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In the meantime, Mswati has demonstrated that despite his British schooling, Swazi tribal tradition has a strong hold on him. Mswati was one of at least 67 sons of Sobhuza, who had as many as 200 children -- the exact number is a royal secret -- and who died at 83 as the world's oldest reigning monarch (Emperor Hirohito of Japan, at 86, is now the oldest). At last year's coronation, the chiefs of Swaziland paid a total of 105 cattle to the family of Mswati's mother Ntombi as a dowry for the woman who was to become the mother of the nation. Before the public ceremony, Mswati underwent secret initiation rites and took part in a series of exhausting ritual dances in full feathered regalia. At the coronation, tribal praise singers endlessly repeated his imposing chain of official titles, which include the Bull, Guardian of the Sacred Shields, the Inexplicable and the Great Mountain.
Like his father, Mswati generally remains aloof from commoners. He exercises his power largely through private audiences given at Elusaseni, the royal capital, a traditional Swazi village of thatched huts about 15 miles from Mbabane. Flanked by advisers, Mswati listens to local disputes and hands out royal counsel on property questions and other matters. He appears in public only on such national holidays as his birthday, April 19, and to receive state visitors. Britain's Prince Charles dropped by for a chat in March.
The most sensitive foreign responsibility that the young King inherited is landlocked Swaziland's relationship with its powerful neighbor, South Africa. The economies of the two countries are closely linked, as are their respective police and intelligence agencies. With a gross national product of $65 billion, in contrast to Swaziland's $490 million, South Africa is the smaller country's principal trading partner and its sole supplier of oil, gasoline, electricity and most consumer goods. In exchange for South African economic cooperation, Swaziland has closely policed the activities of antiapartheid African National Congress militants within its borders. A few weeks ago Mswati met at the royal residence with South Africa's Foreign Minister Roelof ("Pik") Botha, who had been a close friend of the King's father, to discuss a continuation of those ties.
When the late King Sobhuza was angry, his subjects used to say, "The lion is aroused." According to royal aides, Mswati likewise displays a natural imperiousness. Several advisers who have seen the young King in high dudgeon have given him the sobriquet "Fire Eyes." Like his father, Mswati is clearly determined to have a king-size family. He has three wives already, and at this week's annual reed-dance ceremony, in which Swazi maidens take part in a topless parade, he may be induced to choose a fourth.
Mswati is adamant about protecting the sanctity of Swazi tribal rituals. Three months ago the young King arrested the British leader of a fundamentalist Christian movement, the South African-based Rhema Gospel Church, and has kept him locked up ever since. The proselytizing foreigner, who is expected to appear in court this month, faces charges of sedition for daring to suggest that certain Swazi traditions, such as the reed-dance ceremony, might be "ungodly and immoral." As the people of Swaziland are learning, Fire Eyes does not take lightly any kind of disrespect.