Swaziland: Decolonisation and the Triumph of ‘Tradition’

Hugh Macmillan

doi:10.1017/S0022278X00055014

Swaziland: Decolonisation and the Triumph of ‘Tradition’

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2008

Hugh Macmillan

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Any consideration of the process of decolonisation must be primarily concerned with the question of to whom power was transferred. Who inherited the colonial state and how did they establish their claim? The basic thesis of this article is that in order to understand the nature of the post-colonial state in Swaziland it is necessary to look back at least as far as the 1930s, and to trace the roots of Swazi ‘traditionalism’, the ideology which triumphed over competing forms of African nationalism during the 1960s.

Type: Articles
Information: The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 23 , Issue 4 , December 1985 , pp. 643 - 666

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X00055014 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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References

^{page 643 note 1} Samuel, Raphael, ‘Mr Benn Consults Some Household Gods’, in The Guardian Weekly (London), 14 10 1984.Google Scholar

^{page 643 note 2} Kuper, Hilda, An African Aristocracy: rank among the Swazi (London, 1947), p. 9.Google Scholar

^{page 643 note 3} Potholm, Christian P., Swaziland: the dynamics of political modernization (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London, 1972), ch. 1, ‘The Ngwenyama and the Primacy of Tradition’, p. 1–28;Google ScholarBooth, Alan R., Swaziland: tradition and change in a Southern African Kingdom (Boulder, 1983), ch. 2, ‘The Sociocultural System’, pp. 34–62;Google Scholar and Davies, Robert H., O'Meara, Dan, and Dlamini, Sipho, The Kingdom of Swaziland — a Profile (London, 1985), pp. 50–70.Google Scholar

^{page 644 note 1} Marx, Karl and Engels, Fredrich, Selected Works (Moscow, 1968 edn.), p. 96.Google Scholar

^{page 644 note 2} The Constitution of Swaziland, Act No. 50 of 1968, section 95.

^{page 645 note 1} Kuper, Hilda, Sobhuza II. Ngwenyama and King of Swaziland: the story of an hereditary ruler and his country (London, 1978), pp. 17–74.Google Scholar

^{page 645 note 2} The Swazi Kingdom had earlier lost much land and nearly half its people as a consequence of boundary settlements made from 1866 onwards.

^{page 645 note 3} On the land partition, see, for example, Crush, J. S., ‘The Colonial Division of Space’, in International Journal of African Historical Studies (New York), XIII, 1980.Google Scholar

^{page 645 note 4} On labour migration, see Booth, Alan R., ‘The Development of the Swazi Labour Market, 1900–1968’, in South African Labour Bulletin (Durban), VII, 1982;Google Scholar and de Vletter, Fion, ‘Labour Migration in Swaziland’, in Bohning, W. R. (ed.), Black Migration to South Africa: a selection of policy-oriented research (Geneva, 1981), pp. 45–89.Google Scholar

^{page 646 note 1} A. Miller to D. Malcolm, Private Secretary to Lord Selborne, 21 December 1906, in Miller File 113, MS 429, Killie Campbell Africana Library, Durban.

^{page 646 note 2} Kuper, Sobhua II, pp. 43–50; and Hailey, W. M., Native Administration in the British African Territories (London, 1951), pt. v, pp. 375–6.Google Scholar

^{page 647 note 1} Times of Swaziland (Mbabane), 22 November 1934; Swaziland National Archives (hereinafter S.N.A.), R.C.S. 360/21, correspondence relating to H. O'Neil's filming of ceremonies in Swaziland in 1919; and Kuper, Hilda, ‘A Royal Ritual in a Changing Historical Context’, in Cahiers d'études africaines (Paris), XXI, 1972, p. 596.Google Scholar

^{page 647 note 2} S.N.A., R.C.S. 331/30, Minutes of Meeting of Resident Commissioner with Paramount Chief and Liqoqo, 20 August 1922.

^{page 647 note 3} Hailey, op. cit. pt. v, p. 394.

