boys are placed into war regiments and tribute
labor teams that are called to work for the king
four times a year.
At the core of Swazi communal life are praise
singing and poetry. Almost every event calls forth
a poem or a praise song about a person or phe-
nomenon. Other arts such as pottery and sculp-
ture are minor in relationship to the culture.
Praise singing usually employs a person’s sur-
name because every surname has a corpus of
praises that extend the name. One may use
the praise names after stating the surname. For
example, one may say Dlaminiand then add,
wena wekunene(you of the right),wena weluh-
langa(you of the reed), andmlangeni lomuhle
(beautiful one of the sun).
Praise singing is a highlight during all wed-
dings. However, to marry, a man must do more
than poetry; he must pay lobola. Marriage among
the Swazi relies on lobola, which a man gives
to the bride’s family. Usually the man pays the
woman’s family in cattle.
Every family is connected to ancestors by rituals
and ceremonies. When a person dies, he or she is
buried right on the homestead to demonstrate the
relationship to the living family members. Only
kings and high royal family members are buried in
mountain caves away from the family homestead.
Yet the rituals of purification occur for all dead
members of the community, whether they are
buried far or near. The Swazi believe it is necessary
to cleanse the community of the contamination of
death.
When the Swazi worship, they honor the
Creator Deity and the spirits of ancestors who deal
with the ordinary daily affairs of humans. The
people often sacrifice animals and serve beer to
propitiate the ancestors. All religious experience
is related to medicine because in Swazi
culture there is an integral relationship between the
ancestors and health. Traditional healers,inyanga,
use herbal medicines, and they also work withsan-
goma, diviners, who are usually female, to discover
the cause of social or physical problems.
Umtsakatsiare individuals who study the use of
natural phenomena and who may apply their
knowledge in harmful ways.
The Swazi culture shows evidence of migration
and integration during contact with numerous
other ethnic groups, but they maintain, through
their intact genealogical linkages to the older clan
founders, a remarkable attachment to their ances-
tral values and traditions.
The royal family tree put Dlamini I as the sig-
nificant founder of the Swazi people. Kings who
came after him, in order of succession, include
Mswati I, Ngwane II, Dlamini II, Nkosi II,
Mavuso I, Magudulela, Ludvonga, Dlamini III,
Ngwane III, Ndvungunye, Sobhuza I, Mswati
II, Ludvonga II, Mbandzeni, Ngwane V,
Sobhuza II, and the present reigning monarch,
Mswati III.
King Ngwane III is said to be of special
importance in the history of the Swazis because
it is he who gave the nation one of its names.
When his people began to settle in present-day
Swaziland, they called itkaNgwane(the place
or country of Ngwane). The namekaNgwane
has remained to the present time and is the one
by which the Swazi people usually call them-
selves.
The Swazi tradition provides that the King and
his mother must reign together. Thus, at any
given time, there is a king and Indlovukazi and
two royal headquarters or residences. The king’s
residence is the administrative headquarters, and
it is here that the king’s day-to-day business is
carried out.
The Indlovukazi’s residence is known as
umphakatsi, and it is the national capital and the
spiritual/ceremonial home of the nation. It is
where all important national events such as the
Incwala ceremony take place. The present
national capital is Ludzidzini.
The oldest known Indlovukazi to whom we can
attach years to her reign is Layaka Ndwandwe. The
lineage of Indlovukazi in the kingdom is as follows:
Layaka Ndwandwe, Lakubheka Mndzebele, Lojiba
Simelane, Tsandzile Ndwandwe, Sisile Khumalo,
Tibati Nkambule, Gwamile Labotsibeni Mdluli,
Lomawa Ndwandwe, Nukwase Ndwandwe,
Zihlathi Ndwandwe, Seneleleni Ndwandwe,
Dzeliwe Shongwe, and the present Indlovukazi,
Ntombi Tfwala.Molefi Kete AsanteSee alsoDance and Song642 Swazi