Mbabane -
King Mswati III accepted Swaziland’s highest lobolo cattle dowry this week and affirmed the higher number of cows for a Swazi princess that he decreed in 2013.
At a ceremony held at his main palace at Ludzidzini, 30km east of the capital Mbabane, the king received 130 cows on behalf of his elder sister, Princess Lindiwe Dlamini, daughter of their father King Sobhuza.
“There are levels in paying dowry,” the king said, speaking in SiSwati and defining the gulf between lobolo cattle paid for commoners and amounts expected for the royal family.
“When you ask for a princess’s hand in marriage (for this act of proposing), you do not pay less than 10 cattle, and when you pay the dowry, you cannot pay less than 100 cattle.”
In addition to the 10 cows paid by the groom, Robert Kasaro, for proposing to the princess and 100 cows for the dowry, an additional 20 cows were paid as part of a custom known as insulamnyembeti.
Traditionally, these are young cows that have not calved and which symbolise the bride’s virginity.
They are given to the bride’s mother in appreciation of teaching her daughter to cook and tend the house.
Princess Lindiwe’s mother was Queen LaMgunundvu, one of King Sobhuza’s 70 wives.
He had 210 known children and more than 1 000 known grandchildren.
Mswati, 46, has either 14 or 15 wives and up to 23 children, according to unofficial sources.
Independent Foreign Service