Posted on 02/02/2005 2:55:33 PM PST by Rakkasan1
Mbabane - Swaziland's King Mswati III has picked a 17-year-old schoolgirl as his new fiancée and she will be introduced to the public as his 13th bride-to-be once she passes an HIV test, said royal sources on Monday.
Less than five months after picking 16-year-old Nothando Dube as his 12th bride-to-be, the 36-year-old Mswati has now chosen Colile Nosiphe Magagula, known as Titi, as his next fiancée.
She will be "unveiled" once she passes an HIV test and once she gets royal blessings from the Queen Mother Ntombi Thwala of Swaziland, where close to 40% of the population is living with HIV and Aids.
(Excerpt) Read more at news24.com ...
it's good to be king? not here.
Just...EEEEEEUUUUWWWWWWWW!
yes, it is good to be king!
Hey, does Maureen Dowd know this? There might be hope for her yet with a powerful man!
,,, once a king always a king. Once a [k]night is enough.
That King Mswati is just a hopeless romantic.
And after consumating their marriage, the happy couple can sit up and relax with a cup of hot cocoa and a nice Woody Allen movie.
Who is this king? and why is he on this forum?
I'm sure he loves her for her mind....
Hmmmmmm...now that's a strange nickname......./sarcasm
Co-incidence that Donald Trump scheduled his third nuptual so as not to be upstaged by King Mswati's thirteenth nuptual? Hmmmmmmm .... I think not.
while Howard Cosell does the play by play...
http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/Protesters-rally-against-Swazi-king/2005/01/27/1106415732636.html?oneclick=true
Protesters rally against Swazi king
By David Blair
Manzini
January 28, 2005
Elliot Mkhatshwa negotiates with Swazi police before a protest march.
Elliot Mkhatshwa negotiates with Swazi police before a protest march.
Photo: AFP
After banning sex and spending millions on palaces for beauty queen wives, Africa's last absolute monarch, King Mswati III, faced rare popular protestwhen Swaziland's underground opposition called a general strike.
Chanting demonstrators marched through Swaziland's largest city, Manzini, on Wednesday demanding curbs on the financial extravagance and political power of their fiercely quixotic ruler.
Their banners expressed outrage at the king's lavish self-indulgence. "No to more palaces, cars and parties," read one. Last year, the king spent $A20 million on building eight palaces and refurbishing three existing ones.
He bought a state-of-the-art Maybach car for $630,000 and invited 10,000 to his 36th birthday party, spending $800,000 on the festivities.
Swaziland is a country that could spring from the pages of Evelyn Waugh. Like the Emperor Seth in Black Mischief, King Mswati is a British-educated despot with scant regard for the desperate poverty of his people.
King Mswati is now enjoying three months in "Incwala", or seclusion, for the annual "fresh-fruit eating" ceremony. He attends this festival with his powerful mother, whose official title "Ndlovukazi", translates as "The Great She Elephant".
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The catalyst for the protests in the midst of his seclusion was the release of a draft constitution guaranteeing his eternal dominance. This long-awaited document had been viewed as a chance for a gradual move towards a constitutional monarchy.
Instead, the draft gives the king legal immunity from any wrongdoing and article 65 states emphatically: "The executive authority of Swaziland vests in the king."
"This draft constitution would make the king the worst kind of dictator," said Jan Sithole, secretary-general of the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions, who called the general strike. "There is no restraint on the king and no democracy at all."
Opposition parties are banned and more than 70 per cent of Swaziland's 1 million people live in poverty in remote villages. Apathy rules even in the towns. Mr Sithole estimated that fewer than 10 per cent of his 65,000 members joined the strike.
But any demonstration of popular discontent is an important achievement in a country as repressive as Swaziland. For most of his 18-year rule, King Mswati's excesses have gone without protest.
Almost every year, he chooses a new wife at the "Reed Dance" ceremony when 20,000 topless virgins dance for him.
Last year, 12 local beauty queens joined the performance and the king selected Miss Teen Swaziland, 16-year-old Nothando Dube, as his new fiancee.
The king has now amassed 11 wives, two fiancees and 23 children, although two wives have fled to South Africa.
Some 39 per cent of adult Swazis are infected with HIV or AIDS - the highest proportion in the world. King Mswati responded to the crisis in 2001 by banning virgins from having sex for five years. Any man caught deflowering a virgin would be fined one cow.
This law proved too rigorous for the king. Months later, he chose a 17-year old bride and fined himself one cow.
A Government spokesman said the king's approach to monarchy is "in accordance with Swazi tradition".
- Telegraph
Didn't Eddie Murphy star in the original movie?
Her problem is finding "any" man.
I thought only my mother- in- law was called "the great she elephant"
Reminds me of O.D.B. going to the welfare office in a chauffeured limousine.
This kind of crap makes me scoff whenever someone is bitching about how the U.S. is not very generous when it comes to foreign aid to developing countries. How much of this Maybach was purchased with aid money?
And people complained when President Bush wanted to take a little bit of time to think things over a bit instead of simply writing a blank check to the tsunami victims.
Things are pretty bad if you flee *to* South Africa.
Some 39 per cent of adult Swazis are infected with HIV or AIDS - the highest proportion in the world. King Mswati responded to the crisis in 2001 by banning virgins from having sex for five years. Any man caught deflowering a virgin would be fined one cow.
20,000 topless dancers, including 12 beauty queens, flopping about and he wants to fine guys a cow for deflowering virgins? Couldn't he just ask the dancers to wear baggy tops?
Although after 5 years of such forced "abstinence", a cow would seem a small price to pay. :)
It's title, not a name. However it means about the same thing as "mother-in-law".
But wait! They're flopping about for me!
Exact memory escapes me, but I saw, a while back, a National Geographic (or some such) magazine with a feature article about this "show off of the virgins for the King", where the topless maidens paraded single file before his Highness, hoping for the Royal nod. The photographs showed bus loads of women with not a man in sight--other than his Royal Higness (himself topless).
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