Swaziland
Population
The official figure is 985 000
Language
English and SiSwati
Capital City
Mbabane
Swaziland is landlocked, bordering Mozambique in the east and South Africa on the west.
Swaziland has four distinct geographic regions that can be explored without the need to travel great distances: the eastern band, comprising the Lubombo plateau; the lowveld bush country immediately to the west; the hilly middleveld, or grassland; and the forests and mountains of the highveld in the east.
Although small, the land of the Swazi people has a varied natural landscape, from the rugged mountains of the highlands in the west to the rolling hills, sugar cane fields and open woodland savannah in the east.
Swaziland is landlocked, bordered in the east by Mozambique and elsewhere by South Africa. The country's highest point is Emlembe at 1 862m and the lowest at the Usutu River at 21m. The country is also the smallest in the southern hemisphere.
Ezulwini
Ezulwini, called the Place of Heaven, is a showcase for Swaziland's amazing natural beauty as well as the centre of entertainment for the nation. The lush valley is home to the Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary, hot mineral springs, and the Mantenga Falls.
Mbabane
Also of interest, in Swaziland's capital city Mbabane, is the Indinglilizi Art Gallery, established in 1982, to showcase the work of Swazi artists.
The Tea Road
Ten kilometres from Mbabane, just before the turnoff to Timbali Caravan Park, is a scenic route known as the Tea Road. Tea used to be grown on these hills and the road will take you above the valley overlooking the royal area of Lobamba and across to the Mdzimba Mountain Range. It offers spectacular scenery but the road is a gravel surface, and steep. Visitors are advised to stay in their cars and travel the entire length until they reach the road to Mbabane.
Lobamba
This town lies on the outskirts of the Ezulwini Valley, and is home to the royal family residence. Here you can see the Incwala ceremony and the Umhlanga dance. The National Museum is also found here, and it offers displays on Swazi origin, tradition, dress and lifestyle. Next to the museum is the Parliament, which is sometimes open to the public, and across the road from the museum is the King Sobhuza II Memorial. Nearby is the Swazi Cultural Village with more authentic beehive huts and cultural displays. Lobamba is about 15km south of Mbabane by road, and is best reached by car.
Siteki
Siteki offers a cool respite in the Lebombo Mountains from the plains below. The town takes its name from a story from the days of Mbandzeni, great-grandfather of the present king, who gave his troops permission to marry here. The towns name means marrying place and its still sometimes known by its colonial era name of Stegi. Siteki is renowned for its Inyanga and Sangoma School, a government school to train healers and diviners. Its a fascinating mix of botany, spiritualism and natural science, and you can visit the school, provided you make arrangements in advance through Swazi Tourism in Mbabane. Not far from Siteki is the Muti-Muti Nature Reserve, used extensively by practitioners at the Inyanga and Sangoma School for collecting the variety of herbs used in their work (muti roughly translates as magic and folk medicine in Southern Africa).
Under a powerful monarchy, the Swazi people are still strongly attached to their traditions and culture. Two of the most prominent traditional cultural ceremonies are the Umhlanga reed dance and the Incwala First Fruits festival. The Umhlanga ceremony usually takes place at the end of August or early September. The Incwala ceremony, which is religious and involves the direct participation of the King, begins at the last moon of December and culminates at the next full moon.
You are likely to see many Swazis dress in colourful costume, featuring a bright toga-like garment the mahiya. The women sport the traditional beehive hairstyles.
About 80 percent of the Swazi population seek advice from traditional healers, or inyangas. They are seen as physicians, prophets, priests, herbalists and diviners and thus hold a senior place in society. The inyangas inherit their skills from their grandfathers and fathers and are mostly men. Their main function is to divine the future by throwing the bones. After several throws, during which the bones fall into different positions, the inyanga studies them and gives a message in lyrical siSwati.
The other prominent traditional healer is the sangoma. Mostly women, sangomas are called to heal physical and mental problems, attend a number of ceremonies and act as a counsellor. For divining, the sangoma relies on spirit possession. Both the inyanga and sangoma practise herbal medicine along with their other functions.
Religion
The majority (80 percent) of the people are Christian and the remainder (20 percent) follow traditional beliefs.
