Talk:Eswatini/Archive 1

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Politics

The following sentence appears a little bit opinionated: His (King Mswati's) fleet of luxury cars, and the millions spent towards refurbishing his numerous wives' luxury mansions, are at odds with the approximately 34 percent of the nation that stand unemployed, nearly 70 percent of which live on less than a dollar a day, and with around 39 percent of adults who are afflicted by HIV. Although the statistics themselves are certainly worthy of inclusion in the article, this use of them reads more like a political soapbox than an objective encyclopedia article. Can I delete it? Walton monarchist89 13:48, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

go for your life mate...

rather than deleting it, would it be possible to reinclude it with a modified usage? The ordinairy person using this page for research, such as a high school student, would find those statistics both interesting and useful. I won't revert it, but I'm just putting it out there.

The sentence

Left in this way, Swaziland has the potential of becoming another war-torn country, which will reveal the bankruptcy of so called "conflict prevention."

also seems to be a political statement. There is no justification of the potential for war. I have no knowledge about this subject though and am therefore leaving any necessary modifications to more knowledgeable contributors. --WizzardofOz 06:32, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

Discrepancy in facts?

In the introduction meow to this article, someone has stated that Swaziland's average life expectancy is 33 years, and that this was the lowest in the world until it was surpassed this year by Zimbabwe. On the Zimbabwe page it says the average lifespan is something like 37...therefore the facts in one article do not conform with statements made in the other. Coolcamxl 10:17, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

Zim does not have a lower life expectancy than Swaziland, according to most sources. [[1]]. There was some news about Zim WOMEN having the lowest life expectancy [2], which is probably where this misconception comes from. Greenman 22:00, 6 May 2006 (UTC)

thanks for clearing that up Flage 08:02, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Question, does anybody ever verify CIA factbook statistics? I've noticed recently that (especially with smaller african countries) the CIA fact book is statistically incorrect and updated infrequently. Projecting gdp and trade statistics is understandable because reliable data does not exist out there for countries such as Swaziland or Lesotho, but misspelling and incorrectly labeling cabinet members/ambassadors is a big problem. I don't know if there is a discussion about this, but I thought I would bring it up.

Discrepancy in facts II

There appears to be a contradiction in terms of Mbabane's population with this article stating a figure of 50,000, and the Mbabane article itself preferring circa 70,000. I appreciate these statistics are only estimates, but surely there need not be a gulf of 20,000 between predictions? 86.138.137.123 16:20, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

can someone add citations for this article?

Later this week I'll add a few. 203.214.133.242 10:12, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

mix up of dates

the article reads: "The head of state is the king, who since 1986 has been King Mswati III who succeeded King Sobhuza II upon his death in 1968."

Is it a mix up or did he only become king in '86 but was referred to as something else from '86 to '68? --Aliwalla 19:47, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

Demographics Omission

Can anyone explain why there is a complete omission of a Demographics section on the Swaziland article, contrary to every other country article I have read? 86.138.137.123 10:51, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

Probably because no one has yet created one :) Be bold! Greenman 17:48, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

Proposed WikiProject

In my ongoing efforts to try to include every country on the planet included in the scope of a WikiProject, I have proposed a new project on Southern Africa at Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals#Southern Africa whose scope would include Swaziland. Any interested parties are more than welcome to add their names there, so we can see if there is enough interest to start such a project. Thank you for your attention. Badbilltucker 16:41, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

Discrepancy in HIV prevalence

The Economy section says

In 2004 Swaziland acknowledged for the first time that it suffered an AIDS crisis, with 38.8% of the population infected with HIV

But the Politics section used to say (now I moved this as a comment to the Economy section):

The nation has the world's highest HIV infection rates at 42.6%.

I cannot find the correct figure. Perhaps estimates vary, in which case we should state various estimates. Someone more knowlegeable please correct this. -Pgan002 10:30, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Use of African

Just because some isn't black, doesn't mean they aren't African. There's a bit of a bias in this article. ~KTHOMPSON For the most part black people are of afican descent... and there's nothing wrong with that so, who cares? (Exceptions incude Negritos and Aborigines) Arthurian Legend (talk) 14:55, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

Official language?

The Swaziland infobox says that only English is an official language, but the Swazi language site says that Swazi is an official language of both South Africa and Swaziland? Joziboy, 17:56, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

Actually Siswati(swazi) and English are both official languages of Swaziland. The Swazi language site is correct in stating that it is an official language of both countries.

Coca Cola

Is there an article on the Coke factory? If it makes up a significant portion of their economy it seems noteworthy.

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.82.203.201 (talk) 21:00, 23 December 2007 (UTC)

Source?

Where does the information come from? As far as I can tell, there is only one citation in the whole article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.53.197.12 (talk) 01:50, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

I thought Swaziland was completely surrounded by South Africa

204.250.84.10 (talk) 20:30, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Religion

In the article Islam in Swaziland it is stated that 10% of the population of the country adhere to Islam. Here it says that only 0.95% of the country's population is muslim. So, what do we do with that? --Mocu (talk) 08:47, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Then you should edit the religion in Islam article with the 0.95% and then add your source as a reference. Is the 10% figure referenced? Tr0lllacct (talk) 04:25, 17 April 2010 (UTC)

Switzerland/Sweden?

