Africans oppose polygamy.
Their love went through many obstacles
Ruth Williams and her husband - King of Botswana Seretse Khama
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Ruth Williams, who worked as a typist in the London insurance branch of the bank, met at the ball with Seretse Khama, a student faculty of Lawstudying law at Oxford. She did not know that this 26-year-old boy is the king of Bechuanaland (now Botswana) and the future first president of this country. In 1947, mixed marriages were not possible. When Ruth told her father that she wanted to reunite with a boy from Africa, her father disowned her and kicked her out of the house. Until the end of his days, Ruth's father never resigned himself to the fact that his daughter married a black man, even a king. The girl was fired from her job. Lovers were banned from church weddings. Despite the protests of their relatives, the young people decided that they were ready to go against the will of their families. But they had no idea what a disaster their marriage would be for Britain and its plans to rebuild Africa. The current government of South Africa (now South Africa) made it clear to colleagues from the UK that this union could have dire consequences for relations between both countries. At the same time, Great Britain did not want to quarrel with South Africa, fearing to lose cheap supplies of gold and uranium. Because of the lovers, a political scandal was brewing. Seretse and his white wife were practically expelled from their country, Ruth could not return to her home in England. Everything changed in 1956 when Seretse abdicated the throne. Seretse and Ruth were allowed to return to Bechuanaland. Ten years later, the former king became the first president of Botswana. The couple have four children and one granddaughter. In 2008, their son Yang became the fourth president of Botswana. His parents are buried in the king's homeland in the same grave.
Mswati III is the last absolute monarch in Africa, known mainly for his luxurious lifestyle and the number of wives.
Prince Mahosetive was the son of King Sobhuza II of Swaziland by one of his younger wives, Ntombi Twala. In Swaziland, the royal family was the real center of power, which it owed to Sobhuza II: he was able to replace the weakening power of the British with his own when the colonialists began to withdraw from South Africa. Although the British planned a constitutional monarchy for Swaziland when they granted independence to the country, already in 1973 Sobhuza II got rid of both the constitution and parliament, becoming a real absolute monarch (later the parliament was restored, but as a structure completely dependent on the government).
Choosing an heir to the throne was not easy for the king, as he had 67 sons. For some reason he chose Prince Mahosetiva. Perhaps it was a tribute to the Swazi tradition: in the history of the dynasty, long periods of regency with minor supreme leaders were common, and Mahosetiva was one of his youngest sons. Sobkhuza II himself was enthroned when he was not yet 5 months old, and to this day he has not broken his record for the longest reign - 82 years (longer Louis XIV). In the minority of the Swazi leaders, they did not see a problem - according to tradition, the leader ruled together with the Indoway (queen-mother), who personified the spiritual principle of power and could act as a regent. Sobkhuza II decided this: one of his wives, Dzeliva Shongwe, should become the Indovkazi, and the younger prince from another wife, Mahosetiva (at the time of the decision, he was 12 years old) should be the heir. The prince was sent to study in the UK, where he remained until 1986.
President Jacob Zuma attends Southern African Development Community Double Troika Summit, 30-31 Aug 2016
President Jacob Zuma and King Mswati III of Swaziland (GCIS Photos)
The death of King Sobhuza in 1982, as one would expect, caused a disturbance in the royal family. During his lifetime, the authority of Sobhuza II allowed him to extinguish conflicts within the sprawling royal family and aristocracy. Now, a struggle for power has flared up between the regent of the Indovazi Dzeliva, the Likoko - the royal council, and various princes of the Dlamini house (and there were plenty of them!). In fact, it was a struggle within the ruling house. In 1983, the regent Dzeliva was deposed and imprisoned by representatives of one of the factions of the court, who, however, were forced to transfer the post of regent to the prince's mother, Mahosetiva Ntombi. In 1985, she was able to defeat opponents in lycoco and "push through" the coronation of her son shortly after his 18th birthday (traditionally, the leaders "took power" at the age of 21). So in 1986, the 18-year-old King Mswati III appeared, who has unlimited power in Swaziland. Ntombi's position as an Indoway and at the present time allows her to be considered as a co-ruler of the king.
