Swaziland In the Kingdom of Fire Eyes

When King Sobhuza II of Swaziland died in 1982 after 61 years on the throne, the people of that tiny southern African kingdom lamented, Umntfwana sowuphumulile: the child has gone to rest. Now the slogan of the day in Swaziland (pop. 800,000) is a much more cheerful Umntfwana sowukhulile: the child has grown into a man.

The object of that acclaim is Sobhuza’s strong-willed son and successor, Mswati III, at 19 the world’s youngest reigning monarch. Five years after his father’s death, Mswati has finally shown that he can use his full regal powers with a vengeance. So far this year he has arrested a dozen high Swazi officials, including five members of the royal family, on suspicion of sedition and treason. Says a Swazi journalist in Mbabane, the capital: “Mswati is clearly angry at the intrigue that took place following his father’s death and is determined to put things right.”

Some of that intrigue almost seems inspired by the early reign of Louis XIV of France. Mswati, formerly known as Prince Makhosetive, officially took the throne in April of last year. For the four previous years, Swaziland had been ruled by a regent, initially Queen Dzeliwe, one of Sobhuza’s 50 or more wives, though not the mother of the current King. In 1983 Prince Mfanasibili, a powerful member of the Liqoqo, or royal advisory council, masterminded Dzeliwe’s ouster and replaced her with Ntombi, mother of the young King-to-be. Mfanasibili then talked the new Queen regent into allowing him and his coterie to take political control over the Liqoqo and thereby in effect run the country.

Mfanasibili went to bizarre lengths to maintain his position. In 1983, while the youthful Prince Makhosetive was attending a private school in Dorset, England (where he was known to classmates as “Mac”), Mfanasibili charged that several members of the royal house had plotted to assassinate their future King. The weapon of choice, according to Mfanasibili, was a witch doctor, who was sent to England to hunt down the prince and poison him. As a result of Mfanasibili’s charges, several princes loyal to the ousted Queen regent were detained without trial, as were a handful of ranking Swazi officials, including police and army chiefs.

By the time Mswati was installed as King last year, however, Mfanasibili was in deep trouble. His enemies on the Liqoqo had rallied against him, leading to Mfanasibili’s trial and subsequent conviction on charges of framing his political opponents. He was given a seven-year jail sentence. Five months later Mswati, in a spirited gesture of independence, fired his Prime Minister and cousin, Bhekimpi Dlamini, before a crowd of thousands, and then appointed a former personal bodyguard to the job. Finally, in May the King ordered the arrest and detention of Bhekimpi and eleven others, including five princes and princesses, a Cabinet minister and the former national ombudsman. Trial dates have not been set for any of the detainees.

In the meantime, Mswati has demonstrated that despite his British schooling, Swazi tribal tradition has a strong hold on him. Mswati was one of at least 67 sons of Sobhuza, who had as many as 200 children — the exact number is a royal secret — and who died at 83 as the world’s oldest reigning monarch (Emperor Hirohito of Japan, at 86, is now the oldest). At last year’s coronation, the chiefs of Swaziland paid a total of 105 cattle to the family of Mswati’s mother Ntombi as a dowry for the woman who was to become the mother of the nation. Before the public ceremony, Mswati underwent secret initiation rites and took part in a series of exhausting ritual dances in full feathered regalia. At the coronation, tribal praise singers endlessly repeated his imposing chain of official titles, which include the Bull, Guardian of the Sacred Shields, the Inexplicable and the Great Mountain.

Like his father, Mswati generally remains aloof from commoners. He exercises his power largely through private audiences given at Elusaseni, the royal capital, a traditional Swazi village of thatched huts about 15 miles from Mbabane. Flanked by advisers, Mswati listens to local disputes and hands out royal counsel on property questions and other matters. He appears in public only on such national holidays as his birthday, April 19, and to receive state visitors. Britain’s Prince Charles dropped by for a chat in March.

The most sensitive foreign responsibility that the young King inherited is landlocked Swaziland’s relationship with its powerful neighbor, South Africa. The economies of the two countries are closely linked, as are their respective police and intelligence agencies. With a gross national product of $65 billion, in contrast to Swaziland’s $490 million, South Africa is the smaller country’s principal trading partner and its sole supplier of oil, gasoline, electricity and most consumer goods. In exchange for South African economic cooperation, Swaziland has closely policed the activities of antiapartheid African National Congress militants within its borders. A few weeks ago Mswati met at the royal residence with South Africa’s Foreign Minister Roelof (“Pik”) Botha, who had been a close friend of the King’s father, to discuss a continuation of those ties.

When the late King Sobhuza was angry, his subjects used to say, “The lion is aroused.” According to royal aides, Mswati likewise displays a natural imperiousness. Several advisers who have seen the young King in high dudgeon have given him the sobriquet “Fire Eyes.” Like his father, Mswati is clearly determined to have a king-size family. He has three wives already, and at this week’s annual reed-dance ceremony, in which Swazi maidens take part in a topless parade, he may be induced to choose a fourth.

Mswati is adamant about protecting the sanctity of Swazi tribal rituals. Three months ago the young King arrested the British leader of a fundamentalist Christian movement, the South African-based Rhema Gospel Church, and has kept him locked up ever since. The proselytizing foreigner, who is expected to appear in court this month, faces charges of sedition for daring to suggest that certain Swazi traditions, such as the reed-dance ceremony, might be “ungodly and immoral.” As the people of Swaziland are learning, Fire Eyes does not take lightly any kind of disrespect.