This post discusses the political history of Eswatini from the early history to the colonial period, independence and the politics.
EARLY HISTORY
The earliest known inhabitants of the region were Khoisan hunter-gatherers. They were largely replaced by the kashian hunter tribe during Bantu migrations who hailed from the Great Lakes regions of eastern and central Africa. Evidence of agriculture and iron use dates from about the 4th century and people speaking languages ancestral to current Sotho and Nguni languages began settling no later than the 11th century. The Swazi settlers, then known as the Ngwane (or bakaNgwane), before entering Swaziland had been settled on the banks of the Pongola River and prior to that in the area of the Tembe River near present-day Maputo. Dlamini III was a king or iNgwenyama of the Swazi people and he led them approximately between 1720 until 1744. Working with his senior adviser Chief Gadlela Mbokane.
Read: POLITICAL HISTORY OF BURKINA FASO
King Dlamini III was the father to Ngwane III the first King of modern Swaziland. Continuing conflict with the Ndwandwe people pushed them further north, with Ngwane III establishing his capital at Shiselweni at the foot of the Mhlosheni hills. Under Sobhuza I, the Ngwane people eventually established their capital at Zombodze in the heartland of present-day Swaziland. In this process, they conquered and incorporated the long-established clans of the country known to the Swazi as Emakhandzambili.
The early Swazis (bemdzabuko) lived around the present-day Tembe River near Maputo, Mozambique.Dlamini I was able to increase his followers by conquering many clans along the Lubombo after departure from Tembe.
As part of the Nguni expansion southwards, the Swazis crossed the Limpopo River and settled in southern Tongaland (today in southern Mozambique near Maputo) in the late fifteenth century. The Ngwane people are recorded as having entered the present territory of Swaziland around the year 1600.
EMERGENCE OF THE SWAZI NATION (1740S–1868)
This was a turbulent period in the history of southeastern Africa, when a number of major clan groupings were struggling for supremacy. Two of these, the Ndwandwe and the Zulu, located to the south of the new Ngwane homeland, constituted a serious threat to the Dlamini, who strove to establish their control over the clans among whom they had settled. Nevertheless, by the end of the century, they had achieved considerable success in assimilating some of these clans and in forging bonds with others to create a new political grouping. However, this new power base was not strong enough to ward off aggression by their southern neighbors, so about 1820 under their new king—Sobhuza I, or Somhlohlo (“The Wonder”)—they moved northward to establish a safer heartland in central Eswatini (the Middleveld). There the Dlamini consolidated their power under Sobhuza I and his son Mswati II. Part of this success must be attributed to Sobhuza’s adoption of the Zulu age-group system of military organization, which created regiments across clan loyalties and which was at all times strictly disciplined. By 1860 they had extended their power through conquest and assimilation far beyond the boundaries of present-day Eswatini under Mswati II, whom later generations described as “their greatest fighting king” and who gave his name to the nation.
SETTLEMENTS AND CONCESSIONAIRES (1868–1899)
The autonomy of the Ema Swati was influenced by British and Dutch rule of Southern Africa in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1881 the British government signed a convention recognizing Swazi independence. However, in 1894, a convention placed Swaziland under the South African Republic as a protectorate.
