Chapter 5. National executive power in Swaziland is vested in a king who has considerable executive power under the 1978 constitution. The king appoints, and is assisted by, a prime minister and Cabinet. The bicameral parliament has limited powers. There is to my understanding a growing pressure for the monarch to introduce a multi-party democracy. The nation attained full independence on September 6, 1968, with King Sobhuza II as head of state. The king suspended the constitution in 1973 and banned all political activity; under a new constitution promulgated in 1978 a bicameral parliament was indirectly elected. Following the death of Sobhuza in 1982, a power struggle ensued to determine which of the king’s wives would rule as queen regent and which of his 67 sons would ascend the throne. In 1986 Crown Prince ‘Makhosetive’ was installed as ‘King Mswati III’. ‘Mbabane’ is the administrative capital of Swaziland, in Hhohho District, located on a high plateau in the western part of the country near the border with South Africa. Mbabane is the countrys largest community and it is an administrative, commercial, and transport centre. A rail link connects the town with nearby coal and iron-ore mines, and with the Indian Ocean port of Maputo in Mozambique. Mbabane developed in the late 19th century near the residence of the Swazi king Mbandzeni. It developed as an administrative centre while Swaziland was a British dependency (1903-1968), and became the administrative capital of the newly independent country in 1968. By break of dawn the following morning a cook-a-roo-coo from a domestic chicken that must have slept just outside next to the window beside me rudely woke me up. And my attempts at ignoring its annoying summoning call for cavalry charge failed miserably in under 15minutes as this chicken was relentless and would take no prisoners on its quest to wake everybody up. No doubt it was time to wake up, and mind you the time was only 06:00 am on a Saturday morning and already the girls assigned to cater to our needs had already risen and prepared warm water for us to wash ourselves. What good sports this girls were, and all of them I had met the night before during the dance sessions. There were three that I could initially recognize from the previous night. The one who seemed to dance quiet a lot, she must have been around 19 years of age, had a toddler who seemed to linger around her all the time, and she was the freest one of them all. The second was a hard working girl around the ages of 22 years or so. A shy spirited girl who hardly said a word but responded promptly to what was asked of her; I believe this girl did all this with absolute love and appreciation for the people who had come to wed her cousin. She had a naturally calm and welcoming persona though quiet and reserved one could simply hear the unspoken word of her open heart. Lastly was one who could very well have been about 16 years if not less of age, unpretentiously curious about the visitors, though respectful enough not to behave erratically. Though woken up to the now dominant feelings of home-sickness inside me that had built a home, nested eggs and claimed reign over its territory. A powerful and sublime sense of being was slowly gathering strength to contend for its right to reign and rule over me during my stay in Swaziland. This sense of being I would come to recognize and call a ‘country strong’ sense of self. This is an awe-inspiration that comes from within people to show them to their in-most self. Their country sense of existence, that is unblemished from the traps of civilization, the insignificant trappings of possession and material gain. The awakening to oneness with nature, with love and tolerance, people and beast alike, and the land that in itself is a part of the people. This is a country strong sense that potentially nests inside everyone, undisturbed only to be awakened by a prevailing force that transcends beyond fears, hate, judgment and a lack of tolerance, and then to transform us into a people of great substance and potential. My belief on this powerful epiphany had grown exponentially. This would be the big day of cause, the day to ensue the agenda we had come about. After we bathed ourselves clean and million dollar-looking, we set off to breakfast that featured nicely done home-baked cakes. For the first time I had something edible this country would offer, or so it seemed at the time. Though the tea was somewhat offish, mated with strange milk packaged in a strange white box container written ‘Umcenge milk’, this was surely a local fresh produce. I paid no mind to its taste though as I gorged over the cakes to gather strength for the unfolding day ahead. For the purpose of respect for the elderly and tradition we were required to dress formally with jackets over our shirts, of cause this to my dislike at that moment as the sun would soon bake the farm-like environment. Also a formal shirt and jacket on an adventure, not really an ideal choice of clothing, however this was a necessary discomfort