^{page 648 note 1} S.N.A., R.C.S. 51/26, correspondence relating to the liquidation of Abantu-Batho Ltd., 1927–9; and Hyam, Ronald, The Failure of South African Expansion, 1908–1948 (London, 1972), p. 79.CrossRef Google Scholar

^{page 648 note 2} See Marwick, A. G., The Attitude of the Swazi Towards Government and its Causes (Mbabane, 1955), pp. 89 ff., for lengthy extracts from this document.Google Scholar

^{page 649 note 1} S.N.A., R.C.S. 152/30, Contains draft constitutions of the Swaziland Progressive Association, circa 1930.

^{page 649 note 2} Kuper, Sobhuza II, pp. 134–79; and Hailey, op. cit. pt. v, pp. 389–90.

^{page 650 note 1} Financial and Economic Situation of Swaziland. Report of the Commission Appointed by the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs (London, 1932), p. 66.Google Scholar

^{page 650 note 2} Kuper, Sobhuza II, pp. 157–9.

^{page 650 note 3} Times of Swaziland, 7 June 1934.

^{page 651 note 1} Apart from a few national schools, some ‘tribal schools’ had been established in ‘native areas’ on the initiative of individual chiefs.

^{page 651 note 2} ‘Memorandum upon Native Education by the Paramount Chief of Swaziland’, 1933, in South African Institute of Race Relations ‘Ibutho’ File, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. The modern Swati spelling is Libutfo.

^{page 651 note 3} S.N.A., R.C.S. 503/35, A. G. Marwick to Colonel R. Rey, 13 November 1935.

^{page 651 note 4} Kuper, An African Aristocracy, p. 2.

^{page 652 note 1} S.N.A., R.C.S. 503/35, ‘Report on the “Ibutho” System of the Swazi National School’ by the Principal, T. Keen, 20 September 1938. See Matsebula, James S. M., The King's Eye (Cape Town, 1983), pp. 15–24 and 31.Google Scholar

^{page 652 note 2} S.N.A., R.C.S. 503/35, Mrs A. W. Hoernlé and Dr I. Schapera, ‘Joint Report on the Advisability and Possibility of Introducing the “Ibutho” System of the Swazi into the Educational System’, 1934.

^{page 652 note 3} E.g. letters to the Times of Swaziland from O. Bavenda, 9 March 1933, and D. Dhlamini, 23 March 1933.

^{page 652 note 4} Sundkler, Bengt, Zulu Zion and Some Swazi Zionists (London, 1976), pp. 206–38.Google Scholar

^{page 652 note 5} Times of Swaziland, 26 November 1931; and Petition of the Swazi Tribes to the Union Parliament (Newcastle, Natal, 1932), with preface by Pixley Seme.Google Scholar

^{page 653 note 1} Kuper, Hilda, The Uniform of Colour (Johannesburg, 1947), p. 21.Google Scholar

^{page 653 note 2} Conversation with Sir Brian Marwick, Castletown, Isle of Man, 2 October 1983. Also, reports of speeches in the Times of Swaziland, 1 and 8 December 1932, 23 February, 13 April, 7 and 21 December 1933, and 4 January 1934; and Swaziland Government, Report on Education, 1932 (Mbabane, 1933), by H.J. E. Dumbrell.Google Scholar

^{page 654 note 1} Kuper, An African Aristocracy, p. 49.

^{page 654 note 2} Halpern, Jack, South Africa's Hostages: Basutoland, Bechuanaland and Swaziland (Harmondsworth, 1965), p. 69.Google Scholar

^{page 654 note 3} Booth, loc. cit. p. 41.

^{page 654 note 4} S.N.A., R.C.S. 224/14; Times of Swaziland, 3 December 1931; and Skota, T. M., The African Yearly Register (Johannesburg, 1932), p. 321.Google Scholar

^{page 655 note 1} Skota, op. cit. p. 231; Kuper, , Sobhuza II, p. 142;Google Scholar and Brittain, Vera, Testament of Friendship (London, 1939), p. 214.Google Scholar

^{page 655 note 2} Times of Swaziland, 9 June 1932.

^{page 655 note 3} Kuper, Sobhuza II, p. 171; also conversation with Marwick, 2 October 1983.

