All right, we are making Geography Now history.
For the first time we are nullifying the alphabetical rule.
Recently this country changed their name and as of 2018, the UN has officially taken on the new title.
No more Swaziland, say hello to eSwatini!
[intro clip]
Hey everybody, I'm your host -- Barbs, this is pretty exciting because this has never happened before on our show.
Today, we get to cover a country that could otherwise have to wait a few more years to have their episode made.
[Zimbabwe] Hmm, you know what? I'm kind of content with my place in line.
[Zimbabwe] It's kind of an honor to be the last country. You know what I'm saying?
[Kwa-Zulu Natal] Wait, I got an idea, what if I decided to create my own Zulu country?
[Zimbabwe] Nope!
[Zimbabwe] Like I said, it would be an honor.
Let's look at the map now. Shall we?
[Transition clip]
eSwatini is a nation with strong traditions and interesting controversial customs.
Let's start off by locating this tiny nation; shall we?
First of all, eSwatini is landlocked, located in the southern African region,
bordered by Mozambique to the northeast and the rest by South Africa. At only about 17,400 square kilometers,
the country is the second smallest mainland African nation after The Gambia,
And seventh overall if you include the island nations. The country is divided into four regions with the capital
Mbabane located in the northern part of the country.
However, traditionally the city of Lobamba is considered to be the royal and legislative capital of the country where the royal family lives.
Yeah, that's right. This is royal territory we're in. We'll talk more about that later.
eSwatini has a light semi continuous dispute with South Africa over the
Kangwane areas that are claimed to be historical lands of the kingdom and are today administered by the
Mpumalanga province of South Africa. Surprisingly the capital is not the largest city, that title actually goes to
Manzini a bit further east and even more interesting. Although the country is barely populated with limited space,
they still have two international airports: King Mswati the Third International and Matsapha International.
Numerous road entrances come in from South Africa like the main highway the MR3.
It traverses the entire country west to east eventually ending in Mozambique
which is like their main link to the Indian Ocean only 48 kilometers at the capital of Mozambique Maputo.
Only 48 kilometers?
Yep
So does that mean you could like start in Mozambique, go to eSwatini and make a quick hook into South Africa
All in one day?
Yeah, it is kind of possible
but just be mindful of the traffic and when the border actually opens.
Whoa. You could go to like three countries and one day? Are you guys up for that?
Wait, who are you by the way?
I'm Hannah.
Oh, how-how-how did you get on the show?
Well, I'm a friend of Noah's and your subscribers said they wanted more females on your show. So I'm here to fill your quota.
Oh, yea...
Can you read the teleprompter again?
Yes.
All right. You're in.
Otherwise some notable places of interest might include: All that royal stuff in Lobamba, the house of parliament, the house on fire
The Maguga dam, the Swazi cultural village and craft markets, the Manzini market,
Yebo art gallery, the sugar cane museum, the Mbzimba trail, the Malolotja canopy tour,
Somhlolo Stadium, eSwatini National Museum, Sibebe rocks, King Sobhuza the Second Memorial Park, Happy Valley Casino.
Yep, they have a casino.
And keep in mind each of the nature reserves usually hosts a traditional tribal village
with those thick dome thatched reed houses that you can check out.
Speaking of nature reserves. Let's discuss the natural side of the country now, shall we?
[Transition clip]
Now eSwatini may be small, but you'd be surprised at how many diverse physical regions it actually has.
First of all, the country is mostly sandwiched between the Lebombo mountains to the east
and the Drakensberg mountains to the west, where you can find the tallest peak Emlembe to the north.
In between is the Lebombo Valley the flattest part of the country or most of the savannahs, forests, and farms are found as well as an abundance
of rivers like the longest one the great Usutu River. Some of the rivers are blocked up by dams like the Komati River
which creates reservoirs like the largest one in the country the Maguga reservoir.
Whew - Alright, this is about time for my triple shot Espresso break.
You know what Noah? Get over here.
Noah, how would you like to have your own segment
in every Physical Geography section of every episode from now on?
You know what? That sounds pretty great to me as long as I'm here to shoot the episodes. I'm down.
Alright, great you are officially promoted to "Geography - Physical Section co-host". Alright
Cha Ching!!
If Noah gets promoted does that mean I get to be promoted? -
Ken, just keep rolling!
but I've been working for you longer than-
KEN!!!