so we had to make do. For the first time just after the nicely presented breakfast I got to see the place we came to visit, boy was it remarkably beautiful. The time was around past 8am as I got to go outside to inspect the obviously grandeur scenery and surrounding areas. All my life I had been particularly petite of stature and somewhat shy, this meant that all the confidence I seem to portray and radiate had been built and controlled as a developed skill in opposition to a natural character trait. So being of petite stature and a shy boy trained me to use what I had naturally to my arsenal in order to survive, adapt and be taken seriously. It meant almost all the time I would have to use my head for every event and encounter. Taking in every possible aspect of information I could collect from every situation, event and environment had become second nature to me. This is necessary as it most certainly comes into great use when in tight corners, the ability to recall this data allows for an adaptive and alert response to unforeseen situations, better the devil you know! For example, before I got to meet Jonny Broomberg for our meeting he had agreed to, I went on a rigorous campaign to learn as much as I could about the man. I also read all the weekly emails he had been sending to every employee of discovery informing or updating them about the current happenings of the company. I learnt while reading these mails that about a week prior to our meeting his daughter broke her arm. So to break ice in the meeting I asked about his daughter, though due to my nervousness I asked about her leg instead of her arm, of cause enquiring about her recovery as a concern to me. With mild laughter he pointed out that it was her arm that had broken not her leg, but I believe he was startled that someone either than the other executives at discovery knew about this. This meant to him that I had been persistently reading his emails. I know this as he went on to tell me during the meeting that people simply do not read his emails, and he knew this for sure. Boy was he right, when I enquired, people would simply point out how much time to his hands this CEO had, and not one would read his bible sized emails. This instantaneously gave me an advantage over all these people, Jonny loved writing to all and I was possibly the only one who took the time to read his emails. In fact I did too much of that, reading just about everything I could get a hold of. There is something about people reading what you write; it’s like being listened to. He told me about an incident where some employee tried to send a mail to a friend commenting about Jonny’s emails but accidently replied to Jonny. Stating in the email how boring this man was, and how he would surely die if he would read any of those long boring emails. Also one hot-shot guy with a fancy job at Discovery Health Systems by the name of ‘Jamie Whittaker’ once told me how he didn’t for a second believe that this man wrote his emails by himself, “he simply doesn’t have the time for such”, he propounded. This to me suggested Jamie had never read any of Jonny’s mails either, had he done so he would know Jonny wrote them himself. The detail simply showed that these were written personally by Jonny himself. With these findings and information I had to my arsenal, and reading Jonny’s responses during the meeting, I could foretell that this man was impressed that I knew details he put on his long emails. My campaign to take in as much information regarding this man had secured me an asset, a mentor and a friend. The sun, earth relationship had been born, the sun maybe oblivious to the impact it has to the miniature earth; but to earth, the sol’s radial sustenance is no doubt life giving. Naturally with this acute skill to my arsenal meant that I couldn’t wait to venture outside the now familiar house in Swaziland. To scan the environment for life saving detail people normal pass without noticing. This place was undoubtedly rural but very beautiful, at that current time of the morning with the area surrounded by mountains meant that the sun hadn’t yet penetrated to our ground level. The mountains surrounding the area are covered by dense mist in the mornings which in turn blocks the sun’s scotching heat, so it was nice and cool by then. I remember seeing an odd looking chicken, weary looking with an overly exposed neck lacking any feathers. It’s barely hanging body covered by a not so charming coat of feather I’ve ever seen. This to my mind was what a live resemblance of a ‘kaffir chicken’ would be I guessed. The little old bugger was just roaming about, cluck-clucking away possibly in search of food. This crummy old chicken looked as though it must have had it tough throughout its bird-life. It must’ve been reciprocating the pain by sleeping next to windows to summon the cavalry by break of dawn, all in an attempt to invade on people’s sleep. There also were few domestic dogs roaming about the dirt covered yard, skinny as hound dogs would be. Some with spots on their skins