Kingdom of eSwatini celebrates King Mswati III’s birthday as a national holiday

On April 19th, Eswatini, also known as Swaziland, celebrates King Mswati III’s birthday as a national holiday. 

A special council known as the Liqoqo chooses a Swazi king’s successor after his death. Its task is to choose which of his wives will be named “Indlovukazi,” or Great She-Elephant, and will bear the next king’s child. The wife must be of good character, have only one son, and not be called Nkhosi-Dlamini as her maiden name. 

Mswati III is Africa’s last absolute monarch. He appoints the Prime Minister of the country and a number of chamber representatives. 

Swaziland’s King Mswati III declared in April 2018 that the nation will be renamed “the Kingdom of eSwatini,” which was the name it had before British colonialism. During celebrations for Swazi independence’s 50th anniversary, the monarch declared the official reform in a stadium. The king’s 50th birthday was also commemorated by the festivities.

King Mswati III was born in Manzini, Swaziland, on April 19th, 1968. His father was the late King Sobhuza II, and his mother, Queen Ntfombi, who is now the Queen Mother, was the late Queen Sobhuza II. 

King Mswati III is married to 15 women and has 23 children. His father had more than 125 wives during his reign of 82 years. 

In September 1983, Mswati was formally elected Crown Prince. At the age of 18, he was proclaimed King in 1986. Until Bhutan’s King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck ascended to the throne in December 2006, he was the world’s youngest living reigning monarch. When the Democratic Republic of the Congo elected Joseph Kabila as President in 2001, when he was 29 years old, King Mswati III was also the world’s youngest head of state.