They gather at the stadium next to the royal residence, and the king chooses a new wife. Modern history black Cinderella, told by National Geographic.
Seventy thousand naked virgins in one stadium! To see this, I am ready to fly to the ends of the earth. That’s what I’m doing now, falling into terrible air pockets on a flimsy twin-engine airplane, reminiscent of an overcrowded Moscow minibus. The flight from Johannesburg to Mazzini is the last one on my 27-hour journey from Moscow to the capital of Swaziland. A sharp descent, more like a dive, several jumps along the runway, a strained roar of the engines - and we are there. A dozen and a half passengers and a plump stewardess, having wiped the perspiration from their foreheads, slowly make their way to the exit. Here it is, the end of the world, Swaziland!
Lion King
Swaziland is tiny (2.5 times smaller than Estonia - editor's note) a state sandwiched between South Africa and Mozambique. Having received independence in 1968, and with it a completely decent constitution from Great Britain, Swaziland did not remain a parliamentary republic for too long - until 1977. Then the parliamentary system was eliminated, political parties were banned, and the country became one of the few absolute monarchies on earth. A couple of years later, parliamentary elections were resumed - but to a real African parliament: each new deputy takes a rather primitive oath, swearing allegiance and devotion to the king and his heirs. And there are many heirs.
On average, “on the market,” a wife costs a dozen cows: younger and more beautiful ones are more expensive, older ones are cheaper. So among wealthy Swazis (though there are not many of them here), the number of wives is in the dozens. But, naturally, the king has the most of them: the previous one, Sobuza II, had 70 wives and over 200 heirs. At least four hundred more children were born from simple Swazi girls - who would refuse the monarch, since the Swazi beauty is ready to give herself up to even a simple African for a bag of chips. If we take into account that all relatives up to the third generation are considered heirs by law, it is easy to understand why the most common surname in the kingdom is Dlamini. And all bearers of this surname automatically receive the prefix “prince” or “princess”. A simple guide meets you and extends his hand: “Dlamini. Prince". Only the official wives of the king can afford not to work at all.
The current forty-year-old Mswati III has only 14 wives and only 23 children. However, he does not stop there, increasing the harem by one unit every year. Moreover, he does this as openly as possible, choosing a new wife at the annual Reed Festival or, as it is also called, the Purity Festival. All (!) virgins of the kingdom gather at the stadium next to the royal residence, and the king, in front of a huge crowd of onlookers, makes his choice. There is nothing like this anywhere else in the world. Actually, for the sake of this spectacle we flew halfway across the planet.
African virginity
Young African women do not see anything humiliating in this ritual. Moreover, the Cane Festival in Swaziland is about the same as ours New Year, is the main event of the year. Of course, all virgins are fed free of charge for a whole week at the expense of the treasury, which for Africans already means a holiday.
All over the country, girls gather in administrative centers, from where they are taken by truck to improvised camps near the palace: huge tents are pitched in open fields and large fires are lit. The first few days are spent harvesting cane. For what? One of the most status things in Swaziland is a reed fence around the residence, which only the king and his mother can afford. However, such a fence is short-lived, and according to tradition, it is broken before the Reed Festival. Each girl cuts several multi-meter reeds and brings them to her king, from which a new fence is built. Agree, it’s not too much to pay for a week of celebration and participation in the “become the next queen” lottery. That's why everyone wants to participate.
No one knows how the choice occurs; outsiders are not allowed. Only the king and 70,000 virgins. We only know that Mswati III gave his next wife a BMW X6 and promised to build a new palace.
Europeans are understandably interested in how all these 70,000 applicants are checked. But no way. The attitude towards the issue in Swaziland is quite free - a girl considers herself a virgin, which means she is a virgin. There is even such a thing as secondary virginity. No, no plastic surgery to restore virginity is performed in Swaziland. All a girl needs to do is come to the priest, express her readiness for further abstinence, listen to a short gospel song - that’s basically all. So how many of these 70,000 African girls are virgins in the European sense - no one knows. In addition, more than one thousand local youths gather around the camp in search of adventure, and, as a rule, they are not left without these same adventures.
Few tourists, despite all the wealth of choice, do not go on adventures - the level of AIDS in Swaziland is simply terrifying: according to official statistics, 44 percent of pregnant women have AIDS. But there is also hepatitis and a bunch of purely African misfortunes.
