Swazi king to select new wife
2005-08-29 13:51
Ludzidzini - Tens of thousands of unmarried Swazi girls gathered at the royal residence on Sunday to lay down reeds as part of a week-long celebration of national pride that will culminate in King Mswati III selecting a new virgin bride.
The bare-breasted girls, aged mostly under 18, dressed in brightly-coloured traditional fabric and clutching clumps of reeds, sang and stamped their feet as they edged along a snaking queue toward the thatched dwellings at Ludzidzini that is the home of Africa's last absolute monarch.
"This is their pride and this ceremony is a way of preserving their livelihood as girls," an "indvuna", Nhlavu Hlophe, one of hundreds of mostly male marshals, explained.
King did not attend
The 37-year-old king, who already has 12 wives, but is expected to identify another "fiancé" from among the estimated 50 000 girls registered to take part in the celebration this year, did not make an appearance.
The procession, part of the mountain kingdom's age-old annual "reed dance", coincided with the premature lifting of a five-year ban on pre-marital sex, known locally as "umcwasho".
The ban applied to girls under the age of 18, generally referred to as "national flowers" or "maidens" in the impoverished mountain kingdom who were required to wear brightly coloured tassels to denote their chastity.
The royal palace has given no explanation for dropping the custom that was revived after more than a decade amid rising Aids infections, and was last week rejected with the mass-burning of the tassels.
Negative sentiment over ban
But is widely accepted that many in the landlocked country of about one million people were not pleased with the fact that girls were being singled out in the bid to curb the sexually transmitted disease.
The fact that shortly after imposing the ban in 2001, King Mswati III was himself fined one cow for selecting a teenager to be groomed as a future wife, fuelled the negative sentiment.
The king's teenage daughters, participating in the week's events, have also come under fire over their apparent disregard for "umcwasho".
Pictures of a scantily clad Princess Sikhanyiso were splashed across the front page of Sunday's edition of The Sunday Times with details of a beating the 17-year-old received for partying on a day set aside for the "maidens" to rest.
Excited young girls
At Ludzidzini on Sunday meanwhile, ordinary Swazi girls, for the most part seemed excited at the prospect of paying their respects to the king and contributing to a significant Swazi cultural event.
The king's wives, known as "inkhosikati" reside in a number of "palaces" or modern homes across the kingdom and appear to be the envy of most young Swazi girls for having been chosen by the king with a reputation for living and providing a lavish lifestyle. - Sapa-dpa
- SAPA