BRITISH PM MEETS KING ran the headline in the Swazi Observer. What it meant, of course, was KING MEETS BRITISH PM, which isn’t quite the same thing.
King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, was in Britain, begging bowl in hand, to try to drum up some trade. He won’t get too far because the British aren’t interested in setting up sweatshop textile factories and there is no wealth in Swaziland worth talking about, so there’s no one with money to buy things. Seven in ten Swazi people live in abject poverty and most of the rest are still pretty poor.
While the king was in Britain he went to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, where his son Prince Lindani passed out as an officer cadet. We don’t hear much about Prince Lindani. Unlike his sister Princess Sikhanyisowho graduated from university in America this year, Prince Lindani didn’t get the grades to go to college.
So, as is traditional among ‘upper class’ families, if your son is too dim to go to university, you send him to the army. If he’s really dumb he goes into the Church.
Passing out with Prince Lindani were the offspring of rulers in Yemen and Bahrain, both states with poor human rights records. It does Britain no credit to train up military for countries that oppress their populations.
I don’t know if on his trip to Britain, King Mswati popped into the Department for International Development. It is undertaking a thorough review of its international aid spending and in future will only give money to countries that can demonstrate it will be well used and where it won’t go to line the pockets of corrupt leaders.
A visit would have been an eye opener for the king and his subjects, for they would learn how little regard there is for him in Britain.
The Princess, aged 21, who is allegedly studying at the Biola University in Los Angeles, California, USA, spends most of her time trying to forge a career as a rap star under the name Princess Pashu.
Now, to add to the various online networks she already has, an ‘official’ website has been opened up. This one plays down her musical ambitions and highlights her life as a member of the Swazi Royal Family.
And what a family. According to the website, King Mswati has 23 children in total, the princess has over 200 aunts and uncles, not including their own spouses as the late King Sobhuza IIhad 102 wives and over 400 children. That’s a lot of mouths for the Swazi people to feed.
The website says that King Mswati has 12 wives, but most observers think he has at least 13. Nobody can be sure because the number of wives the king has is information that the Swazi people are not allowed to know.
The website is meant to show just how much the princess loves Swaziland and all the hard work she puts in for her people. The effect is somewhat undermined on the page devoted to her forthcoming planned events. The most recent - presenting books to students at Lasi High School – was scheduled for 24 July 2008. So she’s not entirely rushed off her feet then.
One of the most striking features of the website is its gaudy attempt to glamorise the Princess through the use of doctored photographs. She is described as a ‘model’ who ‘maintains a respectable yet flexible range of poses’.
I don’t know who set up the website, but it states that she owns the copyright to all the material on it (even though much of it, such as reports from Swazi newspapers about her, was not written by her).
There have been suspicions for some time that she has a public relations firm working for her (her father has at least two working for him), so maybe this is part of an image building exercise. Let’s face it she needs to work hard to dispel the belief that she parties while Swazis starve.
Inkhosikati LaDube , the wife of King Mswati III, has just had her 21st birthday.
Of course, when I saw ‘the wife’ I mean ‘one of the wives’. The King is thought to have 13 wives, but nobody can be sure because this is information that the Swazi people are not allowed to have.
According to the Times Sunday(15 February 2009), LaDube spent a quiet birthday at the Esibayeni Lodge motel with family and friends. The newspaper doesn’t say whether the King was present.
As those of us who sat through the 40/40 celebrationslast year know, King Mswati III is 40 years old. He has a daughter Princess Sikhanyisowho is older than this wife.
King Mswati married LaDube after she came in the top three of the Miss Teen Swaziland competition in 2004. By my reckoning that made her about 16 years old at the time. Since marriage she has given birth to two children for the king.
LaDube told the Times Sunday, ‘I have no problem with the fact that I didn’t get to enjoy most of my teenage years, but getting married has made me more mature and proud.’
Not all teenagers feel the same. In October 2008, the Sowetan newspaper reported that a 19-year-old woman fled from Mbabane to South Africa after King Mswati spotted her at a Reed Dance and wanted her as a bride.
The Times Sunday quoted LaDube saying, ‘I decided to just have a small thing with my family and friends because this one [birthday] is more meaningful. And just like all 21-year-olds, I feel good.’