By the way, several years ago Mswati III decided to fight AIDS in his own way and forbade all virgins from having sex for five years. Each girl received a loincloth with an identifying brown tassel. For deprivation of virginity, the offender was fined: 170 dollars or one cow. Oddly enough, in this country of free morals the ban was more or less observed, until a scandal broke out - the king chose another virgin, and a minor one at that. The rest of the contenders began to murmur and pelted the palace with their tassels. Even the speaker of parliament criticized the monarch, for which he immediately paid for it when he received an SMS notification of his resignation from Mswati III (by the way, the world’s first resignation via SMS).
The king, as befits a king, turned out to be stern, but fair: he went out onto the balcony of his palace, admitted his mistake, awarded himself a fine of one cow (which was immediately roasted on a spit and eaten by joyful Swazis), and at the same time canceled the decree on abstinence .
Parade of Virgins
The reed fence is, of course, interesting, but onlookers from Swaziland and all over the world gathered for a completely different spectacle - the parade of virgins. In the morning, the stadium begins to fill with spectators, invited guests, police, and finally, an honor guard company enters the field, approaching the size of a battalion.The king appeared to his subjects sticking waist-deep out of the hatch of a black BMW X5, with a bull's tail wrapped around his torso and wearing a leopard skin cape. However, it was a little hot in the skin, and the monarch quickly threw it off, remaining in only a brown skirt. Several red feathers in her short hair completed the image of Mswati III, like two peas in a pod similar to her images on the bills and coins of the kingdom.
Having slowly circled the entire stadium along the treadmill, the cortege slowed down near the throne, and the king sat down on it. The adjacent throne was occupied by his mother, who should be addressed with respect as the Mother Elephant. Behind the back whole line occupied by the royal wives, who were distinguished from the half-naked applicants only by their European-style hairstyles.
And so the show began. What about the opening of the Olympics! Imagine a May Day parade, only instead of columns of workers from factories and factories, columns of virgins from different schools, institutions, districts and God knows what other entities march to the beat of ritual drums. Seventy thousand!
As the stadium filled up, the spectacle looked less and less like a parade and more like some kind of orgy. But then the drums fell silent, the girls froze in tense anticipation, the king silently looked around at those gathered with a heavy gaze and finally smiled. At the same time, a volley of military guns rang out somewhere behind the stadium, a shaman appeared in the center of the crowd of virgins and began to perform some kind of ritual, and the most beautiful girls and started singing Happy birthday to you!
It turns out that today is not the day of choosing a bride, but the birthday of the king! Plus Independence Day. The king had already chosen the bride a week ago, just when the naked girls were laying reeds at his feet.
No one knows how the choice takes place, the process is intimate, outsiders are not allowed. Only the king and 70,000 virgins. We only know that Mswati III gave his next wife a BMW X6 and promised to build a new palace. And he asked all the other applicants to stay for a week at state expense and celebrate his birthday.
True, it was not possible to idle for seven days in a row: the active king spends this week traveling throughout the country (you can travel from end to end in about two hours) and takes the girls with him, organizing holidays everywhere, the main hit of which is the dance of virgins with reeds and their parade.
The King of Swaziland, who recently decided to rename the country the Kingdom of Swatini, has virtually unlimited power. The state, smaller in size than the American state of New Jersey, is the last absolute monarchy in Africa. Swaziland has the highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the world and an average life expectancy of 54 years for men and 60 for women.
Origin and early biography of Mswati III
Mswati III is a royal by birth, the second son of King Sobhuza II. After the latter's death from pneumonia, Mswati was elected as the deceased's successor. Until the end of the monarch's studies in Great Britain, power was effectively in the hands of the regent - Queen Dzeliwe Shongwe, Prince Sosis Dlamini and Queen Ndlovukati Ntfombi. Became Crown Prince in September 1983 and crowned in 1986. Mswati restored parliament, although she is the last absolute monarch in Africa.
Personal life of the king of the last African monarchy
Mswati III, whose title, "nguenyama", translates as "lion", has this moment 15 wives and 25 children. This is quite a bit compared to his own father. Sobhuza II, the supreme leader and then king, who reigned for 82 years (the longest reign), is reliably known to have had 70 wives, and according to other sources - as many as 125! He had 210 children (97 of them were alive as of 2000) and more than a thousand grandchildren (at the time of his death). Mswati III is currently the father of 25 children. By the way, Mswati once said that he was going to break his father’s record for the number of wives.