Swazi contact with European peoples began when Dutch Trekboers reached the western hinterland of Swaziland in the 1840s. By 1845 about 300 Boer families had settled in Ohristad with more families in Lydenburg. Two deeds of sale dated 1846 and 1855 indicate the sale of Swazi territory to the Dutch republics for a sum of 170 cattle. These deeds at face value seemed to surrender the whole of the Swazi territory to the Dutch.[6] Following the death of King Mswati II in 1865, a period of regency followed with Queen Regent Tsandzile Ndwandwe until 1875. The South African Republic in 1868 attempted to annex Swaziland by a proclamation. Mbandzeni, following the death of his half-brother, the crown prince Ludvonga in 1872, was chosen by inkhosikati LaMgadlela Khumalo as her adopted son and hence a crown prince. However threats existed from prince Mbilini who had married one of Ntengu Mbokane’s daughters, and Mbandzeni’s half-brother and one of the sons of Mswati who was a pretender to the throne and allied with the Zulu King Cetshwayo. However, he never became successful. The British prevented any attacks from Cetshwayo, who had been crowned by Sir Theophilus Shepston in 1873. In addition, the Transvaal Boers wanted to assert their authority over Swaziland by supporting Mbandzeni. Indeed, in Mbandzeni’s coronation Rudolf, the Resident Magistrate of Ladysmith and former landdrost of Utrecht in the company of about 350 burghers and 70 wagons, attended the ceremony the ceremony.
In 1890 a convention between the British government and the South African Republic set up a provisional government consisting of representatives of the two powers and a representative of the Swazi people. In 1893 the British government signed a new convention permitting the South African Republic to negotiate with the Swazi regent and her council for a proclamation allowing the republic to assume powers of jurisdiction, legislation, and administration without the incorporation of Swaziland, as it was then known, into the republic. The Swazi refused to sign the proclamation, but in 1894 another convention was signed by the two powers virtually giving unilateral effect to its terms. After the South African War of 1899–1902 all the rights and powers of the republic passed to Great Britain, and in June 1903, by an order in council under the Foreign Jurisdiction Act, the governor of the Transvaal was empowered to administer Swaziland and to legislate by proclamation. In 1906 these powers were transferred to a high commissioner for Basutoland, Bechuanaland, and Swaziland.
ESWATINI UNDER COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION
The colonial years from 1906 to the late ’40s saw Swaziland drift into a backwater of the British Empire. A fundamental reason was that provision had been made in the South Africa Act of 1909 (which established the Union of South Africa as a British dominion) for the possible eventual transfer of Swaziland (and Basutoland and Bechuanaland) to the union. While this possibility existed, no socioeconomic improvement took place, and it was difficult to distinguish Swaziland from the neighboring rural areas of South Africa (there were no border posts). Politically, the situation was epitomized in the downgrading of the title of king to that of paramount chief and of his function to that of “native administration.” Despite a number of requests from South Africa over the years, however, the imperial power declined to transfer Swaziland.
From 1960 the economy forged ahead steadily, but sociopolitical progress followed more slowly. A constitution providing for limited self-government was promulgated in 1963, and in 1967 the country became a protected state under which the kingship was restored. This was followed by full independence on September 6, 1968.
INDEPENDENT ESWATINI
King Sobhuza II of Swaziland was installed as the ngwenyama of the Swazi nation in 1921. The king cherished and preserved Swazi traditions. Five years after independence, the king repealed the constitution designed by the British and restored the traditional system of government, in which all effective power remains in the royal capital. A system of local government, known as the tinkhundla, operates at the grass roots. Sobhuza’s concession to modern government was to retain the cabinet system with a prime minister and other ministers, but all are chosen by the king. Under his firm but benevolent rule, Swaziland enjoyed a remarkable degree of political stability and economic progress. Emphasis was placed on education—which had been neglected in colonial times—health, and other human resource developments.
King Sobhuza’s death on August 21, 1982, was followed by a power struggle within the royal family, which was not finally resolved until 1986, when the teenage heir, Prince Makhosetive, was installed as King Mswati III. His rule, characterized as autocratic and rife with corruption and excess, was beset with demands for democratic reform. Demonstrations and strikes were held during the 1990s and 2000s to protest the slow pace of progress toward democratic change. To appease his many critics, Mswati appointed a committee to draft a new constitution in 2001. Released for public comment in May 2003, it was criticized for falling short of democratic reform, as it banned opposition political parties and allowed the king to retain absolute governing powers. Mswati signed a revised version in 2005, effective in 2006, that neither banned political parties nor acknowledged their existence.
