Cultural diversity uber alles.

I do not want to hear any left-puritans condemning the charming traditions of Swaziland's indigenous culture, where a man's a man, girls want cellphones and BMWs, and it's good to be the king.

Topless virgins vie for king

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.

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.


Here's even more from Swaziland:

Swazi princess whipped by palace official

A drinking and dancing celebration by the king's daughter shocked a Swazi traditionalist enough for him to deliver a spanking to the teenage princess, and cast a pall over Swaziland's annual royal bride-choosing rites.

Royal officials had tried to keep word of Princess Sikhanyiso's party quiet, but acknowledged late on Monday that it had occurred on Friday, and Swazi papers reported the story for the first time on Tuesday.

The kingdom's annual reed dance, featuring 20 000 girls in beads and traditional skirts, ended late on Monday with no public indication of whether King Mswati III had chosen a bride from among any of the dancers.

Royal officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the issue is considered sensitive, said on Tuesday the king had privately chosen three potential brides and might unveil one at a ceremony in southern Swaziland this weekend.

According to tradition, the king is meant to select a bride at the reed dance, the culmination of a rite of spring at which girls gather reeds to build a wind break for the queen mother. But in recent years, the king has increasingly made his choice in private, after a thorough screening by palace aides and his mother.

Days before this year's reed dance, the king announced he was ending a ritual banning sexual relations for girls younger than 18 and symbolised by the wearing of woolen tassels. The king revived the ancient umchwasho rite to fight Aids, which is at crisis levels in Swaziland, but ended the rite a year earlier than scheduled because it was ridiculed as old-fashioned and unfairly focused on girls.

His eldest daughter Princess Sikhanyiso, a 17-year-old who was rarely seen in the umchwasho tassels herself, threw Friday's party with loud music and alcoholic drinks to celebrate the end of the chastity rite.

"We were so shocked that the girls decided to turn the reed-dance ceremony into a drinking and dancing spree," Ntsonjeni Dlamini, who is in charge of overseeing traditional affairs, said on Monday.

Dlamini said he was compelled by tradition to beat the celebrating girls -- including the king's daughter -- with a stick.

"I was so surprised to see Princess Sikhanyiso drinking and dancing when I expected her to lead by example by respecting herself as a leader," said one of the girls involved, Nonhlanhla Dlamini, who is not related to Ntsonjeni Dlamini.

The king and his family are no strangers to controversy.

Princess Sikhanyiso has raised eyebrows in this conservative kingdom by wearing Western-style skirts and jeans. Her father has come under international pressure for resisting reforms to introduce more democracy in the country. His lavish lifestyle, including indulging a love of top-of-the range cars, contrasts with the absolute poverty of most of his subjects.

The Aids crisis has compounded the poverty, with estimates that about 40% of the country's one million people are infected with the HIV virus.

According to Swazi tradition, the king is always meant to have a bride in waiting. He can only marry her when she is pregnant.

Mswati's late father, King Sobhuza II, who led the country to independence from Britain in 1968, had more than 70 wives.

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