First of all, Mswati III took up the fight against the "fronders": Likoko was disbanded a month after the coronation, the prime minister was replaced (although both were princes of the Dlamini house), a show trial was held against the persecutors of the regent Dzelive. Thus, the young king was able to quickly and effectively consolidate power in his hands. The king was able to resist and the demands of democratic reforms, which appeared at the turn of the 1980-1990s and were typical for many African countries. Although he eventually ran the parliamentary elections in 1993, in fact, control was still in the hands of the royal government. Mswati III chose the tactics of promises and delays. Back in 1992, a commission was formed, which, after several years of work, recommended the country to adopt a constitution (an amazing thing, isn't it?). The next commission, assembled in 1996, was to prepare a draft constitution. As a result, instead of the prescribed two years, she worked for five. In 2001, it ruled that the Swazi people were satisfied with the "status quo" and that Swaziland did not need a multi-party system.
Both commissions were sharply criticized for lack of transparency in their work, poor political representation and lack of public contact. Parallel to the king was playing for time, political parties took shape in Swaziland, which, however, did not have any representation in power. Oppositionists staged strikes and demonstrations against the sole power of Mswati III. The king, however, openly showed reluctance to change anything. In 2003, he openly declared that "democracy is not suitable for our people" because God showed him "another way." The position of the king remained unchanged for years: already in 2015, he called for "to protect the country from pro-democratic groups", which by their criticism deprive Swaziland of "good opportunities."
Although the constitution was finally adopted in 2005, opposition parties were completely barred from drafting it. In 2004, an attempt by the opposition to appeal against The Supreme Court the preparation of the draft constitution has failed. The adopted draft itself, in fact, consolidated the power of the king, although it contained different equivalents towards democracy. Perhaps the only important moment was the abolition of the ability of the king to rule through decrees (which he often did between sessions of parliament), but his control over parliament and government was completely preserved. The status of political parties has remained uncertain and they are still outside the political process. Critics of the regime continued to be persecuted as before. Ultimately, the absolutist nature of the Mswati III regime ceased to suit foreign donors, and in 2014 Swaziland was excluded from the American Assistance to Developing African Countries (AGOA) program.
Mokete Cultural Evening of the World Economic Forum on Africa
King Mswati III with Minister Jeff Radeb and Mrs. Bridget Radeb, evening reception at the World Economic Forum on Africa. (Photo: GCIS)
In addition to his unwillingness to share power, Mswati III irritated many of his subjects with his way of life. He lived like a primitive leader, spending huge amounts of money on his court and family, remaining completely irresponsible in relation to the rest of his tribesmen. First, the king was always surrounded by luxury, he did not hesitate to demonstrate it - despite the fact that Swaziland is a poor country, a quarter of whose population is on the verge of starvation. The second source of irritation was the king's wives and his relationship with them. As the supreme leader of the Swazi, Mswati III was supposed to have several wives: for example, two "state" ones were selected by advisers and given to him immediately after the coronation. In subsequent years, he acquired more than a dozen others, which he chose himself (I wonder how he combined this with Christianity). Currently, there are 15. According to critics of the king, he took wives too often, choosing, moreover, those who had not reached the age of majority. In 2002, the parents of another bride went to court, accusing Mswati III of abducting their 18-year-old daughter, an unprecedented act against the king. This business did not end in anything, the parents had to come to terms with marriage. Another scandal in the royal family - the betrayal of one of the wives with the Minister of Justice - was mostly hushed up, although the minister himself, a former friend and business partner of the king, went to prison, and they did even worse with his wife - now she will live with her mother-in-law (horror ).
The king's wives are an obvious source of government spending. The king bought them expensive things, built separate palaces, and once wanted to buy an airplane for 50 million dollars - in this case even an obedient parliament rose against Mswati III, and the king retreated. As an illustration of this case, it should be noted that the entire budget of Swaziland for health (and in the country 29% of the population is infected with AIDS) is only 15 million.
