In this extract
from an article published by the Daily Maverick, J BROOKS SPECTOR reminisces about King Mswati III and how he and
others guided the education of the young king – from economics, to the latest
American dance crazes.
Swaziland, a
kingdom desperately needing to enter 21st century
When the king and the country were both in their twenties
(he was born in 1968, the year the nation ended its colonial status) it was
easy to imagine Mswati would follow in his father’s low-key
development-orientated ethos. This approach also aimed to protect the
traditions of the nation – its Reed Dance and Incwala festivals, the tribal
fabric that governed everyday life and its general obeisance to old values. The
occasional cynic would sometimes mutter that a wily King Sobhuza had carefully
parsed the work of anthropologist Hilda Kuper and consciously modelled his
reign on the ancient traditions she wrote about - even as they were already
dead or dying out in the 1930s and 40s - as a way of building a new
national and anti-colonial imagination in Sobhuza’s kingdom. While Mswati was
better educated than most of his siblings, with that period at his British
boarding school, he still had a rather limited acquaintance with the ideas of
contemporary governance. Eventually, we discovered that a small group of local
high school teachers and instructors from the university were quietly tutoring
the king in the modern niceties of government, economics, law and literature.
Eventually we were asked if we could somehow assist. We
brought in an early version of the Sim City computerised economic modelling
software to give him a chance to experiment with what happens when you tax or
regulate a country too much (the most entrepreneurial inhabitants emigrate
elsewhere). We ordered an airmailed subscription to a newspaper and couriered
it to him as quick, easy reading on the week’s international news. When we
received the occasional high-level visitor, or even a mid-level one, we often
videotaped a guided conversation with the person on whatever topic they specialised
in and delivered it to him as well. When the king let it be known that he was
interested in America’s newest dance styles, we ordered videos on them too. And
we even had Ronald Reagan offer a videotaped speech of congratulations to the
king and country on their concurrent 20th birthdays as a special gift to the
nation. It played on local TV for days.
The king would occasionally send a royal runner to seek
us out at home in the evenings and “ask” us to drop by for a chat, perhaps to
ask for videos on a new topic that had piqued his interest. Eventually we even
obtained a jersey autographed by one of his favourite American musicians and,
in return, a set of springbok hide-covered cushions arrived at my home one day
as an anonymous “thank you”.
Looking back, however, it seems clear the lessons of Sim
City wore off – or perhaps never really took hold deeply enough. As the king
added new wife after new wife and royal residence upon residence, maybe the
more traditional side of his upbringing – abetted by those in the royal circle
whose privileges were most threatened by change - overtook a broader interest
in the development of the nation as a whole.
The new king maintained the ban on political parties that
had been instituted by his father in 1973 to keep anti-monarchist political
behaviour in check, but that also restricted media freedom and union organising
activity. Add to that the relative collapse of manufacturing in Swaziland after
South Africa rejoined the world economy, shrinking aid budgets, the pressure of
dealing with the country’s HIV/Aids epidemic, the economic stresses of the
country’s rapidly growing population and the roots of Swaziland’s current
tensions come into sharper focus.
To read the full article entitled Swaziland, a kingdom
desperately needing to enter 21st century, click here
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