"Swaziland is a small country BUT......" Swaziland by kenHuocj

known as the LBS protectorates under the old Colonial empire
Lesotho, %L{http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/2dae8/d18/]Bechuanaland%L* and Swaziland became indepenent in 1968. Wikipedia also give a neat sum up
SwaziBusiness.com] has maps showing the four regions of HHohho, Manzini,Lubombo and Shisleweni.

1973 - King Sobhuza suspends the constitution and bans political parties.
1986 - Prince Makhosetive is crowned - three years early - and assumes the title of King Mswati III, then dissolves the Supreme Council of State (Liqoqo).
since 1982, he has shown little respect fpor his citizens, preferring to entrench his hold on power and waste public money on personal material objects,
HE is of course supported by a bunch of lackeys who are ever concerned about the hands that feeds them.
where is democarcy, human rights of benevolent monarchs???

from Swazliand's gentle hillst o Earth's highest mountain - what an achievement !
" Sibusiso Vilane may hail from a world perpetually tilted at an angle, but the hut-stubbled hills of Swaziland seem unlikely preparation for the vertiginous Everest.

His easy breathing as he gave a radio interview at 7.15am South African time on Wednesday, the moment he arrived back at Base Camp in Nepal after becoming the first black person to reach the summit, belied the physical hardships of the treacherous climb.

It was as a schoolboy taking on dares in rural Ejubukweni, 20km northeast of Mbabane, Swaziland, that Vilane first sailed over obstacles in his way: 40- gallon drums or fence posts, anything to show off his high-jumping style. "

source:SUnday Times

He's my man: Nomsa Vilane, Sibusiso's Vilane's wife
He's my man: Sibusiso's Vilane's wife, rejoices at his conquest of Everest. Pictures: Thembinkosi Dwayisa

"How do you size up a man so quiet and retiring that he hardly mentioned his most cherished dream to his wife - to join one of the world's most rarefied clubs by climbing Mount Everest?

Sibusiso Vilane may hail from a world perpetually tilted at an angle, but the hut-stubbled hills of Swaziland seem unlikely preparation for the vertiginous Everest.

His easy breathing as he gave a radio interview at 7.15am South African time on Wednesday, the moment he arrived back at Base Camp in Nepal after becoming the first black person to reach the summit, belied the physical hardships of the treacherous climb.

It was as a schoolboy taking on dares in rural Ejubukweni, 20km northeast of Mbabane, Swaziland, that Vilane first sailed over obstacles in his way: 40- gallon drums or fence posts, anything to show off his high-jumping style.

Sometimes, according to his friend Siza Welcome Gama, whom he met in Grade 1, the young Vilane would misjudge, trip and fall. But he always weighed up his chances beforehand and hated to be bested.

Gama describes his friend of those days as "always cool and calm", a straight-arrow student.

"I think he wanted to be a soldier because he liked the wilderness, mountains and forest."

Gama heard on the radio that a Sibusiso Vilane had conquered Everest but did not realise it was his friend until told so by the Sunday Times.

Incredulously, Gama mentally piles images of the hill in front of him one on top of the other: "8 850m? Yih! A person like him is courageous and doesn't want to be defeated, so I'm not surprised."
...........
At first glance, the homestead that Vilane built at Lubuyane, near Ejubukweni, in 1998 seems typical: a three-legged iron pot simmering under flapping black plastic shade cover; tyres and bits of scrap metal lying on corrugated-iron roofs; fat chickens guiding their broods around wattle-and-daub coops; and newspaper posters of Kaizer Chiefs stars sharing the lounge wall with a framed postcard of Swazi King Mswati III.
But two large circles in the clay mark it as different. One is an oddly English decorative pond sunk into the ground, ringed with rocks and brimming with bulrushes and lily pads. Then there is a scorched ring that was once a rondavel. Police believe that neighbours, disturbed by Vilane's eccentricity, torched it after he left for Everest.

Not all the locals are as narrow-minded about his endeavours, however. An excited high school pupil, Mbongiseni Dlamini, says: "I heard on Radio Swazi this morning that he had climbed Everest. They say this man is a master."

Vilane's lounge wall also boasts trophies that are unusual in a rural Swazi home: a framed certificate, dated August 25 1999, saying Vilane climbed the 2 973m Sterkhorn in the Drakensberg; the mounted horns of an antelope he shot in Kinochlewe, Scotland, on October 8 last year; and a framed painting inscribed with a message of thanks from his friend, benefactor and mountaineering inspiration, former British High Commissioner to Swaziland John Doble. "

Over the years, we visited Swaziland.

It had the first Casino in Southern Africa.
there will not be many photos
rather a reconnection of the calcifying Grey cells;

for those who have been
you may be able to picture the area,
for those going ,
more to explore.

Happy reading without the visualisations ;-(((

• Pros:a quiet gentle country
• Cons:overshadowed by South Africa - economically and politicallyuth Africa
• In a nutshell:worth a visit