I’m not quite sure which other 21-year-olds she meant. In Swaziland 70 percent of the population of one million people live in abject poverty, earning less than one US dollar a day; last year 600,000 needed some form of international food aid to keep from starving and roughly one in three adults in their twenties are HIV-positive. Not much to celebrate there.
Princess Sikhanyiso of Swaziland is trying to forge a career in acting, modelling and rap music.
To this end she has set up a website where – for a fee – people can download her latest recordings.
The princess, aged 21, who likes to be called Pashu, is the eldest daughter of King Mswati III and in the past she has courted controversy for her extravagant lifestyle and ‘rebel’ qualities.
According to her profile on the reverbnation website, ‘Pashu is a talented Swazi rapper who also happens to be a princess.´
It goes on, ‘She is often called a rebel, but nowhere will you find such a patriot.’
I don’t know if Pashu wrote the profile herself or if it was written on her behalf, but until she tells me otherwise I must assume that she agrees with what her profile says.
Her comments about Swaziland will almost certainly cause offence to many of her father’s subjects.
It includes a long critique of the documentary Without The King, in which she featured prominently. The documentary contrasted the lives of the Swazi Royal Family and ordinary people in the kingdom. About 70 percent of the one million population live in abject poverty earning less than one US dollar a day, while King Mswati III has a wealth estimated at 200 million US dollars (about E1.4 billion).
Swaziland has the highest rate of HIV infection in the world and last year 600,000 people relied on international food aid to fend off starvation.
On the reverbnation website, she says Without The King was ‘sponsored by self-dubbed “progressives” in alliance with murderous South African regressives, they sought to create a political instability in the Kingdom.’
She also says, ‘Between late August and early September 2008, because the king’s wives went on an announced trip to Asia before the 40/40 Celebrationsmarking 40 years of Independence and the King’s Birthday, the opportunists manipulated the Swazis into tolerating their marches [protesting at the celebration]
‘This time; however, criminals from South Africa came in several buses into Swaziland, bringing in bombs and rifles and a hostile spirit that evoked them the passion to physically harm innocent Swazi citizens who chose to abstain from the strike and attempt to work in peace.’
She concludes, ‘Despite zealous efforts of the progressives - through huge sponsorship of media houses - to disdain the monarch for the shortcomings of the Swazi government, the Swazi people remain in love and with increased allegiance for the King, as they see his love for them.’
Meanwhile, there is evidence that the princess may have hired a public relations firm to improve her image. (Her father already has at least two PR firms working for him.)
An Australian website called All News Web, published a report about her rapping career. The website included a professionally taken (and doctored) glamour photograph of the princess. The same photograph also appears on the reverbnation website.
In its report All News Web says of the princess, ‘She is beautiful, talented, intelligent and has carved a successful career for herself in music.’
It goes on, ‘She has become well known in her field and her deep rhythmic voice in demand. She has recorded with some of America’s top rap artists.’
According to the website, ‘Associates of the princess claim that all this frantic activity is not about herself. “She wants to be in a position to make changes, to do something to help the poorer people within her nation, this is what motivates her”, notes one Swazi associate. Indeed Pashu spends much of her time visiting orphanages in her AIDS ravaged homeland. “The children are what drives the princess: to see them live better lives.”
‘What about democracy? “Pashu is so loyal to her father and loves him dearly; she would never challenge his authority despite her rebellious image.” The associate noted “But with the Princess anything is possible, she is such a powerful and strong young woman, who knows what she will achieve in the future. She is not just physically beautiful, she has a beautiful soul”’.
Now some kind soul has shared with us a short film that Forbes made about the girl who claims she is ‘an ambassador for Africa’.
In an interview published on the Internet site YouTube, she says she is a rebel because she pursues what she wants against all the odds.
She says she is completely honest about who she is. She is one of the king’s 22 children.
Close followers of the princess will be delighted to know that she entertains the television viewers with one of her raps. She also talks in some detail about her love of clothes and her 3,600 dollar boots. [Reality check: in Swaziland 70 per cent of the population live in abject poverty earning less than one dollar a day.]
Princess Sikhanyiso concludes, ‘The best thing about being royal is getting anything you want.’
The princess may come to regret her television appearance if the comments left by viewers to YouTube are anything to go by. As one contributor puts it, ‘one day she will look back on this with great shame and regret ... however, unlike the rest of us - her period of stupidity and ignorance is being documented and broadcast to the entire world’.
