Eswatini

Eswatini is Africa's last absolute monarchy—a kingdom smaller than New Jersey where King Mswati III holds supreme executive, legislative, and judicial power without constitutional constraint. The country has the world's highest HIV prevalence (27% of adults), youth unemployment at 58%, and 59% living in poverty. In 2021, security forces killed over 100 pro-democracy protesters. This is what happens when a pre-colonial dynasty survives into modernity unchanged.

The Swazi nation emerged from the Bantu migrations that populated southern Africa. Their Nguni ancestors arrived in what is now Mozambique before the 16th century, speaking a language related to Zulu and Xhosa. Around 1770, King Ngwane III established the first nucleus of the Swazi nation near modern Nhlangano, fleeing pressure from more powerful neighbors. His descendants—the Nkhosi Dlamini dynasty—still rule today. The nation takes its name from Mswati II (1840-1868), the greatest of the Swazi fighting kings, who consolidated territory and military power during the era of Shaka Zulu and the mfecane upheavals.

British and Boer colonizers squeezed the kingdom from both sides. In 1877, Britain annexed Swaziland; an 1881 convention restored nominal independence but significantly reduced territory. In 1894, the kingdom became a protectorate of the South African Republic (Transvaal). After the Anglo-Boer War, Britain took over administration in 1903. For sixty-five years, Swaziland functioned as a British protectorate—administering indirect rule through traditional structures that preserved the monarchy's domestic authority while handling external affairs from South Africa.

Independence came on September 6, 1968, under King Sobhuza II, who had ruled since 1921 (making his 61-year reign the longest verified of any monarch in history). In 1973, Sobhuza suspended the constitution and banned political parties—establishing the absolutism that persists. When he died in 1982, Prince Makhosetive was selected as heir; he was crowned Mswati III in 1986 at age 18. In 2018, on the nation's 50th independence anniversary and his own 50th birthday, Mswati renamed the country Eswatini—"Land of the Swazis" in siSwati—rejecting the colonial-era name.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic devastated Eswatini more than any nation on Earth. At its peak, over one-third of adults were infected; life expectancy collapsed to 33 years. International response, particularly PEPFAR funding, transformed the crisis into a success story: by 2024, Eswatini achieved the 95-95-95 targets (95% know their status, 95% on treatment, 95% virally suppressed). Then in 2025, the second Trump administration cut PEPFAR support—half the HIV response budget—leaving people without testing or treatment as Eswatini scrambles toward its 2030 self-sufficiency target.

Economic structure reflects colonial extraction patterns. When sanctions on apartheid South Africa ended in the mid-1990s, foreign investors who had used Swaziland to circumvent restrictions departed. The economy never recovered. Textile factories that once employed thousands have largely closed. Agricultural exports face new barriers: a May 2025 foot-and-mouth disease outbreak suspended EU and UK imports of livestock products. Growth in 2025 will slow further as South Africa, facing 30% US tariffs, reduces demand for Eswatini's processed foods, clothing, and wood.

The 2021 pro-democracy uprising revealed the succession crisis beneath the surface. Youth (58% unemployed, with no political parties to join and no prospects in sight) took to the streets. Security forces responded with lethal force—over 100 killed, 300 wounded, opposition leader Mlungisi Makhanya allegedly poisoned in South Africa in September 2024. Hospitals lack medication, equipment, and staff; education crumbles.

Through 2026, Eswatini faces the arithmetic of an absolute monarchy in terminal crisis: a king who has ruled since age 18, now 57, with fifteen wives and dozens of children, holding personal assets estimated in the hundreds of millions while his subjects die of treatable diseases. The Dlamini dynasty has survived 250 years; whether it survives the next decade depends on how long the youth will wait.