Drove onto Pigg's Peak the largest city in the north of Swaziland. Along the road some of the young boys started throwing stones at our car. I was able to wave my finger at a young boy who picked up a stone and was about to put it in his slingshot and direct it to us. I'm sure he could see this 'mama' was not happy with him and he put it down.
Stopped outside Pigg's Peak in a shady spot to have lunch and watch the throngs of people walking into town and out again. There didn't seem to be any children in the schools and a lot of people on the streets.
The motorway in to the capital city of Mbabane was pretty good and as the city was built in the valley it ran along the hillsides on the outside of the city with lots of exits leading off.
We headed for Ezulwini Valley and checked out a couple of backpackers. We didn't like either of them so continued onto Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary. On the drive in we passed a big lake with hippo and crocs lying in the sun. The exact same scene is on all the tourist pamphlets for Swaziland even though it is only a small reserve. The accommodation place was pretty full but we managed to get a lovely rondavel overlooking the impala and zebras in the fields.
"Beehive' house in traditional Swazi style with no windows and a very low door way.There were quite a few students in the backpackers who were doing various kinds of study. One guy was studying conservation so had to do some research on the parks. A girl was doing HIV research for Oxford University while a Swedish guy was interviewing people for his political science paper. Another Brit was doing research towards his PhD in clinical psychology. There were very few travelers staying more than a few weeks in Africa.
There were a surprising number of older French people who were not able to speak English and if you tried to communicate with them they fled as fast as they could. It always surprises me as to how they get by with such little English and of course no Swati.
We were able to rinse our tent and sleeping sheets in pyrethrum to help reduce our chances of getting bitten by malaria carrying mossies as well as catch up on some laundry and read a few books. It was quite nice to relax in the sun and chat to the other backpackers.
We visited the tourist office to get some information on the Reed Dance festival. They didn't seem very sure about how the 8 day event was going to run but told us that John was not allowed to wear a hat but I was because I was married. I also had to wear a dress and not trousers so I organised a tee shirt and my sarong. All the literature that we had read said that we needed to get permits to take photos at the dance but they didn't think we did as long as we didn't take photos of the King.
We had only planned to stay a couple of days in Swaziland and then head up to the north and do some trails but once we knew the Reed Dance was about to happen we stayed on for that and did some short trails around the sanctuary. We were lucky enough to be able to stay on in our rondavel too.
Over the 8 days of the Reed dance the girls meet then go out to different areas to pick reeds. These are given to the Queen Mother to repair the wind break that surrounds her royal residence. The only girls that can do this must be childless and unmarried. During the last 2 days the girls bathe in the morning before going to the Queen Mother's place and we saw many of them at the river near the dance arena.
The cell phone tower near the arena disguised as a palm tree.On the second to last day we went as a group from the backpackers and sat in the dance arena ready for the start of the dancing at 2pm. The girls were waiting to place their reeds in a pile for the Queen Mother. A huge buffalo was slaughtered near the arena by a group of men and John got a photo before he was told not to film it. You can see the stack of reeds behind the men.
John estimated that there were about 10,000 girls. When the Queen Mother and King finally arrived the girls came into the arena dancing and singing in small groups all in different outfits.
The princesses were easy to identify as they had red feathers in their hair and there were hundreds of them. The Present King Mswati III has about 14 wives and 23 children. His first and second wives are chosen for him by a council and their sons cannot be kings. The King's successor is chosen by a council too and a wife of good standing is chosen and she must have a son and no other children as a King may not have any brothers or sisters.
The dancing didn't begin until about 4pm and then they had to rush the groups through to get all the thousands of dancers around the stadium and presented to the King before dark. Some girls wore very mini skirts of beads and you could see their bare bums. They had cocoon rattles on their ankles and many carried a knife as a sign of virginity. Others carried cellphones and some had torches to show they had picked reeds at night and quite a lot had multi coloured synthetic dusters.
Some groups were well coordinated and uniform and we were told they were from the corrections department, military and other government groups.
We sat in the stands with our van driver but some official told them to move as the area was only for women. When we checked it out the only men were the foreigners in our group but no one asked them to move. Our driver gave the girls in our group who were wearing trousers a red African skirt and they had to take off their trousers of roll the legs up as it was not acceptable protocol to be seen in trousers
These woman are encouraging the dancers from the sideline.The purpose of the festival is to provide tribute labour for the Queen Mother, provide solidarity for women and preserve chastity.
A married woman wearing a hat. These are also worn by Zulu woman and their hair maybe woven into the hat so in order to sleep they have to use a wooden pillow.After all the groups had presented their dance the King came out with a group of men and raced around thanking the girls for participating and coming from so far for the dance. He also uses the opportunity to choose another wife and so the press follow him to get a photo of the girl he may choose.
All the King's men and the King. He is holding a gold triangle in the middle of the shot.In 2001, to stop the spread of AIDS, he banned any woman under 50 from having sexual intercourse and then later broke his own ban by marrying a 17 year old girl. His penalty was to give her family a cow.
Life expectancy in 200o was 61 but in 2009 it was 32. 56% of the population between 25 and 29 have HIV and the population of the whole country is about 1.2 million.