SADC Extraordinary Summit of Heads of Government in Swaziland, 18 Mar 2017
President Jacob Zuma attends the Extraordinary Summit of South African Heads of Government in the Kingdom of Swaziland, chaired by King Mswati III. (Photo: GCIS)
The king took up the fight against AIDS, which literally destroys the Swazi, only after long appeals. Obviously, the topic was not interesting to him. In 2001, however, he took advantage of the traditional right of the supreme chief and announced a 5-year ban on sexual relations for all girls under the age of 21. However, the king did not want to limit himself and a week after the proclamation of the ban, he married his 8th wife, who was just under the ban. After showing angry women in front of his residence, Mswati III was forced to fine himself - he "paid" one cow. The scandal severely damaged the royal initiative, as a result, less than a year later, the compulsory chastity for girls was canceled.
The AIDS epidemic, which reduced the average life expectancy in Swaziland from 54 years in 1990 to 35 years in 2004, forced the authorities to finally declare a state of emergency and establish a special body to fight the disease. After the emergency, the situation with the spread of AIDS has stabilized and experts note the positive dynamics of a number of indicators. For example, we managed to bring life expectancy closer to the level of the 1990s. The main achievement of the authorities is that now the majority of people living with AIDS receive specialized medical care. The king's personal role in the fight against AIDS is small; critics point out that the problem has remained alien to him, and he often neglected to participate in activities to combat the epidemic.
African Union Summit, 7 - 15 Jun 2015
King Mswati III of Swaziland arrives at Waterclough Air Force Base to attend the 25th African Union Summit, 2015, the Year of Women's Empowerment for Africa, June 2015 (Photo: GCIS)
The economic development of Swaziland under Mswati III is assessed quite definitely: although the country has its own achievements, it, in general, is developing more slowly than its neighbors. Over the past few years, there has been a drop in GDP, but even in the best years of the 21st century, it rarely exceeded 2-3%. The fall was partly due to objective reasons (for example, a severe drought due to the influence of El Niño), but the stagnant nature of the social system, the lack of an independent court, and the political isolation in which Swaziland is gradually finding itself also contribute. The king is the richest man in the country (his fortune is estimated at $ 200 million), he manages the Tibiyo Taka Ngwane Foundation - a kind of analogue of the national welfare fund, where all Swazis should donate, and which is personally managed by Mswati III. The fund is not formally owned by the king, but that changes little. Having a special status, the fund receives various preferences from the government of Swaziland. Currently, Tibiyo Taka Ngwane is a huge business empire, not controlled by anyone and at the complete disposal of the king.
Experience has shown litigation, in Swaziland it is practically impossible to legally challenge the actions of the royal power, including on economic issues. Investment insecurity is an important factor inhibiting economic development. Foreign investors are forced to enlist the support of Mswati III - for example, by introducing members of the royal family to the board of directors, or by "sharing" with the king in some other way.
President Jacob Zuma holds bilateral talks at the UN General Assembly, 25 Sept 2012
President Jacob Zuma holds bilateral talks with King Mswati III of Swaziland on the sidelines of the 67th United Nations General Assembly in New York, September 25, 2012
The unemployment rate among the population reaches 40%, the budget deficit is growing. Since 2011, when the external debt became so high that Swaziland had difficulty finding creditors, the king tried to negotiate with the IMF. This did not work out, because some mandatory economic reforms would entail restricting royal power. As a result, Mswati III negotiated a loan with South Africa, but its terms are kept secret. Despite loans, Swaziland continues to run a deficit; the government is trying to combat this VAT hike, which further reduces living standards.
Despite the long years of authoritarian rule by Mswati III, there is still quite an active opposition in Swaziland, demanding democratic reforms. Some radicals demand the removal of the king. The authorities respond with arrests - trials of dissidents are regularly held in the country. IN last years the government-controlled courts register all oppositionists as “terrorists”. One of the main opposition political forces, the PUDEMO party, at the beginning of 2017 denied information about plans to take part in the upcoming parliamentary elections in 2018. Party representatives said that this is impossible as long as Mswati III rules as an absolute monarch in the country, and that they will certainly take part in the first "democratic, free and fair" elections that will ever take place in Swaziland.
