Eswatini
Africa's last absolute monarchy in the highveld hills
Eswatini, known as Swaziland until its king renamed it in 2018, is a small, mountainous kingdom tucked between South Africa and Mozambique - one of the last absolute monarchies on earth. Ruled by the Dlamini dynasty, it preserves a vivid living culture of royal ceremonies, including the Umhlanga reed dance and the Incwala kingship rite. Despite its modest size, the country packs in dramatic scenery, from the misty highveld in the west to the warm lowveld plains in the east, and it remains deeply tied to the South African economy that surrounds it on three sides.
The kingdom descends in steps from west to east. The highveld of forested mountains and deep valleys gives way to the middleveld of fertile farmland, then the hot, dry lowveld of bushveld and sugar estates, before rising again to the Lubombo escarpment along the Mozambique border. The highest point, Emlembe, reaches 1,862 meters in the northwest. Rivers cut sharply through the terrain, feeding irrigation and hydropower. Sugarcane is the leading crop and export, and the varied altitudes support both commercial plantations and protected wildlife reserves.
The Swazi nation coalesced under the Dlamini kings in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, surviving Zulu pressure and later British and Boer encroachment to become a British protectorate. Independence came in 1968 with the monarchy intact, and King Sobhuza II later suspended the constitution to rule directly, a system continued by his son Mswati III. Siswati and English are the official languages. The country faces one of the world's highest HIV rates and recurring pro-democracy unrest, even as the monarchy remains the centerpiece of national identity and ceremony.