Thread by @Unseen_Archive

Swazi king Mswati III today fled the country in the face of popular anger.

Here's a thread on the history of protest in eSwatini. In 1963 striking miners & sugar workers demanded better wages & an open political system. The strike was put down by British troops flown frm Kenya.

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The strike leaders were identified by hooded 'screeners'--a technique borrowed from the British campaign against Mau Mau in Kenya.

Below: British troops round up striking workers at an asbestos mine in eSwatini, June 1963. They were demanding one man-one vote.

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In 1964 voters went to the polls for the first time in 61 years of British colonial control. The king--Sobhuza II--launched a political party to contest the election. He intended to take Swaziland into apartheid South Africa--a means of reinforcing his royal power.

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Swaziland's 1st legislature sat in Sept 1964. It was dominated by Sobhuza II's party, which wanted an absolute monarchy.

Protestors, however, insisted that Swaziland should be a democracy. Here members of the Nat Liberation Council protest under their leader, Domisa Dhalmini.

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eSwatini got its independence on 7 Sept. 1968. There was a weak legislature; King Sobhuza II was the head of state. Here's a clip of the ceremony in Mbabane, in which the king--bedecked in feathers--receives the instruments of govt. from the Commonwealth Secretary.

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In 1973 Sobhuza II suspended the constitution, abolished the legislature & thereafter ruled by decree.

Here's an @itn interview with a royalist spokesman, Jan. 1963. He decries democratic leaders & argues that the Swazi monarchy promotes wide participation in politics.

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And here's an @itn interview with a leading nationalist politician--whose name I don't know--from Jan. 1963.

He argues that the British had done too little to promote democracy, and advocates for an elected government, allied to a democratic South Africa.

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What's the point? Swazi kings have long sought to control political life in the name of tradition.

In fact their authority was--at critical points--propped up by British power.

Activists today have a long & inspirational history to draw on as they challenge Mswati III.