SWAZI RELIGION. The Swazi are part of the vast Bantu-speaking population of southern Africa, and their rich cultural heritage is a fusion of Nguni and Sotho elements. Prior to the incursion of colonial and Western influences they were Iron Age horticulturalists and cattle pastoralists, organized into centralized chieftancies. Polygyny and patrilineal descent characterize the kinship system.

The Swazi developed their particular national identity under a dual monarchy represented by a hereditary king of the Nkosi Dlamini clan and a queen mother (the mother of the king or, if she is dead, a surrogate). Unlike other African kingdoms that came under British colonial rule, the Swazi were never conquered by direct force, and much of their traditional culture survived and flourished under the leadership of King Sobhuza II (1899–1982). A direct lineal descendant of the founder of the royal Dlamini dynasty, Sobhuza was internationally acknowledged in 1968 as king...