The king and his wives
By Agnes Asiimwe
July 4 - 10, 2004
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If we are to make a comparison to our Ugandan kings, King Mswati III of Swaziland makes our kings very ‘unkingly’ – for lack of a better word. Fresh from his COMESA meeting in Kampala, which ended a few weeks ago, he returned to Swaziland and acquired yet another prize; his 11th wife. To non-Swazis, King Mswati may seem to have a large number of wives, but he is nearly a bachelor compared to his father. Since his installation as king, at age 18, in 1986, the Swazi King has taken a new wife, on average, every 21 months. At one time, he married LaGija as she is known at the palace, and barely a week later, married Nontsetselelo Magango, an 18-year-old girl. Still, there are subjects that are not happy at his slow pace.
Some senior princes have observed, it would take him over 200 years to equal the number of official marriages entered into by his father, King Sobhuza II, who had 120 wives. But unofficial estimates have put the number of Sobhuza’s wives and mistresses at over 400. The British educated king has embraced Western-style market-driven economic policies, but he has also adhered to traditional political culture, which allows him full control of the executive, judiciary and executive arms of government. And like all the Swazi kings before him, he is a polygamist. He is anxious to project an image of a modern head of state and therefore travels with only one wife at a time. The queens take turns, on a rotation basis; to stave off public gossip that one queen is in favour while another might be in disfavour. When he came for the COMESA meeting, he came with Queen Simbonelo Mbikiza. But as any good Christian – he belongs to the Anglican Church – one would expect him to ignore the traditional beliefs and follow biblical teachings. But he has defended this, saying Swazi culture has been kept alive by perpetuating customs that are important to the Swazi people, while accepting new ways from outsiders that Swazis find useful. The wives of King Mswati differ markedly from their predecessors, the women who were wed to Mswati’s father. Today’s queens are educated, some are professionals, and they are fashion-model slender as well as fashion trendsetters in their own right. Among the queens, the concepts of public service and self-actualisation are a new lifestyle, taken from the examples of European royalty, especially British royalty. Queen LaNgangaza continued her education, and earned her law degree in South Africa. Queen LaMasango pursues painting and has hosted auctions of her artwork to raise money for charity. Queen LaMbikiza joined the Queen Mother in supporting Lusito, the Swazi word for help, a foundation that assists the underprivileged. At first, traditionalists were aghast that Mswati’s queens were not acting like their predecessors, whose role was to remain still and silent, wrapped in heavy blankets, when they appeared at rare traditional events. In contrast, the new queens and some of their children appear in formal attire, to open gala fund-raising fashion shows at the Royal Swaziland Convention Centre. And they do the traditional dance steps at sacred national pageants like the Incwala as if they are enjoying themselves rather than participating in a sombre ritual. But what is worrying the Swazis at the moment is not Mswati’s increasing number of wives, but the high cost of maintaining them. Naturally, most men, including those outside Swaziland would wish to be polygamous but the fact that they can’t afford many households, limits them to one. The wives of Mswati’s father lived in mud and wattle huts; that would be deemed real poverty today. But Mswati’s wives live in palaces; they have chauffeur-driven luxury cars, bodyguards, and expensive wardrobes and jewellery. Each of the king’s dozen children are escorted to their private schools by police officers, who remain at the school premises until each child is brought home. Those opposing the king say maintaining all those households in wealth is too much for an impoverished country, where two thirds of the one million people live in poverty; have to grapple with drought, food shortages and HIV/ Aids. Last November, Mswati spent nearly $1 million on 15 BMW cars for his late father’s wives. Incidentally, political parties are conveniently banned – by royal decree. There is also pressure from health organisations and women activists. Organisations combating the Aids epidemic say, multiple partners spread HIV/Aids, while women’s empowerment groups see the system as a hindrance to Swazi women’s social and economic advancement. King Mswati has, however, tried to reassure his subjects by saying that he and his wives are tested for HIV/Aids every six months. But most disturbing is the style of acquiring these wives. His latest entrant, 20-year-old Zena Mahlangu has been married but amidst protests, especially by the young girl’s mother. Lindiwe Dlamini has tried in vain to prevent the king from marrying her daughter, saying