Oh yeah...
[♪♪] Ken, Ken, Ken. Do it Ken or you're fired. Ken, I swear! [♪♪]
-Back to Noah-
In addition to the mountains and valleys, which by the way have a ton of beautiful waterfalls like the one at Mantenga.
There is over ten nature reserves, sanctuaries, and most notable one the
-Hlane- royal national park. Known for having the largest population of nesting vultures in the world.
You can find the typical species of sub-saharan Africa, the Big Five that I already explained in the Malawi episode.
And the national animal the Thompson's gazelle. there's also the
-Malolotja- reserve which has some of the oldest mountains on earth, and supposedly the oldest mine on earth,
-Ngwenya- mine speculated to be used is during the Stone Age.
Economy wise, over half of the population either works in agriculture and are subsistence farmers.
Surprisingly, they are the fourth largest producer in sugar in Africa despite limited land area.
They are also famous for producing two unique items: -Ngwenya glass-, which is often intricately moulded by
specialists often to look like animals and Swazi candles. Which usually come in multi pattern designs often shaped like animals as well.
You know, I don't understand candles though. Like if I bought that I would never light it up and use it.
Why would you melt such a beautiful candle?
Would you do it for -- six dollars?
Get me my blowtorch!
Otherwise food in eSwatini is similar to those of other countries around them.
You have dishes like round maize and bean porridge,
Pumpkin porridge, dried meats straps, pumpkin leaf and nut stew. Yeah pumpkins are kind of a big deal here. Despite having relatively diversified economy,
They do kind of suffer from low production and high unemployment at about 25% which is actually a drop in the previous 40%
in 2006. This is partially because the country faces a high adult mortality rate which in return
affects the labor sector. eSwatini has a lot on its plate. Let's discuss that in...
[Transition clip]
Awesome great job Noah. Follow him on Instagram, send him fan mail.
Thank you.
For the record, somebody from eSwatini is called Swazi. I love that word, "Swazi".
Anyway, the country has about 1.4 million people and nearly 40% of the population is 14 or under in age.
The country is almost completely homogeneous with about 97% of the people identifying as ethnically Swazi.
Whereas the rest are mostly white Africans either of British or Afrikaner descent.
They use the Lilangeni as their currency, which is pegged to the South African Rand.
They use the type M outlet if they drive on the left side of the road.
Now here's the thing
We have to address the sad reality that eSwatini has one of the lowest life
expectancies in the world at only about 50 years old.
This is partially due to the fact that about a quarter of the entire adult population suffers from HIV/AIDS
and as of today, they have the highest rate in the world per capita.
To this day is estimated that about one out of every six children under the age of 15 has been orphaned by losing both parents to the disease.
This in return has caused a huge shortage in adult labour and today over 60% of the country lives in relative poverty.
It's also forced the rulers to revise an entirely new social structure and policies in order to combat sexually transmitted diseases.
One way they did this was by introducing a program of action, which aims to reach first world status by 2022.
In the program it states that it will increase the number of HIV clinics over tenfold both in urban and rural areas with proper aid
packages and they'll also incentivize medical professionals to stay in the country to prevent brain drain.
Speaking of which in Eswatini they speak Swazi or Siswati a language closely related to Zulu.
In addition, English is also Co-official and taught in schools.
They were a British protectorate for a while
Otherwise eSwatini is not only a monarchy, but actually one of the world's only for diarchies.
KEN! Explain what a diarchy is. Go!
um
okay
A diarchy is when two independent authoritative figures take control of a country equally.
Sort of like Andorra with the co-principality
In the case of eSwatini it would be the king known as that Ngwenyama (or lion).
And the Queen Mother or the Ndlovukati (or elephant mother).
This means that the king and his mother ruled the country. And if there is no mother,
a ritual substitute can also be the Queen Mother usually an elder female relative.
Ken I just asked you to explain what a diarchy is, not the whole royal system of the country.
Uh, well, that's what you get for not promoting me.
Oh, oh, you want a promotion?! Oh, you wanna promotion? Oh, yeah. Okay. Oh yeah, really, really?!!
Well, here's six dollars!
I'll take it!
To this day they're the only absolute diarchy in the world with virtually all legislative power given to the king and queen mother.
Although yeah, Let's be honest the king kind of does most of the big stuff.