There are two conditions that concern the personal life of the King of Swaziland. The first two wives of the monarch are chosen by the council, the second must be from the Motsa clan. The big one was the marriage of Mswati III to his eighth wife and the kidnapping of his tenth wife.
The King of Swaziland, in response to the spread of HIV/AIDS, introduced a ban on sexual relations with girls under the age of 21. For violation of this law, a fine was provided - one cow or 152 dollars in equivalent. A few weeks after the introduction of such a ban, the king took a minor as his wife, but he himself fined himself one cow. Initially, the law was planned to be introduced for five years, but was canceled a year earlier, faced with a negative reaction from part of the local population.
The king himself and his family undergo regular AIDS tests. According to statistics, 40% of the population is infected with the virus. International observers and journalists say he is doing nothing to improve the situation.
The king of Swaziland broke up with one of his chosen ones. The woman cheated on the monarch with the Minister of Justice of Swaziland. Since 2010, the queen has been placed under house arrest, and the minister (after the publication of photographs) was fired and arrested with a scandal.
Popular dissatisfaction with the authorities
King Mswati III of Swaziland has been repeatedly accused of plundering the state treasury for his own needs and those of his 12 wives. Police using special means dispersed the rallies. Thirteen participants in the protest against the authorities were arrested. The people accused the king not without reason. Mswati III is the richest man in the country and runs a national wealth fund to which all citizens must make contributions from time to time.
Fifteen years ago, the king of Swaziland (photo above in the article) accused the famous writer Sarah Mkhnoza of treason, to which the latter was forced to leave the country. Sarah Mkhnoza was also accused of mocking local traditions.
Absolutism has reached such a scale that all Swaziland banknotes issued after 1986 feature only the king and no one else. Mswati III not only holds the highest office in the country, but is also the Chancellor of the University of Swaziland.
Others most Interesting Facts about the kingdom:
- The country has two capitals - Lobamba and Mbabne.
- About a quarter of Swaziland's land is suitable for farming.
- Swaziland borders only two countries.
- The country only became independent in 1968 (from Great Britain).
- The country has two official languages - Swazi (the language of the local tribe) and English.
- About 40% of Swaziland's population is unemployed.
- There are fewer than 20 hospitals in the entire country for a population of more than 1.1 million people.
This is how this little kingdom lives.
Photo by Getty Images
Ma Constance Manka is the wife of the eleventh king of Bafut (territory of Cameroon). His name is Abumbi II, and he has more than two dozen wives (though the press claims more than a hundred), but Constance is the first lady. She led the traveler Nikolai Nosov through her domain. It is known that half a century ago the traditions of the “tribe” were not distinguished by civilization. On the territory of the kingdom there are two large stones on the ground, one for executing women, the other for men. Princesses who violated their vow of chastity had different parts of their bodies cut off one by one. To make the victim suffer longer, they deprived her of a finger, an arm, a leg, and only then her head. Traitors, murderers, thieves and witches were subjected to the same torment. Konstanz claims that such rituals are no longer performed today. And the stones lie as a reminder of the need for a righteous lifestyle.
And yet in Cameroon, some kingdoms still carry out the ruthless procedure of stopping breast growth. A terrible, painful ritual is performed on girls aged six. Hot stones and dull knives are pressed to their chests, after which the girls are left crippled with scars. In girlhood, the breasts begin to flatten and smooth out. Parents believe that it is necessary to delay the sexual development of their daughters so that they do not lead a promiscuous lifestyle and are not raped.
Nobody knows the exact number of children of Abumbi II. But who will get his throne will not be known until his death. So the mothers of princes do not have to fight for dominance. Everything is decided by the secret council, consisting of the king’s relatives.
A girl can become the king's wife only after she becomes pregnant.
Photo by Getty Images
Albino girl at the reed festival
Photo by Getty Images
King Mswati III of Swaziland was worth €140 million in 2008, and he can afford a lot of wives. But the king, modest in his requests, has only 16 legal spouses. In response to the spread of AIDS, Mswati III revived the traditional right to chastity, introducing a ban on girls under 21 from having sex in 2001. Anyone who breaks the law must pay a fine of $152 or give up one cow. However, the king of Swaziland himself became a delinquent, and his eighth wife was a minor, for which Mswati III fined himself a whole cow. The king's personal life is connected with another scandal - the kidnapping of his tenth wife, who was forcibly brought to the palace. There is also an ungrateful wife - the 12th wife cheated on the king with the minister of justice. The king has 23 children.
To replenish his offspring, he almost annually organizes a festival of purity, “The Dance of the Reeds,” at which he chooses his next wife. 80,000 virgins from different villages of the state gather for the bride, where the selection takes place. All of them who stood in a queue for many kilometers will receive free porridge with a piece of chicken. And he will give his chosen one a palace and an expensive car. But a girl can become a wife only after she becomes pregnant. By the way, Mswati III's father Sobhuza II was married 90 times, he has 260 children and more than a thousand grandchildren.
“Difficult conditions” of life of two wives in one castle
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When Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini married for the sixth time in 2014, his last wives were dissatisfied. They did not want to divide one palace into two. To build a new castle, 700 thousand dollars were required. By then Zwelithini had already spent money. The wedding was arranged for 10,000 guests, to festive table 60 cows and dozens of sheep were slaughtered. The bride price was 20 cows, although according to local customs 11 animals are enough. $1.4 million was allocated to renovate the palace of the fifth queen, Nompumelelo Mchiza, where the last wife, Zola Mafu, was moved. The wives of the king of the province of KwaZulu-Natal were accused by the opposition party of wastefulness. The government spent about $7 million almost annually on maintaining the royal family. And then there's the poll public opinion showed that almost two-thirds of South Africans oppose polygamy.
Their love went through many obstacles
Ruth Williams and her husband, King Seretse Khama of Botswana
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Ruth Williams, who worked as a typist in the London insurance branch of a bank, met Seretse Khama, a law student studying law at Oxford, at a ball. She did not know that this 26-year-old guy was the king of Bechuanaland (now Botswana) and the future first president of this country. In 1947, mixed marriages were not possible. When Ruth told her father that she wanted to reunite with a guy from Africa, her father disowned her and kicked her out of the house. Until the end of his days, Ruth’s father never came to terms with the fact that his daughter married a black man, even a king. The girl was fired from her job. Lovers were prohibited from getting married in church. Despite the protests of their relatives, the young people decided that they were ready to go against the will of their families. But they had no idea what a disaster their marriage would be for Great Britain and its plans for the reconstruction of Africa. The current government of South Africa (now South Africa) made it clear to their British colleagues that this alliance could have dire consequences for the relations of both countries. At the same time, Great Britain did not want to quarrel with South Africa, for fear of losing cheap supplies of gold and uranium. A political scandal was brewing over the lovers. Seretse and his white wife were practically expelled from their country; Ruth could not return to her home in England. Everything changed in 1956 when Seretse abdicated the throne. Seretse and Ruth were allowed to return to Bechuanaland. Ten years later, the former king became the first president of Botswana. The couple has four children and one granddaughter. In 2008, their son Ian became the fourth president of Botswana. His parents are buried in the king's homeland in the same grave.
Almost every year, 60-70 thousand girls gather at the stadium after harvesting the reeds to get a chance at the title of Queen of Swaziland. Virginity is the main condition, however, it is controlled by the state here. According to the law introduced in 1946, it must be kept until marriage or until the age of 21. For violating the law, a fine is imposed: one cow or 152 dollars.
Swaziland: “Kings can do anything”
Swaziland is a very small country between South Africa and Mozambique. Swaziland gained independence in 1968, but liberation from Great Britain did not benefit it - less than 10 years later, the parliamentary system was eliminated, political parties were banned, and the country became an absolute monarchy.
King Mswati III has reigned since April 25, 1986 and almost every year he chooses another wife for himself... in those cases when he finds a worthy one.
King Mswati III is not limited in the number of wives, but there are two BUTs - the first two wives are chosen by the royal council, while the second must be from the Motsa clan.
Afterwards, I don’t want to go out, the main thing is that my husband has enough money. One wife costs a dozen cows. Well, the king has enough cows. According to Forbes magazine, Mswati III is included in the list of the 15 richest monarchs in the world with a net worth of more than $100 million.
Let's start with the fact that in reality there is no Swaziland anymore. This spring, King Mswati renamed the country the Kingdom of Eswatini, a name used before Britain colonized the state.
The king thought that Swaziland was a funny word, and that the country was often confused with Switzerland (Switzerland is spelled Switzerland in English, and the African state is Swaziland).