that two royal emissaries abducted Zena from school. Dlamini went to a court in Mbabane to demand that the king return her daughter. “I don’t want the king to be my daughter’s husband…she has other plans for her life…I will fight this case until the day I die,” she at one time declared. Putting such a case to the courts is unheard of in Swaziland, where the King merely follows tradition when abducting virgins to see whether they please him. “He is a playboy controlled by his mother and his uncle,” says Justice George Kanyeihamba, a Supreme Court Judge. In 2003, Kanyeihamba led a four-member delegation of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ-CIJL) to Swaziland on a fact-finding mission to assess various threats against Judicial Independence, the rule of law and the administration of justice. The team made a report. A highlight in the report is when the Swazi Attorney General, a close relative of the king, threatened three High Court judges with immediate dismissal if they did not remove themselves from a case that involved the abduction of a girl, who eventually became his majesty’s wife. One Swazi official said the report should be thrown into the nearest dustbin. Kanyeimba says that throughout their time in Swaziland, the delegation met with various leaders, except King Mswati, who was unavailable to meet the delegation due to prolonged seclusion in Incwala ceremony activities. But there is a more interesting ceremony that the king looks forward to – the Umhlanga ceremony, the reed dance that takes place every August or September. The king gets to meet the girls during the dance, where tradition dictates that the girls dance topless. The king can then pick a wife if he so wishes. All virgins in the country are supposed to participate. Like most of his wives, his 11th wife, Zena Mahlangu was spotted during the reed dance, in September 2002. She attended the dance with a friend, Nozipho Shabangu, then the reigning Miss Swaziland. After the ceremony, the girls were briefly detained for some hours at the royal kraal, after which they were introduced to the king. As the month of August approaches, many people believe that he is likely to pick another wife, to make a dozen. Neither the bride, nor her relatives are informed of the pending marriage. Mandla MpofuNkosi, a journalist in Zimbabwe puts a new twist to the saga. He says: “with the coming of technology, the king and his councillors can view the videos after the event and make follow ups.” The activists may be happy to learn that fewer Swazis are practising polygamy because of the expenses involved – for a man to maintain multiple households. If the kingdom becomes a democracy, the need for the king to solidify his power by marrying into various clans may disappear. Uganda’s kings For the Ugandan kings, most of who are devout Anglicans, they have stuck to the one man, one wife teaching – at least officially. When the first batch of (Anglican) missionaries arrived in Buganda in 1877 and the Catholic missionaries in 1879, the two factions fought battles to get Kabaka Mutesa I to identify with them. But historians say that he found it difficult to make a commitment because the Christian faith required him to abandon his many wives. It was his grandson, Daudi Chwa who became the first reigning king of Buganda to openly declare himself a practicing Christian. Chwa became the first king of Buganda to have his wedding solemnized in church, when he married Druscilla Namaganda on September 19, 1914. But like kings before him, Mutebi followed tradition and acquired a ‘Nakku’ or ‘first wife’. “It is because of Christianity that we are limited to one wife, but kings always had many wives,” said Prince Barigye of Ankole. He says his father, Sir Charles Gasyonga ‘had several wives at different times’ Barigye, who separated from his first wife, is married to Denise Kwezi. For the Omukama of Bunyoro, Solomon Gafabusa Iguru, we know one official Queen, Omugo Margaret Karunga, whom he married on August 24, 2002. The Prime Minister of Bunyoro, Kagoro Byenkya, says kings used to have as many as nine wives, each of who played a different role. “With the coming of missionaries, who introduced Christianity, there is an official queen.” Does Bunyoro have one queen then? “I don’t know, these are private matters, I run the kingdom’s government, I am outside the palace,” he said. The late Patrick Kaboyo of Toro married Best Kemigisa, in a big Christian wedding on January 10, 1987. She was his only wife till his death. It is unlikely, that his predecessor, King Oyo Nyimba will break the trend. The Kyabazinga of Busoga, Wako Mulooki, too has one wife, Inhebantu Alice Mulooki. Although some Ugandan kings are said to have other women, officially the public knows only one. It is an encouraging trend that will soon see polygamy, for the sake of tradition wiped out, especially with the advent of Aids, probably even in absolute monarchies – like in Swaziland. |
© 2004 The Monitor Publications
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