The monarch is King Mswati III who is also head of government. His Prime Minister is Sibusiso Dlamini. While, for many years, King Mswati III has continued to rule with absolute power, lately there have been moves towards an elected government.
Under the leadership of King Sobhuza II, Swaziland received her independence from the United Kingdom in 1968. After the king passed away in 1982, one of his many sons, Prince Makhosetive, was introduced to the nation as the Crown Prince. He was eventually installed as king in April 1986 and crowned as King Mswati III.
In eastern Swaziland archaeologists have discovered human remains dating back 110 000 years, but the Swazi people arrived only relatively recently. During the great Bantu migration into southern Africa, one clan of the Nguni, moving down the east coast, settled around modern Maputo in Mozambique. Eventually the Dlamini family founded a dynasty there, but by the middle of the 18th century, pressure from the other clans forced a Dlamini king, Ngwane III, to lead his people south to what is now southern Swaziland, around the Pongola River. The Swazi now consider Ngwane III to be their first king.
Under pressure from the Zulu, the next king, Sobhuza I, withdrew to the Ezulwini Valley, which remains the centre of Swazi royalty and rituals today. King Mswazi, who ascended the throne next, was a gifted warrior and diplomat, and by the time he cashed his chips in 1868 the Swazi nation was secure.
The Zulus frequently clashed with the British and the Boers, which relieved pressure on the Swazis but created other problems. Swaziland attracted a ragtag bunch of great white hunters, inconsequential traders, fervent missionaries and land hungry farmers looking to feed their cattle. The kingdom's land was being gobbled up in leases granted to the Europeans, but in 1877 the British decided to run the place along their own lines and they annexed it lock, stock and barrel.
The Swaziland Convention of 1881 guaranteed the nation's independence on paper, while considerably contracting its borders, and `independence' proved to be just a word. In practice the British and Boers pursued their own interests with chaotic results, and after the Boer War the victors took over the reigns of power. Swaziland joined the long list of countries administered by London.
During the 20th century, land ownership grew into an issue threatening the viability of Swazi culture, given that Swazi kings are considered to hold the kingdom in trust for their subjects. With a large proportion of the kingdom in foreign hands, King Labotsibeni encouraged Swazis to buy back the land, and many emigrated to South Africa to raise money by working in the mines. Land was gradually returned to the kingdom, both by direct purchase and by the British government, and at independence in 1968 around two-thirds of the kingdom was back in Swazi control. Britain's 66-year rule was overturned peacefully, and many streets in Mbabane retain their colonial-era names, perhaps indicative of the good will the colonial administration left behind.
Swaziland inherited a constitution largely the work of the British, and in 1973 King Sobhuza II suspended it on the grounds that it did not reflect Swazi culture. Four years later parliament reconvened under a new constitution that vested all power in the king. Sobhuza was followed in 1986 by King Mswati, who continues to maintain and represent tradition. He runs the country with the Council of Ministers, a small core of advisers. There is a little dissent in the country, although most Swazis seem committed to maintaining their culture despite external pressures of modernisation.
Opposition parties remain illegal, and in 1995 the National Assembly and the homes of the deputy prime minister and the vice-chancellor of the University of Swaziland were burned in student riots. Following a general strike later that year there was an easing in the almost total power of the king, and in 1997 the heads of Mozambique and South Africa held talks with the king on further democratisation in Swaziland.
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In this small landlocked economy, subsistence agriculture occupies more than 60 percent of the population. Manufacturing features a number of agroprocessing factories. The mining industry has declined over the past few years due to the depletion of iron ore reserves and the diminishing worldwide demand for asbestos due to health issues.
Sugar, soft drink concentrates, citrus and wood pulp are the major exports, mainly to South Africa, from which Swaziland receives almost all (90 percent) of its imports.
The total value of exports to the EU, Mozambique and South Africa amounts to approximately US$700 million and the imports from Japan, South Africa, the UK and the USA amounts to around US$835 million. Imports are mainly food, chemicals, machinery and motor vehicles.
There is a stock exchange in Mbabane that trades on Mondays to Fridays between 10H00 and 12H00.