^{page 655 note 4} Times of Swaziland, 7 April 1932 and 21 March 1935; also Kuper, Sobhuza II, p. 123.

^{page 655 note 5} S.N.A., Secretariat File 1479, correspondence relating to the establishment of the Swazi Commercial Amadoda, 1948.

^{page 656 note 1} Hailey, op. cit. pp. 414–18; and Kuper, Sobhuza II, pp. 194–5 and 204.

^{page 656 note 2} Halpern, op. cit. pp. 384–93.

^{page 657 note 1} Hailey, op. cit. pp. 409–13; and Kuper, Sobhuza II, p. 183.

^{page 657 note 2} They included Prince Makhosini Dlamini and Mfundza Sukati.

^{page 657 note 3} Hailey, op. cit. pt. v, pp. 394–401; and Kuper, Sobhuza II, pp. 181–2.

^{page 657 note 4} Conversation with Marwick, 2 October 1983; also Sir Brian Marwick, ‘A Farewell Message to the Ngwenyama and his People’, dated 20 April 1964, copy in author's possession.

^{page 657 note 5} E.g. Prince Makhosini Dlamini, Legislative Council, Official Report, 1st Session, 1st Sitting, 14 September 1964.

^{page 658 note 1} Halpern, op. cit. pp. 338–42.

^{page 658 note 2} Ibid. pp. 369–88.

^{page 659 note 1} Marwick, ‘A Farewell Message’.

^{page 659 note 2} Sobhuza II, Petition to the House of Commons, 19 November 1963, quoted in Kuper, Sobhuza II, p. 241.

^{page 660 note 1} Marwick, ‘A Farewell Message’.

^{page 660 note 2} Halpern, op. cit. pp. 363–6.

^{page 661 note 1} Summary of the Report of the Commission for the Socio-Economic Development of the Bantu Areas (Pretoria, 1955), p. 182.Google Scholar

^{page 661 note 2} Marwick, 2 October 1983. See also Hailey, op. cit. pt. v, pp, 428–9, for official thinking in 1953.

^{page 661 note 3} Halpern, op. cit. pp. 432–5.

^{page 662 note 1} Kuper, Sobhuza II, pp. 256–7.

^{page 662 note 2} Statement by Dr H. F. Verwoerd in the House of Assembly, Cape Town, 4 May 1959, reprinted in Bantu (Pretoria), September 1959, pp. 59–62.

^{page 662 note 3} Halpern, op. cit. p. 437.

^{page 663 note 1} Fransman, Martin, ‘Labour, Capital and the State’, in South African Labour Bulletin, VII, 04 1982, pp. 82–5; also Kuper, Sobhuza II, p. 289.Google Scholar

^{page 663 note 2} Legislative Council, Official Report, 5th Meeting, 1st Session, 22 January 1968, pp. 1–28.

^{page 664 note 1} Daniel, John, ‘The Political Economy of Colonial and Post-Colonial Swaziland’, in South African Labour Bulletin, VII, 04 1982, pp. 103–5.Google Scholar

^{page 664 note 2} Hugh W. Macmillan, ‘A Nation Divided? The Swazi in Swaziland and the Transvaal, 1865–1984’, in H. L. Vail (ed.), The Political Economy of Ethnicity in Southern Africa in the 19th and 20th Centuries, forthcoming.

^{page 664 note 3} Kuper, ‘A Royal Ritual in a Changing Political Context’, p. 596; Sihle Zwane, ‘The Future of English: some perspectives in Swaziland’, Conference on English in Southern Africa, Lusaka, December 1983; and Matsebula, op. cit. pp. 156–8.

^{page 665 note 1} Constitution of Swaziland, Act 50 of 1968, section 135.

^{page 665 note 2} Fransman, loc. cit. pp. 76–80.

^{page 666 note 1} Davies, O'Meara, and Diamini, op. cit. pp. 50–70.

^{page 666 note 2} Ibid. pp. 42–4 and 51–70.

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Swaziland: Decolonisation and the Triumph of ‘Tradition’

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