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Offical name
Kingdom of Swaziland
Capital
Mbabane
Government type
monarchy
Language
English, siSwati
Area
17,363 sq km
Population
1,136,334 ( 2006 est.)
Currency
lilangeni (SZL)
Religion
Zionist, Roman Catholic, Muslim
Time zone
GMT/UTC +2 ()
Country dialing code
268
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The Kingdom of Swaziland is a small, landlocked country in Southern Africa, embedded between South Africa in the west and Mozambique in the east. Swaziland means a land of Swazi people, named after the Swazi, a Bantu tribe. As a rare nation of absolute power remained until today, it has a unique way of selecting a successor to the throne. When a king dies, an upper-class woman is selected as a queen at a royal family meeting. The queen becomes a mother of a successor to the throne of the Dlamini family, not of her own son. And she rules as agents until the successor becomes a king. There are two major festivals including Incwala in December and Umhlanga in August. Incwala is to celebrate the first fruit bearing for 6 days with Swaziland people dancing and singing. Umhlanga is a 5 day-long festival where unmarried women of this nation take reeds to repair fences of the queen’s village. This festival is a wish for national union and continued existence.
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