Swaziland

Overview

Swaziland is a small landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is almost completely surrounded by South Africa but it also borders on Mozambique . Most people visiting Swaziland will come from Johannesburg only about 400 km from Mbabane the capital of Swaziland and connected by good roads.

The major attraction of the country is its well preserved culture. From the ritual smearing of the bride with red ochre in the traditional marriage ceremony to the mystical rite of Kingship, the Incwala, each ritual is deeply significant and is performed only at the appropriate time and place. The centuries- old ceremonies are as valid today as they were in days of Ngwane, the first King of Swaziland and this balance of ancient and modern, traditional and western gives Swaziland and her people their distinctive character.

Urban Swazi's in spite of a very 20th century lifestyle still maintain firm links to the rural areas where water is fetched from the river and cooking takes place in a three-legged pot over an open fire. When duty calls, there is no contradiction for the majority of Swazi's in leaving an air-conditioned office in town and shedding a three-piece business suit in favour of the traditional cloths and skins of emahiya and to take their place with the regiments to perform the task or ceremony for which the nation has been summoned. Watching the regiments wearing the traditional dress of their great-grand-fathers, singing the songs of their ancestors and performing the ancient ritual dances, only the glimpse...more

History

Autonomy for the Swazis of southern Africa was guaranteed by the British in the late 19th century; independence was granted in 1968. Student and labor unrest during the 1990s pressured the monarchy (one of the oldest on the continent) to grudgingly allow political reform and greater democracy. Swaziland recently surpassed Botswana as the country with the world's highest known rates of HIV/AIDS infection