I thought you might be interested to learn a little about the Swazi culture and Swaziland itself. It is a very peaceful little country just to the east of South Africa. It has a population of about 1.2 million people in the whole country. London has around 6 million people just to put it in context! Traditionally, Swazis live in vilages in small huts made of woven sticks with thatched rooves. The huts are round and are all hand woven; It must take ages! The men, women and children all live separately in different parts of the vilage. Swazi culture means that the men are allowed multiple wives. It is custom for a man to ask a girl’s family permission to marry her and to pay them either in money or cows for her. When they say yes, he must first see if she is able to have children, as this, in their culture, is how a woman should be. So she has children before they marry. Each time she has a child outside of marriage, the man must pay and appologise to her family. It is usual that a woman will have 2 or more children before she marries. But while the man is “dating” this girl, he will also most likely be doing the same with other girls as well.

The king of Swaziland currently has 14 wives and around 28 children. Each year there is a huge national ceromony where all the maidens come to dance for him and he chooses a new wife. The maidens wear barely anything and the festival goes on for days. They must camp out, sleeping rough, wear no shoes and go and collect a certain type of reeds for the king. The final day of the festival is when they all dance for the king.