Swaziland (a tiny state between South Africa and Mozambique) ceased to be a British colony in 1968, during the reign of King Sobhuza II. He ruled the country for 82 years, ascending the throne at 4 months. Sobhuza remains the longest reigning monarch in the world.
King Sobhuza and cabaret star Eartha Kitt
The country, although small, is quite rich, with a lot of resources and minerals. But, of course, not everyone enjoys the benefits of the earth.
Freed from British control, Sobhuza dissolved parliament and rewrote the constitution, restoring tribal customs and becoming an absolute monarch. The king had 70 wives and about 210 children (no one has done an exact count). He was succeeded by his second son, Makhosetiwe, who ascended the throne in 1986 and named himself King Mswati III.
Mswati III at the celebration
It is worth noting that the new king is a smart and very progressive person: he received his education in Great Britain. But if during the time of his father the kingdom still somehow flourished, then with the new monarch the population plunged into poverty, and life expectancy decreased from 61 years to 32 years (of course, half of the country’s inhabitants have HIV).
In order to somehow combat the spread of the disease, Mswati introduced a “chastity” law, prohibiting girls from losing their virginity before the age of 21. Otherwise, the fine is a cow or $150.
By the way, according to the new law, the king’s eighth wife was a minor, and therefore he himself had to pay a fine.
The king with one of his wives at a meeting with the Obamas
The king's family does not limit itself in any way, having full control over the country's budget and spending it on its own needs. At the same time, an ordinary poor person from Swaziland (more than 60% of the poor in the country) lives on 1-2 dollars a day.
Queens of Swaziland
Mswati doesn't really care about spending money on schools and hospitals, but he regularly does newfangled decorations for the palace, his wives buy handbags worth the amount that an average Swazilander spends in 6 years of his life, and his children get the latest gadgets and nothing than they do not deny themselves.
On the left is the king's servant, a teenager with a pistol. On the right is one of the queens at dinner, with an expensive handbag in the background
On the left is another renovation in the palace. On the right are the king’s children in the VIP lounge at the airport (the cost of staying in it is 150 thousand rubles)
King Mswati III has 14 wives (according to some sources, there are already 15 girls) and 25 children. He divorced two wives because they dared to cheat on him, and another committed suicide, plunging into the abyss of depression.
The monarch is not limited in the number of wives, but the first two must be chosen by the royal council, and the second wife must be from the Motsa clan.
Wives from the council. Left - second, right - first
On the left is the third wife. On the right is the fourth, a law graduate and patron of the Swaziland Hospice at Home
The fifth wife was sent into exile in 2004 for being convicted of adultery. The sixth committed suicide. The Queen suffered from prolonged depression, tried to find herself in painting and regularly underwent plastic surgery. The final straw was the king's ban on attending her sister's funeral. The girl could not cope with the emotions that overwhelmed her.
Fifth wife, second from right in front row
Sixth wife
Seventh wife
Eighth wife, far right. The one for which the king had to pay a fine
Tenth wife. She claimed that she was kidnapped by the king's assistants and forced into marriage
Eleventh wife
The twelfth wife, cheated on the king with the Minister of Justice. The monarch divorced her, and each of the lovers paid a fine - a herd of cows
Mswati and his thirteenth wife - chosen, like many others, at the Festival of Reeds
The fourteenth wife, again from the festival of virgins. According to some reports, she is actually Mswati's 15th wife
If we return to Mswati's government activities, he once introduced a law prohibiting making love under water (punishment - a year in prison). He also forbade women from wearing trousers and shaking hands. He also forbade citizens from showing their bottoms to the king (according to tradition, this is done as a sign of dissatisfaction with the king’s policies).
However, the law prohibiting the display of soft spots was soon repealed due to the monarch's favorite event - the Feast of the Reed. During this action, tens of thousands of bare-breasted virgins, covered only with leaves, dance around his throne. This is how Mswati chooses her next wife.
And this is what this bacchanalia looks like.
Girls love this holiday very much and come from all over the country, because all participants are fed for free for a whole week at the expense of the treasury.
Each girl cuts a few reeds and brings them to the king - they are then used to build a fence, which is broken at the next holiday and a new one is built again.
The country's population is categorically dissatisfied with the monarch's political course and living conditions. The opposition regularly sets fire to government buildings and plants bombs along the route of the royal motorcade.
The government responds to this only with mass arrests. But in 2005, Mswati finally decided to meet his people halfway and adopted the long-awaited constitution. However, life did not get better after this; all innovations actually exist only on paper.
