Home » Swaziland » South African Adventure 1999: Part 3: Swaziland and Zululand

After leaving Hazyview we drove down to Swaziland where we stayed at the Swazi Cultural Village in the Ezulwini Valley, not so far from the capital Mbabane. Having been introduced to the Swazi culture, we exited Swaziland and entered the Zulu region of South Africa. Here we visited a Zulu Village and went on another exiting game drive in the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Park.

South African Adventure 1999: Part 3: Swaziland and Zululand

Jan Arild Teland
2006-05-08 19:55:19

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Day 7 - July 3

We really got some rest this day, as we didn't have to get up before 0700! (that's only 30 minutes earlier than on a normal workday -- what a relaxing holiday!) Kurt had made us a large breakfast with bacon and scrambled eggs, so we took our time eating and were only ready to leave at 0830.

We drove through some very nice and varied scenery, including banana plantations, high mountains and areas covered with forest. Stopping only once to do some shopping, we arrived at Jeppe's Reef, the Swaziland border, at 1200. The formalities went smoothly and soon we were inside the kingdom of Swaziland.

Swaziland is a very small country, almost completely surrounded by South Africa. It has a population of approximately 860,000. The Swazis are descendent from a group that originally moved down from Eastern Africa and settled in the area where Maputo (Mozambique) is today. However, they came under pressure from other clans, and moved further down to what is now the south of Swaziland.

There were some further retreats due to aggression from the mighty Zulus, but they were quite fortunate that the Zulus themselves got into trouble with the British and the Boers, both whom had superior weapons. When king Mswazi (Mswati) died in 1868, the Swazi kingdom was quite well established.

However, now came a quite chaotic period. Swaziland was annexed by Britain in 1877, and put under administration by the British and the Boers. This administration collapsed during the Boer War and Britain later took full control in 1902. In 1968 Swaziland achieved independence. The current king is Mswati III.

To us, Swaziland had always had an aura of "mystery" associated with it, maybe because we knew it was there, but never heard anything about it. While we knew that South Africa, at least in certain parts, was just like any Western country, we didn't know what to expect from Swaziland. ...