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Swaziland |
HUMAN RIGHTS
Women in Swaziland are still denied many of their rights.
Swazi traditional law and custom have a privileged positionThat a king should rise from his throne to mingle and dance with young girls in their teens or early twenty’s, is not always strange behaviour. Rather, it could be construed as the correct way of doing things by someone who upholds culture. When such a king is the 35-year-old King Mswati III of Swaziland, this king is taking the opportunity to choose his next wife who will join the horde of wives residing at his royal kraal. King Mswati III is sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.
King Mswati now has twelve wives and is known to choose girls to become his wives, during the cultural dance known as the Reed Dance. The dance is one of the popular cultural traditions of Swaziland where young girls dance before the king. In the past, the ceremony was intended to honour the king’s mother. Girls cut reeds to deliver to her for the rebuilding of the royal residence. However of late, the dance has become an opportunity for the king to choose a new wife from among the young girls, most of whom are still at school.
A controversy ensued last year when the king’s guards were accused of having abducted a schoolgirl from the schoolyard to become King Mswati’s 10th wife. He’d spotted her at the Reed Dance. The girls’s mother filed a lawsuit, only to drop it later after realizing that she wouldn’t get anywhere with her court case. Initially, the girl’s mother had accused the royal family of shattering her daughter’s dreams of pursuing further studies in South Africa, by forcing her to marry the king.
The king can’t be turned down
Traditionally, no girl is supposed to turn down the king’s marriage proposal. The Media is now reporting that King Mswati has just married his twelfth wife, a participant in this year’s Miss Swaziland beauty contest. While the beauty contest was taking place, the runner-up to Miss Swaziland told the Media that she does not believe in polygamy — which meant she could not marry the king. Yet a few days later she became the king’s twelfth wife.
The Voice of America recently reported that critics of the tradition say an increasing number of girls, especially from the cities, are shunning the Reed Dance. Yet some girls, mainly those from poor families yearn to take part, hoping desperately that the king will spot them.
It’s reported that a record number of 50,000 young women took part in this year’s Reed Dance. But this has not gone down well with donors, and those involved in the fight against AIDS view what takes place at the Dance as sending wrong messages to the fight against AIDS. They say the king should stop his practice.
Mswati III is also spending enormous sums of money on his wives, as most of them live in luxurious houses and are chauffeur-driven in luxurious cars, and this at a time when most of his subjects are living in poverty.
Swaziland’s women are second class citizens. They’re not permitted to own property or enter into contracts or get loans from banks. Swazi electoral law bars widows from standing in elections if two years have not elapsed from the death of their husband. Women are not allowed to visit the royal family if they are widowed, for fear of sending bad tidings to the royal family. The most humiliating thing is, they are not allowed to cross the path of a cow they meet on a road until a compulsory two-year mourning period is over. During this period they are supposed to be dressed in black.
The Constitution
The king is expected to approve the Constitution by November this year, which human rights activists say will remedy some of these cumbersome cultural beliefs placing women as second-class citizens. Provisions in the draft constitution will give girls a chance to choose whom they wish to marry; will enable women to own property; will permit women to take out bank loans and run businesses other than hair salons (as is the present case).
However, signs indicate there is a long battle ahead. King Mswati’s brother, Prince David Dlamini, who is writing the new constitution, says there is no room in the Constitution for discrimination against women, but adds that none of its provisions will be allowed to stand if they are in conflict with Swazi law and custom. Also, male traditionalists have indicated that they will challenge any clause threatening the customary position of men being the head of a Swazi household. The traditionalists will win because the Swazi authorities have already stated that where statutory law is in conflict with customary law, the latter wins. However, all the signs are that Swazi’s up-and-coming womenfolk will not take this lying down and are prepared to fight for their rights.
- Frank Jomo, Malawi, September 2003 — © Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgment