49 Fun Facts About Eswatini

Which anti-apartheid leader's daughters studied at Waterford Kamhlaba, a multiracial school opened in Swaziland in 1963?

Nelson Mandela. His daughters crossed the border to study there while he was in prison; the school had opened to teach black and white pupils side by side, in open defiance of apartheid.

Eswatini's government is described as the last of what kind in Africa?

An absolute monarchy. Voters still elect most of the lower house, but candidates must stand as individuals because political parties are barred from the ballot.

Who became King of Eswatini in 1986?

Mswati III. Named crown prince at 15 while still a schoolboy, he went on studying in England during a regency and was crowned six days after his 18th birthday.

Eswatini is bordered on all sides by South Africa except to the east, where it meets which country?

Mozambique. The border follows the Lebombo ridge, and Eswatini's east-west railway crosses it so that the kingdom's freight can reach the docks at Maputo.

Eswatini has two capitals: Mbabane, the executive capital, and which legislative capital?

Lobamba. Parliament, the national museum and the royal kraal all sit in or beside this small village, while the government ministries work from Mbabane, a short drive away.

Which European power administered Swaziland from the early 1900s until its independence in 1968?

Britain. Its officials long expected to fold the territory into South Africa, and independence was not seriously considered until the 1960s, after the Swazi royal house had resisted being absorbed.

King Sobhuza II of Swaziland holds what world record?

Longest verifiable reign of any monarch: he inherited the throne at four months old in 1899 and kept it until his death in 1982, a span of more than 82 years.

Who was chosen to succeed Swaziland's King Sobhuza II?

A young son. The royal council made the choice after the old king died in 1982, and the teenage prince it picked stayed at school while a regent ruled in his place.

Eswatini and the Swazi people take their name from which 19th-century king?

Mswati II. His regiments raided far to the north and drew many conquered peoples into one enlarged nation, which outsiders then came to call by his name.

The annual Umhlanga ceremony held in late August or early September is better known in English as what?

The Reed Dance. Up to 40,000 unmarried girls cut tall reeds and carry them to the royal residence, officially to mend its windbreak, before dancing for the royal family.

Often called the 'first fruits' festival, Eswatini's Incwala is more accurately translated as what?

Kingship Ceremony. Tasting the season's first fruits is only one part of a long rite of cleansing and renewal built around the king, and much of it is kept secret from outsiders.

In Eswatini, the Ndlovukati traditionally reigns alongside the king; who is she?

The Queen Mother. Her title means 'She-Elephant', and tradition casts her as a counterweight to the throne: she is the nation's spiritual head and rules as regent when there is no king.

Eswatini's currency, the lilangeni, is pegged one-to-one to which currency?

South African rand. Rand notes are accepted across Eswatini alongside the lilangeni, and the one-to-one peg means the kingdom's monetary policy is in effect set by its big neighbour.

As of 2026, Eswatini is the only African country that keeps full diplomatic ties with which government?

Taiwan. Burkina Faso switched to Beijing in 2018, leaving the kingdom as Taipei's last African ally, and Taiwan's presidents still fly in on state visits despite Chinese pressure.

As of 2019, Eswatini had the world's highest prevalence of which disease among 15-49-year-olds?

HIV. More than one in four adults carried the virus, which left thousands of children orphaned, though by 2022 the country was making considerable progress in bringing the epidemic under control.

After breaking his own 2001 chastity decree by taking a 17-year-old bride, Swaziland's king fined himself what?

A cow. One animal was the customary penalty for breaking the rite, under which girls wore woollen tassels as a pledge of chastity; the unpopular ban was dropped a year early.

On 12 April 1973, King Sobhuza II of Swaziland did what?

Annulled the constitution and took supreme power: the king scrapped the charter adopted at independence, banned organised opposition and ruled by decree for the rest of his life.

On Eswatini's flag, what does the shield's black-and-white colouring represent?

Racial harmony. The two colours stand for black and white people living together in peace, a message first flown in 1967 while apartheid was being enforced just across the border.

On Eswatini's flag, what does the red band stand for?

Past battles. The king based the design on a banner he gave Swazi soldiers in 1941 to remind them of their warrior traditions, and set the red between blue bands that stand for peace.

Sibebe Rock, near Mbabane, is billed as the world's second-largest what?

Monolith. Only Australia's Uluru is ranked ahead of the bare granite dome, and the best way to see it is on foot: thousands of walkers climb its face each year.

Eswatini is the second-smallest country on the African mainland; which one is smaller still?

The Gambia. It is a ribbon of land along a single river, under 50 km across at its widest, which leaves Eswatini as the mainland's runner-up, just ahead of Djibouti.

Eswatini's only Winter Olympics team, at Albertville in 1992, consisted of one athlete in which sport?

Alpine skiing. Keith Fraser carried the subtropical kingdom's flag alone, racing the slalom, giant slalom and super-G; his best finish was 63rd in the giant slalom.

Which pair of products has long led Eswatini's export earnings?

Sugar and soft-drink concentrate. Preferential access to European markets made cane the great cash crop, while the concentrate trade grew out of a large American investment in the 1980s.

During apartheid, South African weekenders poured into Swaziland for which pastime?

Casino gambling. It was banned across the border, so when a spa hotel with a casino opened in the Ezulwini Valley in the 1960s, the weekend crowds turned the valley into the kingdom's main tourist strip.

Mkhaya Game Reserve in Eswatini is best known for letting visitors track which endangered animals on foot?

Rhinos. Both black and white rhinos live at Mkhaya, which began in 1979 as a refuge for the country's last indigenous cattle and only later grew into a sanctuary for endangered wildlife.

Ezulwini, the valley that holds Eswatini's legislative capital and its main tourist strip, is known to visitors by what name?

Valley of Heaven. The siSwati name means 'place of heaven', and the tourist trade took it at its word: the kingdom's resort industry began here in the 1960s with a spa hotel beside natural hot springs.

Which Eswatini city, formerly called Bremersdorp, is the country's main commercial and transport centre?

Manzini. As Bremersdorp it was the colonial headquarters until it was razed in 1902; the administration moved to Mbabane, and the rebuilt town made its living from trade instead.

A convention of 1881 recognised Swazi independence even as which wider upheaval was beginning?

The Scramble for Africa. The guarantee was repeated in 1884 and still did not hold: by 1894 the kingdom had been placed under the protection of the neighbouring Boer republic.

King Ngwane V died in December 1899 during the Incwala, shortly after the outbreak of which war?

Second Boer War. The kingdom had been a protectorate of the Boer republic next door since 1894, so the Boers' defeat in 1902 handed its administration to the victors.

Besides siSwati, which language is official in Eswatini and used for most government business?

English. It is the working language of government, schools and the press, even though almost every Swazi grows up speaking siSwati at home.

SiSwati, Eswatini's main language, sits alongside Zulu and Xhosa in which group of Bantu languages?

Nguni. Colonial borders left many siSwati speakers outside the kingdom, which is why it is also one of South Africa's official languages, taught in schools in Mpumalanga.

Eswatini's 2021 pro-democracy protests began with calls for the right to elect which office-holder?

The prime minister. The king appoints the head of government, so marchers tried to hand in petitions asking for an elected one, and the unrest turned violent after the government banned their delivery.

Members of Eswatini's House of Assembly are elected from constituencies known by which siSwati name?

Tinkhundla. Each one groups several chiefdoms, where candidates are first nominated by a show of hands; they must stand as individuals, because the system has no place for party tickets.

Ngwenya, the name of Eswatini's second-highest mountain, is the siSwati word for which animal?

Crocodile. The long ridge was said to look like one stretched along the skyline; today the name also belongs to the border post that sits beneath it.

In which of Eswatini's four landscape belts does the capital, Mbabane, sit?

Highveld. At about 1,240 m the city has a temperate climate that offers relief in the hot season, while most Swazis live lower down, in the warmer Middleveld.

Ngwenya in north-west Eswatini, in use more than 40,000 years ago, is regarded as the world's oldest known what?

Mine. Stone Age diggers came for red ochre and glittering specularite to use as body paint, and the same ridge was still being worked for iron ore in the twentieth century.

Which Oscar-nominated actor was born in Mbabane and directed 'Wah-Wah', a film about his Swaziland childhood?

Richard E. Grant. Born Richard Grant Esterhuysen, the son of Swaziland's head of education, he went back to shoot the film where he grew up, with Gabriel Byrne and Emily Watson in the cast.

Mlilwane, Eswatini's best-known wildlife sanctuary, was created in the 1960s when conservationist Ted Reilly converted what?

His family's farm. Reilly rounded up animals from around the country before they could be hunted out, and the trust he founded went on to manage the kingdom's larger game parks too.

Sobhuza II's Swazi National School was set up to counter whose dominance in education?

He also created the Swazi Commercial Amadoda to license small businesses on the reserves.

The Swazi royal title Ngwenyama translates as what?

Lion. The animal stands for the king on the national coat of arms, where it holds up a shield together with an elephant, the emblem of the woman who reigns beside him.

The traditional Swazi hut, a domed frame thatched with dry grass, is named after what?

A beehive. The huts of a homestead face a cattle byre that doubles as the family's bank and granary: wealth is counted in the herd, and grain is sealed in pits beneath it.

The 2018 renaming to Eswatini was partly meant to avoid confusion with which European country?

Switzerland. Announcing the change at his 50th birthday celebrations, the king complained: 'Whenever we go abroad, people refer to us as Switzerland.'

Which two territories, today's Lesotho and Botswana, were grouped with Swaziland as 'High Commission Territories' from 1903?

Basutoland and Bechuanaland. One high commissioner governed all three through resident commissioners, and all three outlasted plans to fold them into South Africa, reaching independence between 1966 and 1968.

A failed 1982 deal to hand Swaziland parts of KwaZulu and KaNgwane would have given it what?

Access to the sea. The land included KwaZulu's Ingwavuma district, but the KwaZulu government and the Zulu king opposed the handover, and the transfer was never carried out.

Eswatini is one of only three sovereign monarchies left in Africa, alongside Lesotho and which North African kingdom?

Morocco. Africa's other royal houses survive only as traditional titles inside larger states; these three are the last whose monarchs are still heads of state.

Which of these is one of Eswatini's four administrative regions?

Hhohho. A prospector named William Pigg struck gold in its hills in the 1880s, and the town that grew up there still carries his name; today the region also holds the capital, Mbabane.

What continental milestone for Anglicans did Ellinah Wamukoya reach when Swaziland's diocese elected her in 2012?

Africa's inaugural woman bishop in the Anglican church. She came to the post from local government, having run the council of the kingdom's commercial hub, and promised to 'represent the mother attribute of God'.

In Eswatini, what is a traditional diviner, chosen by a family's ancestors, called?

Sangoma. Novices train under an established diviner and finish with a graduation feast that draws every sangoma in the district; the inyanga, by contrast, is the herbalist.

Why did Swaziland miss both Summer Games after its 1972 Olympic debut?

It joined boycotts. In 1976 it pulled out of Montreal with most of Africa in protest at a New Zealand rugby tour of South Africa, and four years later it stayed away from Moscow.