New film shows dark
side of Swaziland, but also light at the end of the tunnel
Kenworthy News Media, November 13, 2013
The newly released film “The King and the People”, directed
by Zimmedia owner Simon
Bright, gives an historic insight into the tiny absolute kingdom of Swaziland,
and it shows the brutal nature of the regime that runs the country, as well as
the pervasive corruption, lack of media and other freedoms, poverty and
inequality, writes Kenworthy
News Media.
But the film also shows the growing hope of a more
democratic and equal society that is epitomized by the country’s democratic
movement, unions and civil society.
Absolute monarch King Mswati III of Swaziland, a personal
trustee of a national fund of ten billion dollars who has a personal fortune of
100 million dollars, is one of the richest leaders in Africa but rules a
country where two thirds of the population survive on less than a dollar a day,
many on food aid.
“You want to feed your family, but you can’t – there’s no
money and no jobs,” as a woman in Swaziland’s rural areas says in the film.
“These gross inequalities are the result of a political
system in crisis,” the film concludes – a political system where political
parties are banned and manifestations of opposition to the regime brutally
repressed, where farmers can be evicted without compensation on the whim of the
king, and where few outside the royal family and their supporters benefit from
Swaziland’s agricultural and mineral wealth.
Historically, however, many Swazis have been reluctant to
openly oppose the monarchy. “We have been born out of a society that encourages
you not to challenge, not to question, keep quit, don’t be problematic. Then
you will survive” as Swaziland United Democratic Front Coordinator Wandile
Dludlu says in the film. “At the hands of an oppressor the best weapon is the
mind of the oppressed.”
But there is a sense of change driven by the growing desire
for a democratic form of government, the film says. Demonstrations and strikes
continue and calls for democracy and socio-economic justice are driven by trade
unions, progressive political parties and civil society. People everywhere are
demanding change.
“People are now willing to speak out. People are talking
about the system of governance, of this year’s elections and the need to open
up for a multi-party dispensation and the activeness of political parties,”
says Lomcebo Dlamini from the Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic
Organisations.
The film will premiere in Denmark (having already premiered
in several other countries) on November 17 at Africa Contact’s offices in
Copenhagen, where PUDEMO President Mario Masuku will speak about the political
situation in Swaziland. Read more here (in Danish) or here (English Google translation).