possibly from some dog disease of some sort, or possibly from a nasty infestation of parasites, certainly no ounce of man’s best friend allure. I saw few little children also from the ages of about three to six years or something. The little houses which belonged to this family lined up beginning with the one we occupied then three others followed forming a large yard with sub-divisions to the surrounding grand yard. These shared just one self-made rural lavatory. I will not even attempt to describe this, truly stuff that nightmares are nested on. Just outside the yard which had a tired looking parameter made of wire fencing was a moderate sized corn field surrounding the outside of the yard. Little further northwards would be what appeared to be another home. This also followed a similar fashion of building architecture, and then north to it, about 20 meters or so would begin the mountain slope. Possibly south-east of the yard we occupied, just a few feet off the cornfield began a down-hill slope descending about a few hundred meters to another home as well. This pattern of building seemed to mimic one another for kilometers or as far as I could see. What were vividly visible though on these lands were fields and fields of green, possibly tall grass and this made the setting enormously beautiful and announced itself rightfully rural. No visible tall buildings or tarred road or anything resembling a sign of urban living, not even sounds from motor vehicles were audible, in fact the only car visible within a large area was the blue Clio parked just next to the house we occupied which seem to overwhelm the environment with human engineered beauty. It was of cause accentuated by the fact that it was the only thing resembling a sculpture of urban life. Also easterly about five to ten kilometers from the host residence was what I would come to learn as I enquired, a University. I believed that this was an agricultural university at the time, this facility from where I stood certainly lacked poise and grandeur to its appearance. To my careful analysis from where I stood, the thing could have easily passed for an old Zulu hostel, it also wouldn’t be too hard to conceive of a notion that it could very well have smelled like one. I remember thinking to myself “boy this Mswati chief is not serious, publicly polygamous and a country to his disposal where he reign and rules, there still are universities of this caliber?”, thinking this I almost spoke the thoughts out loud but quickly restrained myself. One can never know how patriotic people can get, best to keep silly rudimentary judgments to oneself. This was indeed an Agricultural University of Swaziland as I would later confirm while driving through the institute. I lingered along the yard for a while taking pictures with my mobile phone, making little notes on it and walking about, greeting the kids and all. Staying within the boundaries of my part of the yard of cause, as no one can fully know the rules these people fuss about. While lingering about the yard I was of cause waiting for everyone to finish bathing and preparing for the day, meaning Tshilidzi and the rest of the people we came with. Also waiting to be official called in to commence the agenda we were about, as this was the official day to the lobola negotiations. According to custom these normally take place in the mornings, not as to sure why. Perhaps the old timers just secretly prefer to get the formalities out the way as quick as possible so they can march along to the business of drinking, meat devouring and merry making as this is usual occurrence at events of this nature. This would be a day to remember for sure, it is not every day that a person gets to mingle with two different cultures that are deeply rooted in tradition, brought together by a common cause. This would be a day marked by cheering, drinking, singing and of cause hard negotiations. A day to tarry in my mind for a long time, no doubt flowered by grandeur scenery and entertaining spectacle from a people so far-away yet justly one with me, all of us. All the people of the world, we are divided by fear, mistrust, hate, ignorance and a feeble belief that some are better and superior to others while in actual fact we are one. We are of the same energy source that dwells within each and every person in the world. We are connected to the world and it to us, the universe is our domain and we its subjects as we share life, possibility and hope. Nothing beyond the realm of this notion is of utter importance. Life is important, people account for much more, no matter their perceived flaws, no matter their differences. No matter the race, color or geographical placement; we simply are one. There is neither a beloved Isaac nor distasteful Ishmael, neither a superior nor a barbarian nation; this is all a creation of a rudimentary and feeble ideology perpetuated by a fearful and a limited mind.
Posted on: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 08:18:33 +0000
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