It is good to be the king.

[Shockeye]

King ends five-year sex ban for teen girls

August 18 2005 at 07:45AM

Mbabane - Swaziland's absolute monarch King Mswati III has ordered an end to a five-year no-sex rite for teenage girls, who had to pledge chastity and wear woollen "do not touch me" tassles in a bid to halt the spread of Aids.

Swaziland's maidens will forsake their tassles and the "umchwasho" chastity pledge on August 22, ahead of the annual reed dance ceremony where the king is expected to choose yet another new bride, reports said on Thursday.

"I have it in command from his majesty to order all the national flowers (maidens) to converge on Ludzidzini (royal palace) on Sunday so that they can drop the woollen tassles on Monday," said a spokesperson for the Swaziland's maidens, Nkhonto Dlamini.

"The wollen tassles will be burnt to mark the end of the ritual introduced by the monarch in 2001," she said in a message repeatedly aired by the radio station.

Introduced by Mswati in September that year, the rite was aimed at reducing the spread of HIV and Aids in a country with the world's highest infection rate, where close to 40 percent of adults live with the disease.

Breaching the chastity vow before marriage was punishable and any person who violated a maiden was fined one cow, or around 1 300 emalangeni (about R1 200).

But the practice had been attacked by social workers who said it was ineffective.

Mswati himself breached the ban and was fined a cow for picking a teenaged girl as his ninth wife.

Parents of young Swazi men said they were also glad to see the end of umchwasho, which they said left them impoverished as they had to help their sons pay for their transgressions.

The annual reed dance, where bare-breasted maidens perform before the king, will start on August 28 and last for two days. - Sapa-AFP

[WayAbvPar]

The annual reed dance, where bare-breasted maidens perform before the king, will start on August 28 and last for two days. - Sapa-AFP

See, now THAT is the something that all the reality show tards should be covering. Hell, make it a PPV event.

[Shockeye]

Swaziland Girls Celebrate End of Sex Ban

Tuesday, August 23, 2005 4:12 p.m. ET

By THULANI MTHETHWA Associated Press Writer

MBABANE, Swaziland (AP) -- Thousands of Swazi girls Tuesday celebrated the end of a ban on sexual activity that had been imposed as a way to combat AIDS in one of the countries hit hardest by the epidemic.

King Mswati III, Africa's last absolute monarch, had reinstated the "umchwasho" chastity ritual for five years in 2001, banning sexual relations for girls younger than 18. But the move was ridiculed as old-fashioned and unfairly focused on girls and the king himself was accused of ignoring it.

As part of the end of ban, the girls in private burned the tasseled scarves that symbolized their chastity. About 30,000 girls then later joined the king in a two-hour ceremony in Swaziland's national stadium.

Mswati lifted the ban a year earlier than planned.

During the ban, Swazi girls were instructed to wear the scarves as a sign of their chastity. If an umchwasho girl was approached for sex by a man, she was expected to throw her tassels at his homestead, obliging his family to forfeit a cow.

Experts said the rite did little to slow AIDS in Swaziland, a country of about 1 million where 42.6 percent of pregnant women and up to 40 percent of adults are infected with the virus _ the highest rate in the world.

The overall mood was joyous Tuesday among the crowds gathered for the stadium ceremony and a banquet of beef at the queen mother's residence.

The king's oldest daughter, Princess Sikhanyiso, led the girls in a dance. Newly crowned Miss Swaziland, Zinhle Magongo, was among the bare-breasted participants, who wore traditional short skirts and feathers and porcupine quills in their hair.

"We are so happy that King Mswati ordered us to take off the woolen tassels," said 18-year-old Nombulelo Dlamini. "They were no use because some girls fell pregnant while wearing the same tassels."

She said she had hid hers "because a lot of boys were making fun of us whenever we were spotted wearing them."

Dlamini also voiced the view of many here that the king didn't set much of an example when he impregnated his ninth wife in 2001 when she was 17.

But there were hints of regret Tuesday.

"Wearing the tassels was good for us young girls because men were scared to touch and abuse us," said 16-year-old Bongiwe Nkampule. "Now that we had to take off the woolen tassels we will be vulnerable to abuse."

The director of National Emergency Response on HIV and AIDS, Derek Von Wissel, said new infection among teens had slowed, as had teenage pregnancies. But Von Wissel said this was due to vigorous prevention campaigns by nongovernment groups rather than the chastity order.

