Swaziland

Sorry again about not updating often enough - cheap and fast internet isn't that easy to find in South Africa (and it seems that the slower it is, the more expensive!). After Jo'burg I went to Swaziland, which is a separate country, surrounded by South Africa - so another stamp for my passport! Was staying in a nature reserve, so ostriches, warthogs, zebras etc wandering around - but I'm a bit over animals already. There's a different vibe in Swaziland to S.A. - the people are more chilled and friendly. It seems they've got less baggage, having been spared the worst of Apartheid.

The main reason for my visit was to see the Reed Festival, which was last weekend. The festival happens once a year, and begins a week earlier when all the eligible (i.e. supposedly virgin) girls go out to collect reeds. They then arrived on Sunday at the king's palace to deliver the reeds for any repairs needed to his mum's house (in Swazi culture, the man is in charge of the village and his mum is the village elder - so v. important). This amounted to about 30,000 girls in procession, aged about 4 to 20, all singing, chanting and dancing with their reeds. They delivered their reeds and then went and danced and chanted some more in a field which had seats for spectators.

The next day, there were no reeds but just lots of dancing and singing in the field. This time, the king went down to the field, surrounded by his warriors, and had a boogie amongst the girls. If any of the girls took his fancy, he had the option of adding them to his collection of 10-15 wives. Noone seems to be sure exactly how many wives he has (his dad had over 100) - I think this is because he sometimes chooses a girl, keeps them as a girlfirend for a while, then decides not to marry them. And doesn't even call! Incidentally, any men in Swaziland can have more than one wife, but due to poverty most can't afford to. You need to pay the girl's father 18 cows to marry her, or 15 cows if she's a middle child - so some men just have lots of girlfriends until they can afford to get married. And then if the wives have to share, they might have a couple of boyfriends on the side. Which helps to explain why over a third of Swazi adults are HIV positive.

I don't know whether he chose anyone - even the girl won't know, until the king's warriors turn up on her doorstep and tell her it's time to go. Unsurprisingly, I was told that the girls don't actually want to be chosen, despite the 34 year old king being the richest king in Africa. However, they absolutely love the day - it's like one huge girl power parade, and you can see they're all really proud and have put lots of effort in. It was a bit wierd as a Westerner that most of the girls were topless, and wanted pictures taken of them (they even uncovered their breasts especially for photos) - but breasts aren't considered such a sexual part of the body for them, they're just for feeding babies.

All in all, it was amazing to witness an event that was so traditional and authentic and huge - lots of colour and noise, and a couple of days I won't forget. I took loads and loads of photos, which I've uploaded - but due to their semi-nudity I've not made them public so you won't find them if you click on the usual link to my photos. To see them, click on the link below, then use the user name "sjtravelpics" and password "Photos". Click on the link with my name, then 'sets'. It's easier than it sounds, and the pics are woth it. Here's the link.