On April 19, 2018, during the celebration of his own 50th anniversary, for convenience, combined with the 50th anniversary of independence, Mswati III did what few in the world can do now - renamed the country. Instead of the English "Swaziland" from now on, the official name was Eswatini, meaning the same - "land of the Swazi." In fairness, it should be noted that this name has long been used in internal Swaziland affairs, and the king himself always called his country Eswatini. Explaining the reasons for his decision, either jokingly or seriously, the king said: "When we go abroad, people call us Switzerland."
They gather in the stadium next to the royal residence, and the king chooses a new wife. Modern history black Cinderella, narrated by National Geographic.
Seventy thousand naked virgins in one stadium! To see this, I am ready to fly to the ends of the world. Which is what I am doing now, falling into terrible air pockets on a flimsy twin-engine airplane, reminiscent of a crowded Moscow minibus. The flight from Johannesburg to Mazzini is the last one on my 27-hour journey from Moscow to the capital of Swaziland. A sharp descent, more like a dive, several jumps along the runway, strained roar of engines - and we are in place. A dozen passengers and a plump stewardess, wiping sweat from their forehead, slowly make their way to the exit. Here it is, the end of the world, Swaziland!
The lion king
Swaziland is tiny (2.5 times smaller than Estonia - note ed.) a state sandwiched between South Africa and Mozambique. Having received independence in 1968, and with it a completely worthy constitution from Great Britain, Swaziland remained a parliamentary republic not too long - until 1977. Then the parliamentary system was abolished, political parties were banned, and the country became one of the few absolute monarchies on earth. A couple of years later, parliamentary elections were resumed - but for a real African parliament: each new deputy takes a rather primitive oath, swears loyalty and loyalty to the king and his heirs. And there are many heirs.
On average, “on the market” a wife costs a dozen cows: younger and prettier - more expensive, older - cheaper. So wealthy Swazilands (though there are not many of them here) have dozens of wives. But most of them, naturally, belonged to the king: the previous one, Sobuza II, had 70 wives and over 200 heirs. At least four hundred more children were born from ordinary Swaziland girls - who would refuse the monarch, since the Swaziland beauty is ready to surrender even to an ordinary African for a bag of chips. Considering that all relatives up to the third generation are considered heirs by law, it is easy to understand why the most common surname in the kingdom is Dlamini. And all carriers of this surname automatically receive the prefix "prince" or "princess". A simple guide meets you, extends his hand: “Dlamini. Prince". Only the king's official wives can afford not to work at all.
The current forty-year-old Mswati III has only 14 wives and only 23 children. However, he does not stop there, increasing the harem by one unit every year. And he does it as openly as possible, choosing a new wife at the annual Reed Festival or, as it is also called, the Festival of Purity. All (!) Virgins of the kingdom gather at the stadium next to the royal residence, and the king, with a huge crowd of onlookers, makes his choice. There is no such thing anywhere else in the world. Actually, for the sake of this spectacle, we flew half the planet.
African virginity
Young African women see nothing humiliating in this ritual. Moreover, the Reed Festival in Swaziland is about the same as ours New Year, is the main event of the year. Still, all virgins are fed free of charge for a whole week at the expense of the treasury, which for Africans already means a holiday.
All over the country, girls gather in administrative centers, from where they are taken by trucks to makeshift camps near the palace: huge tents are set up in an open field and large fires are made. The first few days are spent harvesting the cane. For what? One of the most prestigious things in Swaziland is the reed fence around the residence, which only the king and his mother can afford. However, such a fence is a short-lived thing, and according to tradition, it is broken before the Reed Festival. Each girl cuts off several long reeds and brings them to her king, from which a new fence is erected. Agree, not too much payment for the week of the holiday and participation in the lottery "become the next queen". Therefore, everyone is eager to participate.
How the choice is made - no one knows, outsiders are not allowed. Only the king and 70,000 virgins. It is only known that Mswati III gave his next wife a BMW X6 and promised to build a new palace.
Europeans, of course, are interested in how all these 70,000 applicants are checked. No way. The attitude to the issue in Swaziland is quite free - the girl considers herself a virgin, which means she is a virgin. There is even such a thing as secondary virginity. No, no plastic surgery is performed to restore virginity in Swaziland. It is enough for a girl to come to the priest, express her readiness for further abstinence, listen to a short gospel - that's, in fact, that's all. So how many of these 70,000 African virgins are virgins in the European sense - no one knows. In addition, thousands of local youths gather around the camp in search of adventure, and, as a rule, they do not remain without these very adventures.