Do you really think someone confuses switzerland with swaziland??? Or even Sweden???

- No. i was thinking of removing it 172.201.231.216 10:58, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

Just reading through the comments here, and YES... ABSOLUTELY they are confused frequently, in my personal experience. I lived in Mbabane for 2 years, and on more than one occasion, the United States Postage Services directed packages intended for Swaziland to Switzerland, delaying their delivery by 5 months! (it happened to my friends, too). I think the origin of this comes from the fact that many people I encounter are not even aware that Swaziland is a country, and automatically revert to saying Switzerland, or recognizing it as such, which is what must have happened with the postal worker directy my packages. Furthermore, it took me 6 months to train my parents to tell people I wasn't living in SOUTH AFRICA, because that's how they dealt with the fact that people (at least suburban Coloradoans) have literally no knowledge of Africa. I don't care what/how you change this page, but from my personal experience, confusion and lack of knowledge about Swaziland abounds. On that note, I have never heard of anyone confusing Sweden with Swaziland. But Switzerland/Swaziland... yes, and it's a real problem. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 38.116.156.2 (talk) 20:02, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Actually, the way the human mind reads words, we really just look at a few of indicators in the beginning of a word and at the end of a word and move on, sometimes confirming our unconscious assessment with some other middle indicators, we don't mentally read every letter. That's why many people often see Switzerland when they read Swaziland. They see the SW and the LAND and their assessment is quickly mis-confirmed by the middle Z. Arthurian Legend (talk) 14:53, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

This warning jars me every time I see it and is surely an example of cultural bias. Perhaps some suburban Coloradans, and undoubtedly others :), confuse the two, but how many Africans? And secondly, if someone is arriving at the Swaziland article, in what sense could they possibly confuse the two countries and render the warning useful? The warning should best be placed on the Switzerland article by the logic describe by anonymous. I'm being bold and removing it. Greenman (talk) 13:33, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

Only a nincompoop can do that....lol...an European will never confuse Sweden and Switzerland with Swaziland, not even Austria and Australia...but, agreeing with Greenman, I wouldnt be surprised if some suburban person from the USA or Canada would actually do it. Norum (talk) 19:46, 3 June 2009 (UTC)

Almost no one in America is even aware that Swaziland exists, and I know people confuse Swaziland with Switzerland. Ella Vader (talk) 22:04, 1 October 2009 (UTC)

I agree with Ella Vader; very few Americans actually have even heard of Swaziland. There's even a group on Facebook called "I'm from Swaziland not Switzerland, stupid Americans." If I mention Swaziland to somebody, they say "you mean Swizerland?" Moral of the story: practically nobody in the US even knows what Swaziland is. Even people smarter than a fifth grade don't know about it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tr0lllacct (talk • contribs) 04:20, 17 April 2010 (UTC)

I see that bigotry is alive and well on WP. WP is not American-centric, and should not cater to the perceived needs or ignorance of Americans alone, whther or not they were educated by sub-standard government-run schools. Provide some real evidence that Swazialnd is confused with Switzerland world wide, and I'll support the hatnote. Anecdotally, I've encountered more confusion bewteen Switzerland and Sweden, but I'm not going to slap hatnots on the article because of my personal experience. - BilCat (talk) 02:17, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

I'm not american, and I know a lot of people who don't know about this country and sometimes (In English Language) Switzer and Swazi are confused. Tbhotch^{Talk C.} 02:34, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

And Switzerland and Sweden are commonly confused on the Spanish language, but is not revelant here "Suiza - Suecia" Tbhotch^{Talk C.} 02:36, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

Date Errors in Government section, paragraph 2?

The second and third sentence in the Government section read as follows: In 2001 King Mswati III appointed a committee to draft a new constitution. Drafts were released for comment in May 1999 and November 2000. These were strongly criticized by civil society organizations in Swaziland and human rights organizations elsewhere.

It seems odd that the king made a request for a committee in 2001 yet the drafts were submitted in 1999 and 2000. Maybe everyone in the committee are time travelers like in Back to the Future? Or maybe, this is a mistake. I am not an expert on Swazi politics but I just wanted to draw attention to this potential mistake. Maybe I am ignorant and Swazis are adept at time traveling though, in which case, they are also good at keeping secrets.

5amuel (talk) 21:13, 29 April 2010 (UTC)

Call for editors to collaborate on a new African history Wikiproject

All editors with a specific interest in African history are invited to help start a new African history Wikiproject. This is not a substitute for the Africa Wikiproject, but editors with a historian's perspective on African history articles (as opposed to a general interest in Africa) would collaborate on improving the quality of African history on Wikipedia. For more details click here or here here. Ackees (talk) 15:56, 11 August 2009 (UTC)

vandalism

Largest trading partner is Somalia with 90% of imports? No.

sometimes called 'Land of the Mole-Sucklers'? Only reference to this 'fact' that I can find is this article.

lemur selling? duck farming taking up 75% of agriculture? land filling? fast food 50% of the economy.

