AFRICAN EYE NEWS SERVICE, Mbabane | Friday
DISGRUNTLED subjects in eastern Swaziland are boycotting this weekend’s Umhlanga Reed Dance, an annual pageant at which the king picks a new bride, in protest against a chieftaincy row that may see them being evicted from their ancestral land.
Residents of Macetjeni, near the Mozambican border, resolved during a community meeting last weekend that sending their daughters to the ceremony would be an effective endorsement of a system that has deposed their chiefs and wants to evict them.
The Reed Dance is scheduled to be held at a royal residence in Lobamba, outside Mbabane.
Thousands of maidens have already left for ‘the cutting of the reed’, a ceremony during which they collect wild reeds to construct the enclosures in which the dance is held.
The Reed Dance is one of Swaziland’s main tourist attractions and is also one of the key cultural elements behind the monarchy’s enduring relevance.
The dance sees a bevy of bare-breasted maidens dancing for the king, who is expected to pick a new bride from among them.
However, traditionalists say King Mswati III, who officially wed a seventh wife early this month, may choose not to pick another bride at this year’s dance.
The 32-year-old king picked his latest wife, 18-year-old Senteni Masongo, at last year’s Reed Dance.
The decision by Macetjeni residents to boycott the dance follows a government order directing them and their chiefs to vacate the area for Prince Maguga, a member of the royal family with a claim to the chieftaincies.
The eviction order, signed by home affairs minister Prince Sobandla, directs subjects of chiefs Mliba Fakudze and Mtftuso Dlamini to leave the area by September 5. Both princes are brothers of King Mswati III.