King Mswati III, Africa's last absolute monarch, courts both popularity and controversy. The second of 67 sons, King Mswati III was crowned in 1986, when he was 18, and he has since ruled the country with his mother. He has taken 13 wives and has more than 200 siblings.
His actions - most notably his expensive tastes and opulent lifestyle in the face of his country's extreme poverty and high incidence of HIV/AIDS (30%) - have upset critics. His constitution has been strongly criticised for its non-progressive and authoritarian nature by Swazi critics, foreign governments and human rights groups.
The king caused royal ripples several times over choosing his wives. In 2001 he married a 17-year-old, two months after imposing a five-year sex ban on the kingdom's teenage females to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS. He ended the ban a year early.
At the 2002 Umhlanga festival, again in keeping with tradition, he chose a young woman, 18-year-old Zena Mahlangu, to become his 10th wife. Zena's mother tried to take the king to court, accusing him of abducting and holding Zena against her will.
Reformers, however, must reckon with the fact that the king is a highly revered figurehead; he is the Ngwenyama (Lion), a descendant of the great kings (and queen mothers) who secured the independence of the Swazi nation. Even pro-democracy advocates seek to maintain a constitutional monarch under a democratic system of government.
Meanwhile, for the king, traditional laws and customs reign supreme. He believes in perpetuating customs important to his country, including polygamy. Indeed a Swazi king's power and the clan links resulting from his marriages might be seen as the source of Swaziland's relative stability as well as being the foundation of its continued independence.