There's a lot of other rules, too
like the first wife is called the ritual wife and she isn't allowed to have kids
and there's no firstborn son rule. Technically any appointed son can become king
But yeah, it's basically the king and his mom.
They do have an appointed prime minister in Parliament though. They get voted in for five-year terms.
The majority at about 83 percent of the country identifies as Christian however
It's a little tricky because like Haiti, lots of the indigenous beliefs have also sort of synchronized
into what is considered mainstream Swazi Christianity.
The royal family themselves kind of identify with Christianity
but also follow indigenous beliefs that go against doctrines such as practicing polygamy
The king is also the center of the Incwala ceremony, an indigenous religious festival held by special
Priests known as the Bemanti
Speaking of which the former king Sobhuza II is speculated to have anywhere between 70 to 125 wives. He had over 200 children.
He descended to the throne as king when he was only four months old after his father died
and after over 82 years he is the monarch with the longest verifiable reign recorded ever in history.
This means that if Queen Elizabeth lives to be a hundred and ten years old, she could beat him in 2035
I think I did the math, right? Okay
So eighty-two years minus her current reign and then take the age and then add seventeen plus the current year. Yeah 2035
Going back to the ceremony thing
the most famous festival would probably be the Mhlanga ceremony,
Or the Fertility festival and redance ceremony.
Now before I explain exactly what it is.
~Full Disclosure~ The entire event is performed by bare chested women.
YouTube has stated that its policy is not to restrict nudity in such instances
where it is culturally or traditionally appropriate.
However for the sake of safety and respect for certain viewers, we will censor it anyway.
The festival is for unmarried virgin women whom travel from the various chiefdoms to the Ludzidzini near the royal village.
Tens of thousands of women show up wearing special sashes anklets and skirts
as they sing and dance with giant reed stacks which they used to repair holes in the windscreen of the royal village.
The official purpose of the annual ceremony is to preserve the woman's chastity,
provide tribute labor to the Queen Mother and produce solidarity
amongst women throughout working together.
Often the royal princesses also join in and you can tell who they are if they wear the red feathers of the luery bird which
Which only the royal family are allowed to wear.
And yeah, that was a lot of culture info. All right condense history time
We don't have a lot of time to explain but in the quickest way I can put it.
Bantus arrive
This King leads the Dlamini clan
This King becomes the king at age six.
Christian missionaries -- Boer Wars
a bunch of more kings and queens take over
Crossfire with the Anglo-Boer Wars.
The country becomes a British protectorate.
Autonomy and independence.
King Sobhuza II repeals the constitution and bans all political parties
and develops the system favoring traditional tribal communities.
1990s civil action promotes more democracy new parliament elections
and here we are today.
Besides the royal family some notable people from eSwantini or of Swazi descent might include people like:
Carl Crack
Malla Nunn
Denis Masina
Zola Maseko
Luke Hall
Rabbi Nathan Gamedze
Tiffany Simelane
and a ton of soccer players
Alright, let's finish off this bad boy with some friends. Shall we?
[Transition clip]
Now eSwatini is a small country but they still reach out to the rest of the world.
and they have an interesting way of doing it.
When it comes to outside of Africa,
They're one of the few countries that recognizes and has diplomatic ties to Taiwan rather than the People's Republic of China.
Taiwan has a lot of investments and each have embassies.
The United States and the UK each give the most foreign aid from abroad
especially in the HIV/AIDS programs implemented by the Agency for International Development and Centers for Disease Control.
They're also the largest bilateral donor to the Global Fund and invest heavily in education, especially in eSwatini's medical field.
They're also part of the Commonwealth of Nations, which keeps British ties close.
Inside of Africa, they are part of the Southern African Development Community
They have ties to all the countries included
Of course, Mozambique helps them with trade and gives them access to shipping.
Portuguese is also a commonly taught third language for the people.
When it comes to the best friends however, most Swazi people I have talked to have said South Africa
and specifically the Zulu areas of South Africa. Zulus are their cousins,
they basically speak the same language and understand each other's customs. South Africa is a source of
90% of their imports and 70% of their exports. The two despite being distinctly two nations are essentially one blood.
In conclusion
Even though modern years have had a few bruises, eSwatini is a nation that has years of royal culture that will live on.
Goodbye, Swaziland! Hello eSwatini!
Stay tuned, the Maldives (for real this time) is coming up next.