Yes, very funny and terribly clever. Fixing it now.

ck (talk) 09:25, 20 June 2010 (UTC)

Common name

It has been agreed at Wikipedia talk:MOS that a nation's commonly used name and its official name should both be in the opening sentence. As this artice began: "The Kingdom of Swaziland..." I changed it to: "Swaziland, officially the Kingdom of Swaziland..." Listing the commonly used name first is the style recommended at WP:PLACE, and the overwhelming majority of our articles about nations begin this way. However, editors are not in complete agreement about this. If anyone feels that the article should begin: "The Kingdom of Swaziland, commonly known as Swaziland...", please discuss it here. Joefromrandb (talk) 04:17, 16 January 2011 (UTC)

Type of Government

The type of government listed is absolute monarchy but under the article "Politics of Swaziland," the government type is Constitutional Monarchy. Which one is it? Clearly the country has a constitution but just not the Westminister one. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.116.131.6 (talk) 12:55, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

Boer War vs. Swaziland

IMO, the history part of this page went seriously astray. After a heavy dose of minutiae on the military doings of Her Majesty's forces and the Afrikaners, there is a vacuum between 1902 and 1964, when the next paragraph begins with the no-longer-relevant word "Nevertheless."

I would suggest that the strictly European vs. European Boer War stuff be moved to the Boer War page or deleted--IMO, it needs to be out of this article. What needs to remain and to be vastly expanded is what the indigenous folks were doing (including a short summary of how the Boer War impacted them, yes) and then some treatment of the missing six decades. (We could call it, "Swaziland, The Lost Episodes" for U.S. television addicts. [Kidding]).

I'm sorely tempted to do this, but it's so major a change--somebody did a lot of work--that I won't approach the task unless there's consensus.

Terry J. Carter (talk) 15:28, 9 September 2010 (UTC)

Terry said it for me.

Georgejdorner (talk) 18:09, 23 March 2011 (UTC)

Came in with the same complaint: it seems like half the History section is about the 1899-1901 period... and the other half covers the preceding several thousand years and then the following century. Way too much Boer War II minutiae for a primary country article. MatthewVanitas (talk) 20:12, 27 July 2011 (UTC)

Is this a joke?

This is part of the Culture section. I have put everything I find questionable or unencyclopedic in bold...

The country was under the chastity rite of "umchwasho" until 19 August 2005. This interpretation of "umchwasho" conflicts deeply with the common requirement of girls to be demonstrably fertile prior to marriage. Very young girls will usually have a child out of wedlock as proof of fertility. The child often is the offspring of the girl's intended, but when there seems to be no success there and the man's fertility is secretly questioned, the girl may go to a relative of the man's or even her own to demonstrate her fertility. This is a very closely guarded secret held by only those directly involved and the groom will never discover the secret. The child becomes the property of the girls father. And after the marriage prior to which the groom pays a specified dowry, the groom may then redeem his child from the father through an agreed compensation.

Umchwasho is a real thing that the King of Swaziland does sometime. But the rest seems dubious to me, like a subtle joke. But I'm no Africa expert. Delete it? Modinyr (talk) 05:07, 31 July 2011 (UTC)

I gave a modest attempt to verify the info and could not. It sounds like some lively OR, or a joke. It gets the axe. Modinyr (talk) 00:41, 7 August 2011 (UTC)

Modifications to introduction

I am making some changes to the introduction and brief summary about Swaziland. The intense reference to the HIV issue and income inequality will be not more than a sentence to allow for other relevant summarising topics to be covered. HIV topics have already been treated extensively in the Health section, please add to the discussion if there are issues. I am adding a few more details in the intro about the economy, culture, cuisine and geography. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ludvonga (talk • contribs) 12:21, 12 November 2013 (UTC)

Modifications made. They might need revision for better coherence. Ludvonga (talk • contribs) 09:13, 12 November 2013 (UTC)

The English is dreadful in places

and needs rewriting. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.2.210.91 (talk) 13:40, 28 November 2013 (UTC)

More Edits

The introduction and history sections have been edited. Ludvonga (talk) 02:09, 8 January 2014 (UTC)

annexion

What about annexion by Soth Africa as Lesotho–South_Africa_relations#Annexation_proposals?--Kaiyr (talk) 14:06, 8 November 2014 (UTC)

Redirect SWZ

I propose that we remove the redirection SWZ. There is no practical connection between SWZ and Swaziland. The country has internet code .sz and is usually nicknamed SD. Ludvonga (talk) 18:26, 26 February 2015 (UTC)

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IMF programme

The following line is inaccurate: "Swaziland is not poor enough to merit an IMF program" there is no maximum income for having an IMF programme, Greece currently has one, and so have many upper-middle income countries in the past (Korea, Brazil etc). I would suggest that I just remove this line, unless anyone objects. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.201.210.196 (talk) 11:37, 23 January 2018 (UTC)