ESWATINI REVIEW

Introduction

Emaswati are descendants of the Bantu who originated in the Benue-Cross region of West Africa. After migrating to the Great Lakes in the 15th century, the Bantu Swati headed further east-southeast before following the Indian Ocean coastline into present-day Mozambique. The nation’s forerunners then ventured inland, thus beginning the modern history of the Kingdom of Eswatini. After conquering neighbouring chiefdoms and kingdoms characterised by the Sotho Nguni tribes, Emaswati employed diplomacy and arranged marriages to create strategic alliances with neighbouring states. In the 1820s to 1840s, the use of regiments in warfare again rose to prominence when the entire Southern African region underwent radical state-building, fuelled by the reign of King Shaka of the Zulu. White adventurers and fortune-hunters began arriving in Eswatini during the 1840s, leading to Boer and British vying for administrative domination of the kingdom. The Lion of Eswatini – King Sobhuza II - was born while these powers were engaged in the Anglo-Boer War, at the conclusion of which Britain began its 66-year rule of Eswatini as a Protectorate. Immediately upon his coming-of-age, the young monarch began his quest to recover land belonging to Emaswati which, it was claimed by Colonial concession holders of the time, had been ceded to them by earlier royal decree.