On April 19, 2018, Mswati announced that he was changing the official name of the country from the Kingdom of Swaziland to the Kingdom of Eswatini.
RECENT HISTORY (1980S AND 1990S)
Mswati III is the present monarch of Swaziland since his coronation in 1986, and rules together with Queen Mother Ntombi Tfwala. In 1986 Sotsha Dlamini was appointed Prime Minister, taking over from Prince Bhekimpi. In 1987, following a premature dissolution of parliament by the king, Swaziland held its third parliamentary election under the tinkhundla traditional system. In 1988 and 1989, an underground political party, the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), criticized the king and his government, calling for ‘democratic reforms’. In response to this political threat and to growing popular calls for greater accountability within government, the king and the prime minister initiated an ongoing national debate on the constitutional and political future of Swaziland. This debate produced a handful of political reforms, approved by the king, including direct and indirect voting, in the 1993 national elections. In this election, voters were registered, the constituencies were increased from 50 to 55 and the election was judged as free and fair.
The constitution for independent Swaziland was promulgated by Britain in November 1963 under the terms of which legislative and executive councils were established. This development was opposed by the Swazi National Council (Liqoqo). Despite such opposition, elections took place and the first Legislative Council of Swaziland was constituted on 9 September 1964. Changes to the original constitution proposed by the Legislative Council were accepted by Britain and a new constitution providing for a House of Assembly and Senate was drawn up. Elections under this constitution were held in 1967. Following the elections of 1973, the constitution of Swaziland was suspended by King Sobhuza II who thereafter ruled the country by decree until his death in 1982. At this point Sobhuza II had ruled Eswatini for 83 years, making him the longest ruling monarch in history. A regency followed his death, with Queen Regent Dzeliwe Shongwe being head of state until 1984 when she was removed by Liqoqo and replaced by Queen Mother Ntombi Twala. Mswati III, the son of Ntombi, was crowned king on 25 April 1986 as King and Ingwenyama of Eswatini. In 2018, during the 50th Independence Day celebration, the king announced the official renaming of the country from the Anglicized Swaziland to its Siswati form Eswatini. Following this, many governmental and non-governmental bodies, corporations and international organizations changed all mention of Swaziland to Eswatini.
On 19 April 2018, King Mswati III announced that the Kingdom of Swaziland had renamed itself the Kingdom of Eswatini to mark the 50th anniversary of Swazi independence. The new name, Eswatini, means “land of the Swazis” in the Swazi language, and was partially intended to prevent confusion with the similarly named Switzerland.
POLITICS OF ESWATINI
Eswatini is an absolute monarchy with constitutional provisions and Swazi law and Custom. The head of state is the king or Ngwenyama (lit. Lion), currently King Mswati III, who ascended to the throne in 1986 after the death of his father King Sobhuza II in 1982 and a period of regency. According to the constitution of Eswatini, the king and Ingwenyama is a symbol of unity and the eternity of the Swazi nation. By tradition, the king reigns along with his mother or a ritual substitute, the Ndlovukati (lit. She-Elephant). The former was viewed as the administrative head of state and the latter as a spiritual and national head of state, with real power counterbalancing that of the king, but during the long reign of Sobhuza II the role of the Ndlovukati became more symbolic. The king appoints the prime minister from the legislature and also appoints a minority of legislators to both chambers of Libandla (parliament), with help from an advisory council. The king is allowed by the constitution to appoint some members to parliament for special interests. These special interests are citizens who might have been left out by the electorate during the course of elections or did not enter as candidates. This is done to balance views in parliament. Special interests could be people of gender, race, disability, business community, civic society, scholars, chiefs and so on. The Senate consists of 30 members, of which some are appointed by the king on recommendation of the advisory council and others elected by the lower house. The House of Assembly has 65 seats, of which 55 are occupied by elected representatives from the 55 constituencies around the country, and 10 are appointed by the king on recommendation of the advisory council. The attorney general is the ex-officio member. Elections are held every five years.