[Hanzii]

The annual reed dance, where bare-breasted maidens perform before the king, will start on August 28 and last for two days. - Sapa-AFP

See, now THAT is the something that all the reality show tards should be covering. Hell, make it a PPV event.

I visited Swaziland once... one week after the reed dance.
I wept.

[schild]

When nearly a majority of people in a country have AIDS, shouldn't AIDS be listed as a natural cause of death? I mean really, just cut the average lifespan to 50 and consider AIDS part of everyday life.

I kid, I kid. Or do I?

[Strazos]

Can't we just turn half of Africa to glass?

[voodoolily]

"We are so happy that King Mswati ordered us to take off the woolen tassels," said 18-year-old Nombulelo Dlamini. "They were no use because some girls fell pregnant while wearing the same tassels."

"Help! I've fallen pregnant and I can't get up!" Okay, that was lame.

"I have a bad case of The Pregnant." No, not much better.

I got nothing.

[Llava]

teenage girls, who had to pledge chastity and wear woollen "do not touch me" tassles in a bid to halt the spread of Aids.

Tassles?

What?

Like pasties?  Little stickers over their nipples that say "Do not touch me"?  Because that is TOTALLY hot.

[Shockeye]

Topless virgins vie for king in AIDS-hit Swaziland
Aug 29 12:07 PM US/Eastern

By Rebecca Harrison

LUDZIDZINI ROYAL VILLAGE, Swaziland (Reuters) - More than 50,000 bare-breasted virgins vied to become the King of Swaziland's 13th wife on Monday in a ceremony which critics say ill befits a country with the world's highest HIV/AIDS rate.

King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch, arrived dressed in a leopard-skin loincloth to watch the Reed Dance ceremony, which he has used since 1999 to pluck new brides from the girls dressed in little more than beaded mini-skirts.

Wielding machetes and singing tributes to the king and queen mother, also known as the Great She-Elephant, the girls danced around the royal stadium in the hope of catching the eye of the 37-year-old monarch.

"I want to live a nice life, have money, be rich, have a BMW and cellphone," said one dancer, 16-year-old Zodwa Mamba, who wore a traditional brightly colored tasseled scarf.

Critics say Mswati, who has courted controversy for his lavish lifestyle while two thirds of his subjects live in abject poverty, sets a bad example by encouraging polygamy and teenage sex in a country where 40 percent of adults live with HIV.

Some say the Reed Dance, traditionally meant to celebrate womanhood and virginity, has become little more than a showcase for the king's young would-be brides.

"The Reed Dance has been abused for one man's personal satisfaction," Mario Masuku, leader of the banned opposition party, told Reuters. "The king has a passion for young women and opulence."

But many Swazis say the young monarch has a right to do as he pleases, defending his penchant for young brides as Swazi tradition and arguing that ceremonies like the Reed Dance, which this year drew a record 50,000 maidens, cement national identity.

"The king takes a wife whenever he wants and that's the way it is. This is our culture and we will never change," said Tsandzile Ndluva, 21, another dancer.

TICKET TO WEALTH

Many maidens, who come from villages across the country, dream of joining the king's wives who each have their own palace and BMW car. But others were scared catching the royal eye could curtail their freedom and force them into a polygamous marriage.

"Marriage is about love, not money," said trainee police officer Patience Dlamini, who jazzed up her traditional outfit with a fake diamond necklace. "This thing of many wives is not good, how does he satisfy them all?"

The king has also drawn censure from rights groups and the international community for entrenching a ban on political parties in the nation of 1 million people squashed between South Africa and Mozambique.

But despite criticism of Mswati abroad, Masuku's outlawed People's United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) has failed to muster much support at home, partly because many ordinary people back the king and ceremonies like the Reed Dance as symbols of national identity.

Monday's ceremony was the culmination of a week of preparations, which included the lifting of a royal ban on sex with virgins, decreed in 2001 to help rein in HIV.

Days after reviving the ancient ban, Mswati in 2001, married a virgin and fined himself one cow. Last week he lifted the five-year ban a year early, ordering thousands of maidens to throw off chastity scarves worn to ward of preying men.

"What the king did by taking another wife was not good, because he was meant to keep virginity," said 20-year-old Zanele Dlamini, a health worker who chose not to join in the dance. "He is not a good leader because multiple wives can spread HIV."

Palace officials said that if the king did select a new wife at Monday's dance, the announcement would not be made immediately.