Swaziland King Takes 19-Year-Old Virgin As 14th wife

King Mswati III of the Kingdom of Swaziland. Photo: AP

Culture: The Reed Dance ceremony, pictured, is known as Umhlanga and sees thousands of Swaziland's 'prettiest virgins' dance topless for King Mswati III, every August, hoping to be his next wife.

Tens of thousands of topless Swazi girls danced before King Mswati on Monday in the annual Reed Dance, and a newspaper owned by the royal conglomerate used the occasion to announce that the king had wed his 14th wife, who he had selected from among the maidens at last year’s reed dance.

The new queen was seated among some of Mswati’s other wives. By wearing traditional attire reserved for royal wives, she signalled a wedding ceremony had taken place.

The palace announced that more than 80 000 had danced, but observers said the number was probably less than half that.

Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini, who was in the country for the weekend, and expected to attend the Reed Dance, had suggested that schools in KwaZulu/Natal be closed to maximise participation at the Zulu Reed Dance.

In Swaziland, all schools were closed for the dance, and the day was declared a national holiday.

Topless, the girls wore little more than beaded belts that concealed their frontal private parts but left their buttocks exposed.

Strict enforcement of photography was observed and one photographer who tried to take pictures from a low angle to show the girls’ frontal nakedness was ejected from the ceremony.

While no speeches were made at Ludzdidzini royal residence, 20km east of Mbabane, both King Mswati and King Zwelithini had given speeches at the weekend at a trade fair in Manzini.  

Media in Swaziland predictably reported the event as if it were quite natural for a middle-aged man to wed a ‘virgin’ who was younger than many of his daughters.

But outside the kingdom, which King Mswati rules as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, the media have been more candid.

They reported Dlamini as the king’s 14th bride, although some counted her as wife number 15. The confusion was excusable since the number of wives the king has is considered a state secret in Swaziland and it is considered ‘un-Swazi’ to talk openly about King Mswati’s polygamy.

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The media in Swaziland never report about the King without his permission. This means people across the world are better informed than the King’s subjects, the Swazi people. Most media in the kingdom are under direct state control, opposition political parties are banned as ‘terrorist’ organisations and any political dissent is quickly crushed by police and the army.