From Reuters :
Swaziland’s King Mswati III took an 18-year-old former Miss Teen Swaziland finalist as his 12th wife during the weekend, barely two weeks after marrying his 11th, media in the tiny African kingdom said.
Nothando Dube was selected as Mswati’s fiancee after last year’s Reed Dance, an event where thousands of maidens dance bare breasted in honor of the Queen Mother and where Mswati has chosen wives in the past.
The Times of Swaziland’s Sunday edition quoted Mswati’s traditional prime minister, Jim Gama, as saying that Dube’s nuptials had been concluded Saturday night.
Mswati, 37, has drawn criticism for spending money on luxury cars while many of his 1.1 million subjects struggle by on food aid, ravaged by the world’s highest rate of HIV/AIDS which affects around two in every five adults.
Mswati early in June said he was not sub-Saharan Africa’s only absolute monarch, contending that although political parties were banned in Swaziland, he only made decisions after consulting with the people.
I’m pretty sure that Richard Hatch was one of the judges of the Miss Teeen Swaziland pageant. Some of us in the West may raise an eyebrow at King Mswati having 12 wives, but I’m sure many in Africa wondered the same thing about Steve Earlie (ie. how did he get so many women to marry him).
such a shame that king mswati was installed as a king at such an early age , because i still believe that he never had the chance to grow and become a sensible individual how more a king. but then this is africa we are on about , and as a west african who lived in south africa for five yrs and visited swaziland on more than 1 occasion all i can do is feel bad for the with mswati still in power, because i think he is following the trend of his stupid forefathers as well as making it worse. may the merciful father be with the poor lot.