Saturday, September 6, 2008

Swaziland

Ah Swaziland—mostly surrounded by South Africa, but also bordering Mozambique. Today we’re celebrating Swaziland’s Independence Day—locally known as Somhlolo Day. Independence from the United Kingdom arrived on this day in 1968. Unfortunately, not long after this—in 1973—a State of Emergency was declared, and while the government claims it has been lifted, political movements are still suppressed.

It’s an ancient country—by which I meant that there are artefacts indicating human presences for tens of thousands of years, with prehistoric rock paintings dating from around 25,000 BCE, but also evidence of very early human existence in the region—as in well over 100,000 years. More recently, this is another country that experienced a large influx of Bantu peoples—when the Ngwane people couldn’t match growing Zulu strength they moved north into what is now Swaziland, establishing what became the Swazi nation.

The British first became involved in the 19th century after Mswati II requested help from the British authorities in South Africa—trying to stem the tide of Zulu raids into Swaziland. after Mswati’s death the people made agreements with Britain and South African, and then the South African Republic established colonial rule over the country, over the objections of Swazi royalty. South Africa withdrew with the onset of the Boer War, but only a few years later the British came along and proclaimed their rule, separating Swaziland from the Transvaal Colony in 1906.

Sixty years later the United Kingdom were open to discussion on a new Swazi constitution, resulting in independence two years later. In 1973 King Sobhuza repealed the new constitution, dissolved parliament, outlawed political activity and trade unions. In 1979 a new parliament was brought about. With a new monarch, new disputes cropped up, and in 1984 the prime minister was replaced, before the Queen Regent was herself replaced. This struggle between pro-democracy voices and the monarchy has continued in the ensuing decades.

With this restriction of political activity, it’s not surprising then that Swaziland is 138th in the world in terms of the Press Freedom Index.

Finding a poem from Swaziland proved a challenge—again it’s a matter of translation. While English is an official language, SiSwati is dominant. The piece below is actually a fragment of a poem on a warrior king. I believe it is from an oral tradition—I found it online here.


Fragment on warrior king:
They are calling you, they are giving you a message/
King of the inner circle!
They are not calling you for nothing,
They are calling you to a war of nations, stabbing and killing.

4 comments:

Publisher: Richard Rooney said...

We shouldn’t let these lavish celebrations hide the very real human rights abuses that are taking place in Swaziland. The King rules by decree, political parties are banned and the parliament has no powers. The King selects the Prime Minister. This week police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at marchers protesting for democracy. While the King has a wealth estimated at 200 million US dollars, seven in ten people in Swaziland live in abject poverty earning less than one US dollar a day. Six in ten people rely on international food aid and four in ten are said to be moving from hunger to starvation. Swaziland also has the highest rate of HIV infection in the world. For more information on human rights issues in Swaziland visit my blog at www.swazimedia.blogspot.com

Kate Middleton said...

Thanks for the information - I wanted to find out more specifics of the humanitarian situation, and did try to stay away from glorifying ceremonies run by what is an oppressive regime. This project is often a double-edged sword - it celebrates the end of colonial rule, but often the period emerging from that is pretty horrific. I hate that I have to give so cursory a view of things - thanks for the extra information. I will be looking at your blog.

Rethabile said...

I doubt you can cover even most things about a country. It seems to me that your blog gives cursory information and invites the reader to find out more for themselves. Otherwise more information is always available through Wikipedia.

Nevertheless, Richard does well to leave information in the comments section here, which, presumably, is what everyone is invited to do. And I probably will on your Lesotho post yesterday.

Having said that, Mswati isn't a leader but a blood-sucker. He's killing Swaziland and doesn't seem to care much.

Kate Middleton said...

Yes - I do appreciate getting comments. I wish I had the time at the moment to go back and fix up all the entries - I'm hoping to edit these entries at the end of the project...

In the mean time, I really value people's comments because they supplement the project as a whole.

When I've done writing the rest of the entries that take me through the world, I will look at coming back to Swaziland and others to improve the entries.