Swaziland: Africa's Last Absolute Monarchy

Africa’s last absolute monarchy. A standard Swaziland has been upholding since the British colonization. A country so small one could not locate it in the middle of such a rich nation like South Africa. A king and his 14 spouses, more than 80 children, 13 palaces, a private jet, and multiple luxury cars control one of the poorest countries on Earth, with more than one-third of the population affected by HIV, unemployment, and famine (Robinson). Swaziland is leading a political, social and economical crisis, and is the situation in this country is considered by the rest of the world to be out of control.

 A strong issue persisting with the kingdom of Eswatini (Swaziland’s official new name) is a type of lifestyle and government that goes back to a “Middle Ages” type of era, with monarchies and disease. First of all, they are South Africa’s Last Monarchy, as mentioned before, which means the king holds total power over the country. His authority is so undeniable that he managed to take down three public schools to build his three palaces (Norman). Second of all, the HIV and tuberculosis rate in Swaziland is extremely high, the highest in the world (Jackson). These diseases have been proven to be terrifyingly lethal and that one out of four people carry it in Swaziland (Sander). This high disease rate is influenced by how badly the country’s economy is separated. Mswati III, the king of Swaziland, does not uphold the values of sharing, because the constitution was ignored and his actions regarding HIV were minimal (Jackson).

Another problem with Swaziland is the lack of democracy and the heavily unbalanced social class statuses. Supportives of the Swazi government are persuaded that the issue with HIV, poverty, and economy will not be solved by just switching to a democracy. “Revolutionaries” in Swaziland believe the exact opposite and want to join in a democracy like their South African neighbors (Robinson). The social standards in Swaziland are very sexist and homophobic. In fact, the Swatini government doesn’t prevent discrimination on the grounds of sex, language, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Married women are allowed minimal financial rights, but that is at far as it goes (Vicky). The male still has to be the “head of the house”, bringing food and money to the family and holding supreme authority on them, while the women’s role was mostly domestic. The issue is constantly being hidden by the king, and the government still hasn’t passed their law which punishes marital rape (Jackson). This highly benefits Mswati III, who is guilty of many moral offenses, such as marrying minors, etc… Another issue is the lack of freedom of speech. In order to get his dictatorship going, Mswati III highly censors the kingdom and is very careful about the image of his country. If any civilian were to insult or criticize the king in any way shape or form, it would be considered a “terrorist” act and perpetrator will be thrown to jail (Sander). All of these motives and reasons are factors for the instability of politics in Swaziland, mainly because of the king and his choices.

In conclusion, Mswati III ensures his absolute regime through keeping the country uncultured, using his notoriety to commit assaults on women, lets his country dies of disease or famine, ignores his own constitution, keep sexism and homophobia recurrent and censors freedom of speech. Africa’s last monarchy is in the midst of a desolate period, with thousands and thousands of men, women, and children dying every year and even more are suffering from poverty, disease and famine. 

Works Cited

 _Norman, Joshua. “The World's Enduring Dictators: Mswati III, Swaziland.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 20 June 2011, www.cbsnews.com/news/the-worlds-enduring-dictators-mswati-iii-swaziland-19-06-2011/.

Sander, Philippe. “Swaziland: Africa's Last Absolute Monarchy | DW | 14.07.2014.” DW.COM, www.dw.com/en/swaziland-africas-last-absolute-monarchy/a-17784664.

Robinson, Amy. “Poverty and Hunger in Swaziland.” The Borgen Project, 11 Dec. 2017, borgenproject.org/poverty-hunger-swaziland/. 

Jackson, Lucas. “World Report 2018: Rights Trends in Swaziland.” Human Rights Watch, 18 Jan. 2018, www.hrw.org/world-report/2018/country-chapters/swaziland. 

BBC, Staff. “ESwatini Country Profile.” BBC News, BBC, 3 Sept. 2018, www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-14095303.

Vicky, Alain. “Africa's Last Absolute Monarchy.” Le Monde Diplomatique, 1 Oct. 2018, mondediplo.com/2018/10/10swaziland.