Few tourists, despite all the richness of choice, do not go on adventures - the AIDS level in Swaziland is simply appalling: according to official statistics, 44 percent of pregnant women have AIDS. But there is still hepatitis and a bunch of purely African misfortunes.
By the way, a few years ago Mswati III decided to fight AIDS in his own way and forbade all virgins to have sex for five years. Each girl received a loincloth with an identifying brown tassel. For deprivation of innocence, the offender was entitled to a fine: $ 170 or one cow. Oddly enough, in this country of free morals, the ban was more or less respected until a scandal erupted - the king chose another virgin, and a minor. The rest of the applicants murmured and pelted the palace with their tassels. Even the speaker of parliament criticized the monarch, for which he immediately paid for, having received an SMS notification of his resignation from Mswati III (by the way, the world's first resignation via SMS).
The king, as befits a king, turned out to be stern, but just: he went out to the balcony of his palace, admitted a mistake, awarded himself a fine of one cow (which was immediately roasted on a spit and eaten by the joyful Swazilands), and at the same time canceled the decree on abstinence ...
Virgin parade
A reed fence, of course, is interesting, but onlookers from Swaziland and from all over the world gathered for a completely different spectacle - a parade of virgins. In the morning, the stadium begins to fill with spectators, invited guests, the police, and finally, a company of honor guard comes out onto the field, approaching the battalion in number.The king appeared to his subjects, protruding waist-deep from the hatch of a black BMW X5, with an oxtail wrapped around their torso and wearing a leopard skin cloak. However, it was hot in the skin, and the monarch quickly threw it off, remaining in one brown skirt. Several red feathers in short hair completed the image of Mswati III, like two drops of water similar to their images on banknotes and coins of the kingdom.
Having slowly rounded the entire stadium along the treadmill, the cortege slowed down near the throne, and the king sat on it. The neighboring throne was taken by his mother, who is supposed to be treated with respect only as the Elephant Mother. Behind the back, a whole row was occupied by the royal wives, who were distinguished from half-naked applicants only by hairstyles in the European manner.
And so the show began. What's the opening of the Olympics! Imagine a May Day parade, but instead of columns of workers from factories and factories, to the beat of ritual drums, columns of virgins are marching from different schools, institutions, districts and God knows what formations. Seventy thousand!
As the stadium filled up, the spectacle looked less like a parade and more and more some kind of orgy. But then the drums ceased, the girls froze in tense anticipation, the king silently looked around the audience with a heavy look and finally smiled. At the same time, a volley of military cannons burst out somewhere behind the stadium, a shaman appeared in the center of the crowd of virgins and began to perform some kind of ritual, and the most people rushed to the only microphone near the royal tribune. pretty girls and started singing Happy birthday to you!
It turns out that today is not the day of choosing the bride, but the birthday of the king! In addition, Independence Day. The king had already chosen his bride a week ago, just as the naked girls were laying the reeds at his feet.
How the choice is made - no one knows, the process is intimate, outsiders are not allowed. Only the king and 70,000 virgins. It is only known that Mswati III gave his next wife a BMW X6 and promised to build a new palace. And he asked all the other applicants to stay a week at the state expense and celebrate his birthday.
True, it was not possible to sit back seven days in a row: the active king spends this week on the road throughout the country (from end to end you can drive in two hours) and takes the girls with him, arranging holidays everywhere, the main hit of which is the dance of virgins with reeds and their parade.
To begin with, there is actually no Swaziland anymore. This spring, King Mswati renamed the country the Kingdom of Eswatini, a name used before the British colonization of the state.
The king thought that Swaziland is a funny word, besides, the country is often confused with Switzerland (Switzerland is spelled as Switzerland in English, and the African state is Swaziland).
Swaziland (a tiny state between South Africa and Mozambique) ceased to be a British colony in 1968, during the reign of King Sobhuz II. He ruled the country for 82 years, having ascended the throne in 4 months. Sobhuza remains the longest reigning monarch in the world.
