SWAZILAND: The king of impoverished Swaziland has married a 20-year-old virgin, making her the monarch's 10th wife, a senior member of the royal household said yesterday.
King Mswati, sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch, picked Nolichwa Ntentesa as his latest bride in 2002 at the tiny kingdom's annual Reed Dance ceremony, where thousands of bare-breasted maidens parade before the king.
After two years of complex wedding preparations, Ntentesa joined the royal household last week in a traditional ceremony where her face was painted with red ochre.
"Ntentesa is now an inkhosikati," [ Swazi queen] a senior member of the royal household said..
King Mswati (37), already has nine wives and two fiancees, one of whom was a Miss Teen Swaziland finalist.
Critics lambast King Mswati for his lavish lifestyle and for taking many wives in a country where more than two-thirds of his 1.17 million subjects live in abject poverty and 40 per cent of adults live with HIV/Aids.
Trade union-led protests against Mswati's absolute rule and extravagant spending on cars and palaces for his wives have largely fizzled out in the deeply traditional country.