Children attending Swaziland’s Reed Dance next week are
to be ordered to sing a song vilifying political parties as part of a clampdown
on dissent in the kingdom, where King Mswati III rules as sub-Saharan Africa’s
last absolute monarch.
This is believed to be the first time that maidens in the
Reed Dance have been used in this way.
The Reed Dance is usually described as one of Swaziland’s
main cultural events at which ‘maidens’ dance (often semi-naked) before the
king. In past years as many as 100,000 maidens, many as young as nine-years-old,
have taken part in the dance. King Mwsati, who has 13 wives, has been known to
use the event to choose himself an additional bride.
This year the maidens are being taught a song to sing at
the dance which says political parties ‘set people against each other’ and
claims that with parties the king’s people ‘could start fighting each other’.
Political parties are banned in Swaziland, but ahead of
next year’s national election there is increasing pressure from pro-democrats
for this to change. Some traditional authorities also believe that support for
the present system that puts them in control is on the wane. In Swaziland pro-democracy
demonstrations have been attacked by police and state security forces.
About 500 maidens were chosen from all 350 chiefdoms in
Swaziland to attend rehearsals at Ludzidzini Royal Residence and the Correctional
Services Institution in Matsapha to learn the song. They have been ordered to
return to their homes and teach the words to other girls in their chiefdoms.
The Times Sunday, one of the few media voices in Swaziland independent of
the king’s control, reported the song was composed by traditional authorities
solely to be sung before the king the Reed Dance ceremony on Monday (3
September 2012).
The newspaper reported that traditional authorities believed
that in South Africa during the apartheid period the youth drove the struggle
in that country’s politics and therefore the youth in Swaziland should be made
to push the agenda against political parties.
Lobayeni Dlamini, who worked with the maidens on the song
told the Times, there were fewer
people who stood up to defend the present political system in Swaziland and
therefore there was a strong need to send a message.
Nothando Ntshangase, a notably traditionalist with strong
links to the Reed Dance, said, ‘Those who are still not conversant with the
lyrics are being taught by the ones already inducted in the song. During the
main day of the reed dance, all the maidens are expected to showcase their
talent in song before Their Majesties.’
The Swaziland Solidarity Network, a pro-democracy group
banned in Swaziland, said the song proved ‘Swazi children are being brainwashed’.
It said it was ‘shocking as it exposes the blatant abuse of innocent children
to further political ends’.
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