King Sobhuza and cabaret star Erta Kitt
The country, although small, is quite rich, with a bunch of resources and minerals. But, of course, not everyone uses the benefits of the land.
After freeing himself from British control, Sobhuza dissolved parliament and rewrote the constitution, returning tribal customs and becoming an absolute monarch. The king had 70 wives and about 210 children (no one was involved in the exact count). He was succeeded by his second son, Mahosetiva, who ascended the throne in 1986 and called himself King Mswati III.
Mswati III at the party
It is worth noting that the new king is not a stupid and very progressive person: he received his education in Great Britain. But if during the time of his father the kingdom still somehow flourished, then with the new monarch the population plunged into poverty, and life expectancy dropped from 61 to 32 years (still, half of the country's inhabitants have HIV).
In order to somehow combat the spread of the disease, Mswati introduced a law "on chastity", which prohibits girls from losing their virginity until the age of 21. Otherwise, the fine is a cow or $ 150.
By the way, the eighth wife of the king was underage under the new law, and therefore he himself had to pay a fine.
The king with one of the wives at a meeting with the married couple Obama
The king's family does not limit itself in anything, fully managing the country's budget and spending it on its own needs. At the same time, an ordinary poor man from Swaziland (the poor in the country are more than 60%) lives on 1-2 dollars a day.
Queens of Swaziland
Mswati doesn't really care about spending money on schools and hospitals, but he regularly does the newfangled decoration of the palace, his wives buy handbags for the amount that an ordinary Swazi resident spends in 6 years of life, and children get the latest gadgets and not in than they do not deny themselves.
On the left is the king's servant, a teenager with a pistol. On the right - one of the queens at dinner, in the background an expensive handbag
On the left is another renovation in the palace. On the right - the children of the king in the VIP waiting room at the airport (the cost of being in it is 150 thousand rubles)
King Mswati III has 14 wives (according to some sources, girls already 15) and 25 children. He divorced two wives because they dared to cheat on him, and another committed suicide, plunging into the abyss of depression.
The monarch is not limited in the number of wives, but the first two must be chosen by the royal council, and the second wife must be from the Motsa clan.
Wives from the council. Left - second, right - first
On the left is the third wife. Fourth right, law graduate and patron of the Swaziland Hospice Home
The fifth wife in 2004 was sent into exile for conviction of adultery. The sixth committed suicide. The Queen suffered from prolonged depression, tried to find herself in painting and regularly underwent plastic surgery. The last straw was the king's ban on attending her sister's funeral. The girl could not cope with the emotions that overcame her.
Fifth wife, second from the right in the first row
Sixth wife
Seventh wife
Eighth wife, far right. The one for which the king had to pay a fine
Tenth wife. She insisted that she was kidnapped by the king's assistants and forcibly given in marriage
Eleventh wife
Twelfth wife, cheated on the king with the Minister of Justice. The monarch divorced her, and each of the lovers paid a fine - a herd of cows
Mswati and his thirteenth wife - chosen, like many others, at the Reed Festival
The fourteenth wife, again from the festival of virgins. According to some reports, in fact, she is already the 15th wife of Mswati
If we return to the state activities of Mswati, then somehow he introduced a law prohibiting making love under water (the punishment is a year in prison). He also forbade women to wear pants and shake hands. He also forbade citizens to show their fifth point to the king (according to tradition, this is done as a sign of dissatisfaction with the king's policy).
However, the law banning the demonstration of the soft spot was soon canceled due to the favorite event of the monarch - the holiday of the Reed. During this action, tens of thousands of virgins with bare breasts, covered only with leaves, dance at his throne. This is how Mswati chooses his next wife.
And this is what this orgy looks like.
Girls love this holiday very much and come from all over the country, because all the participants are fed for free at the expense of the treasury for a whole week.
Each girl cuts off a few cane reeds and brings them to the king - then they erect a fence from them, which they break at the next holiday and build a new one again.
The population of the country is categorically dissatisfied with the monarch's political course and living conditions. The opposition regularly sets fire to government houses and plant bombs along the route of the royal motorcade.
The government only responds with mass arrests. But in 2005, Mswati decided to meet his people halfway and adopted the long-awaited constitution. However, life did not get better after that, all innovations actually exist only on paper.