The king of Swaziland has picked a teenage student to be his 13th bride less than a month after more than 50,000 bare-breasted virgins vied to catch his eye at the annual Reed Dance ceremony.
King Mswati III (37) presented 17-year-old Phindile Nkambule as his new wife-to-be at a traditional ceremony this weekend, where she appeared topless but donned the red feathers worn only by royalty for the first time.
Women's groups and political opponents say Mr Mswati's penchant for multiple young brides ill befits a country with the world's highest rate of HIV/AIDS, but the monarch says polygamy is part of Swazi tradition and helps cement national unity.
Some 40 per cent of Swazi adults live with HIV - the world's highest infection rate - and aid workers say encouraging teenage girls to delay sex for longer, and to avoid sex with older men, could help curb its spread.
Many say Mswati sets a bad example by plucking teenagers from school to join his wives, who include an 18-year old former Miss Teen Swaziland finalist.
Wives are given a BMW car and their own palace - another source of criticism in a country where two-thirds of people live in abject poverty.
Nkambule, who remained silent before TV cameras at the weekend, has started a two year initiation period where she will be tutored in a queen's duties and engage in a succession of traditional marriage rituals.
Ms Nkambule - who beat off a glamorous TV presenter and Miss Swaziland to become the king's new bride - joined 10,000 maidens in a regional Reed Dance ceremony this weekend to dance in traditional beaded mini-skirts with buttocks exposed.
Speculation swirled that she caught the royal eye during the bigger national Reed Dance held earlier this month, which drew a record 50,000 virgins to dance for sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch, who came dressed in a leopard-lion cloth.