Eswatini

Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, is a small landlocked kingdom in southern Africa, surrounded by South Africa except where it borders Mozambique. Mbabane is the seat of government and Lobamba the legislative capital. SiSwati and English are the official languages.

The Swazi trace their roots to the Embo-Dlamini, Nguni people who lived near Delagoa Bay before moving inland. Ngwane III founded the kingdom in the mid-18th century, and Mswati II, the king who gave the country and its people their name, doubled its size through war in the 19th century. King Mbandzeni granted Europeans wide land concessions, its borders were fixed in 1881, and a convention of 1894 made it a protectorate of the South African Republic. After the Second Boer War, Britain ruled it from 1903 as a High Commission Territory, alongside Basutoland and Bechuanaland.

Independence came on 6 September 1968 under a Westminster-style constitution, which King Sobhuza II set aside by decree on 12 April 1973. He reigned for almost 83 years until his death in 1982, and a regency ruled until 1986. A new constitution came into force in 2005, and in April 2018 the king renamed the country Eswatini, its name in siSwati. It is an absolute monarchy: the king, the Ngwenyama, reigns alongside the queen mother, the Ndlovukati, appoints the prime minister, and parties may not stand in elections.

The country covers 17,364 km² (6,704 sq mi), from cool highveld around Mbabane to hot, dry lowveld. Sugarcane is the largest export, and Royal Eswatini Sugar is majority-owned by Tibiyo Taka Ngwane, the king's wealth fund; textiles and sugar processing lead manufacturing. The lilangeni is pegged to the South African rand, and most trade runs through the Southern African Customs Union. Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary and Malolotja Nature Reserve are among its protected areas, and the main ceremonies are Incwala, the kingship rite held around the December solstice, and Umhlanga, the reed dance in which young women bring reeds to the queen mother.