The Cultural Element in Swazi Politics

The rise of the Imbokodvo was accompanied by a fresh upsurge of cultural chauvinism. The Swati language was given official recognition in the independence constitution and was introduced into the schools in the following year.^[104] There was a noticeable increase in popular participation in Swazi ceremonies such as the Ncwala . The churches discreetly dropped their opposition, and leading Swazi traditionalists, who were also members of mission churches, such as the first prime minister, Prince Makhosini, attended for the first time. Sobhuza's revived regiments played an overtly political role on at least one occasion, though he did decline to allow their use as auxiliary police in Mbabane in 1963.^[105]

The most vivid expression of this cultural nationalism was a new ethnic exclusivism which was directed not so much against European settlers as against Mozambicans and black South Africans, who constituted a significant proportion of the labour force. An attempt by the colonial government to tighten controls on African immigration in 1959–60 had failed owing to the lack of cooperation from the Swazi National Council which resented interference with what it considered its own prerogatives.^[106] After the post-Sharpeville influx of refugees and the labour unrest of 1963 there were frequent demands for action to be taken against foreign labour, though there was a fundamental difference of opinion between the Swazi National Council and the government as to who was a Swazi and who was not. The government believed that long residence in Swaziland qualified an 'African' to be regarded as Swazi, while the Council maintained that a person could only become a Swazi through ukukhonta —allegiance to a chief. They were determined to keep control over citizenship in their own hands and were able, after independence, to achieve this. Control over the process of ukukhonta gave the 'traditional' authorities a potent economic and political weapon, as well as a useful source of funds.^[107]

The question of the status in Swaziland of the South African Swazi was a complex one. Sobhuza had as early as 1960, in the context of a colonial deportation ordinance, expressed concern that this could be used against Swazi people from South Africa. But as Swaziland approached independence there was popular resentment against immigrants from South Africa, sometimes known as 'paper Swazi', who were thought to be cashing in on claimed Swazi roots to the detriment of the Swazi of Swaziland. There is evidence that Sobhuza himself, and some of his ministers, such as Prince Bhekimpi, who was to become prime minister in 1983 and who, as chief at Nkaba royal village, had followers in the Transvaal, saw the South African Swazi as a special case, but the law made no exception for them.^[108]

The case of Thomas Bhekindlela Ngwenya, however, which became a cause célèbre in 1972–3, demonstrated that at least some of the ruling group were prepared to put political expediency before any notion of an inclusive Swazi ethnicity. Ngwenya, as parliamentary candidate of the Ngwane National Liberation Congress, defeated the Imbokodvo candidate. Prince Mfanasibili, a nephew of the king, and was deported to South Africa. While it was never denied that Ngwenya was Swazi, he was alleged to have been born on the wrong side of the then unmarked border. After he had satisfied a court that he had indeed been

born within Swaziland, the hearing of citizenship cases was transferred from the courts to a hastily created tribunal, and he was again deported. After the tribunal was itself declared illegal, the independence constitution was suspended and parliament handed all power over to the king and council.^[109] Among the laws promulgated after this was an exceptionally exclusive citizenship law which further entrenched ukukhonta as practically the only was of acquiring Swazi citizenship.^[110] The case was probably the excuse for, rather than the cause of, the suspension of the constitution which the king and council had accepted under protest, but it did have the effect of hardening the distinction between the Swazi of Swaziland and the Swazi of South Africa, and increased the insecurity of people of marginal status. It was hardly surprising that Ngwenya was reported in 1982 to be campaigning in KaNgwane against the land deal.^[111]