40,000 Bare-breasted Virgins In Swaziland Reed Dance

Tens of thousands of bare-breasted virgins lined up for inspection by King Mswati III Sunday in Swaziland’s annual reed dance, which is always riven with speculation over whether the king will choose a new bride.

The event is an important fixture in the cultural calendar of this deeply traditional southern African kingdom of around 1 million people and is held in honour of the Swazi queen mother.But the 39-year-old king, who already has 13 wives, also sometimes controversially uses the occasion to select a new bride.

Participation in this year’s dance was thought to be up on previous years with some reports putting at up to 40,000 the number of girls that converged on the royal residence at Ludzidzini, some 25 kilometres south of the Swazi capital Mbabane.

The festival kicked off Wednesday when the girls were dispatched by the king to cut reeds on a nearby river bank and ends Monday with a second dance.

In the absence of shower blocks some girls had to wash in a river before lining up in their “regiments” to present the reeds to the queen mother and file past the king.

The monarch was clad in a leopard-skin loincloth worn over a wrap skirt indicating his clan and carried a traditional arrow-shaped axe for the occasion.

In searing 35-degree-Celsius temperatures, the girls then reassembled on an open plain in front of the kraal, known as the “arena,” to dance in front of the king, his retinue and thousands of tourists.

Visitors from Australia, the United States and Britain were among the spectators, who were under strict instructions not to wear hats, point or kneel.

Among the king’s guests were Zambian King Levy Mwanawasa and South Africa’s ANC deputy president and ANC presidential candidate Jacob Zuma.

As part of the celebrations dozens of cattle were slaughtered and their hides hung to dry on the walls of the kraal, giving off a powerful stench in the hot sun.

The reeds collected by the girls are used as a wind breaker in huts and fences.

King Mswati was mesmerised by three Zimbabwean beauties, spotting them among more than 100 000 scantily-clad girls at the last week’s Reed Dance (Umhlanga), Zimbabwe’s state media reported.

The Herald said although Zimbabwean women have failed to make a mark at Moss World pageants, they have what it takes to turn royal heads.

“Out of more than 100 000 beauty queens that attended the annual reed dance festival in Swaziland, King Mswati III demanded to know the identity of three ladies he had spotted during the festival,” the paper said.

“The three happened to be Zimbabwean beauty queens – Carole Marufu, the reigning Miss Tourism Zimbabwe and her two princesses, Vongai Mushohwe and Mitchell Makaza.
Marufu said the King had not previously been told that they were from Zimbabwe.

“Since we were invited, we had to go and shake hands with him and he demanded to know where we had come from. We identified ourselves and he was so happy to meet us,” she said.

The Zimbabwe government had hoped to capitalise on the Reed Dance which normally attracts hundreds of tourists from around the world by sending its ‘cultural ambassadors’.

Following a stand-off with Western nations, Zimbabwe adopted the ‘Look East Policy’, stressing increased trade with Asian countries, particularly China.

However statistics for 2006 provided by the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) show that the United Kingdom and the United States are in the top ten of tourist arrivals, with China nowhere near that bracket.

Via NewZimbabwe

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Update

60,000 Topless Virgin Girls Want To Be Swaziland’s Queen

Undaunted by gale-force winds and a thick blanket of smoke, tens of thousands of bare-breasted virgins converged on the royal court of the tiny mountainous kingdom of Swaziland bearing reeds for the queen mother in a colourful annual ceremony.As many as 60 000 maidens were estimated to have registered for this year’s Reed Dance, up from 40 000 in 2007.

The dance is one of the high points of the Swazi cultural calendar and an occasion for King Mswati III to select another bride, although Swazis deemed it unlikely he would choose a 14th wife this year.

Winds on Sunday fanned wildfires on hills near the royal court at Ludzidzini, 25km south of the capital Mbabane, coating everything and everyone in dust and smoke.

Half marching, half-dancing, the girls advanced on the court to bestow on the queen mother the reeds they were sent to cut on a riverbank during the week.

The reeds are used in the making of huts and fences.

They then returned in their “regiments” to an arena below the royal compound, where the king, clad in a leopard-skin loincloth worn over a wrap skirt and carrying an arrow-shaped axe, was due to dance around them.

This year’s Reed Dance was abuzz with talk about the lavish “40-40″ bash being held in the capital next weekend to mark the king’s 40th birthday earlier this year and the 40th anniversary of Swaziland’s independence from Britain.

Mswati has been slated at home and abroad for spending R100-million on a party the country can ill afford.

Over 1 000 demonstrators, mostly HIV-positive women, took to the streets in Swaziland last week in protest over the party after it emerged that eight of Mswati’s wives, with children, maids and bodyguards in tow, treated themselves to a spot of shopping in Dubai for the event.

Some of the women did not seem to mind, hoping to escape from the southern African nation’s hardships for the easy life.

“I came here to dance. I wish the king would have chosen me because it’s nice at the king’s place. The wives live a nice life,” said Tenene Dlamini, 16, in a traditional brown skirt.

“Everything is done for them. They don’t work. They earn.”

The Reed Dance has been a big date on the Swaziland cultural calendar since Mswati began the ceremony in 1999.

Still, some of Swaziland’s women came to the Ludzidzini Royal Village to show their admiration for the monarch.

“I respect the king and I respect my culture,” said Nontobeko Sdidlamini, 16, carrying a shield made of animal skin and wearing an orange bracelet which read “Sex Can Wait”.

Some said they would not want to be part of a polygamous arrangement with the king and were taking part in the ceremony to prove their virginity. Others fear they lost out.

“My sister is the king’s tenth wife. I don’t think he can choose me because he has already chosen my sister,” said Zandisile Ntentesa, a 21-year-old prison employee.

The king, flanked by bodyguards with pistols and sticks, may face pressure from emboldened critics. But he can take comfort from the wealth which wins him tributes and songs at the reed ceremony.

Last month, Forbes magazine listed him as the 15th-richest monarch in the world. He was the only African on the list.

During the reed festivities, one of the king’s wives drove up in a fancy BMW. Policemen told people to look the other way.

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