Artifacts have been found indicating human activity dating back to the
Early Stone Age, around 200,000 years ago. Prehistoric
rock art paintings dating from as far back as to as recently as the 19th century can be found around the country. The earliest known inhabitants of the region were
Khoisan hunter-gatherers. They were largely replaced by the
Nguni during the great
Bantu migrations. These peoples originated from the
Great Lakes region of eastern and central Africa. Evidence of agriculture and iron use dates from about the 4th century. People speaking languages ancestral to the current
Sotho and
Nguni languages began settling no later than the 11th century. The
Swazi people settled in the area between the
Drakensberg Mountains and the
Indian Ocean, and like other Bantu-speaking communities, they brought with them cattle, seeds to cultivate and handmade iron, wood, animal skin and clay products. The Swazi trace their origins to the
Embo-Dlamini, a branch of the
Embo-Nguni that originally settled in
Tembeland, near present-day
Delagoa Bay (
Maputo) in
Mozambique during the
Bantu expansion. Most Nguni-speaking communities, including the Embo, were identified by their cattle-based economy, crop farming and strategic settlement near water sources. Nineteenth-century
British colonial records also linked the Tembe and Swazi chieftaincies. One document noted: “We observe that the words Kings are intended to signify the Kings of Swazi and Tembe.”
Portuguese in 1589 recorded meeting a group of people in the
Limpopo River region who called themselves "Vhambedzi" or "BaMbo". Historian
J.S.M. Matsebula states that these were earlier forms of the present day Swazi people who were identified by their use of reeds in the
Zambezi River, which, he writes, "infers that the Swazi people arrived in southern Africa through the use of reeds to cross the Zambezi (Vhambedzi) River". This is also evidenced in their
praise names:
..tsine lesavela eluhlangeni ("..we originated from the reeds") and
nine beluhlanga ("you of the reeds") referring to the
Dlamini clan. The Vhambedzi or Vhambo were the
Embo during their gradual movement southward to the
Maputaland-Lubombo region. In the
Crocodile River region, the Nguni separated into
Ntungwa-Nguni and Embo-Nguni (also called Tekela-Nguni), the later which evolved into Embo-Dlamini, the earliest form of the current Swazi people. The Embo-Nguni continued with their movement southward until they reached Delagoa Bay (Maputo) between the
Lubombo Mountains and
Indian Ocean, becoming one of the small chiefdoms under the
Nyaka east of the
Maputo River and the
Tembe west of the river. Continuing conflict with the
Ndwandwe people pushed them further north, with Ngwane III establishing his capital at
Shiselweni at the foot of the Mhlosheni hills. The names "Swaziland" and "Eswatini" both derive from a later king named
Mswati II.
KaNgwane, named for Ngwane III, is an alternative name for Eswatini, the surname of whose
royal house remains
Nkhosi Dlamini. Mswati II was the greatest of the fighting kings of Swaziland, and he greatly extended the area of the country to twice its current size. The
Emakhandzambili clans were initially incorporated into the kingdom with wide autonomy, often including grants of special ritual and political status. The extent of their autonomy, however, was drastically curtailed by Mswati, who attacked and subdued some of them in the 1850s. King
Mbandzeni created a complex pattern of land ownership by granting many concessions to Europeans. During the concessions some of the King's senior chiefs like Chief Ntengu Mbokane got permission to relocate to farms towards the Lubombo region, in the modern-day city of Nsoko. Others like Mshiza Maseko relocated to farms towards the Komati River in the place called eLuvalweni. The concessions included grants and leases for agriculture and grazing. In 1890, following the death of Mbandzeni, a Swaziland Convention created a Chief Court to determine disputes about controversial land and mineral rights and other concessions. Swaziland was given a
triumviral administration in 1890, representing the British, the Dutch republics, and the Swazi people. In 1894, a convention placed Swaziland under the
South African Republic as a
protectorate. This continued under the rule of
Ngwane V until the outbreak of the
Second Boer War in October 1899. King Ngwane V died in December 1899, during
incwala, after the outbreak of the Second Boer War. His successor,
Sobhuza II, was four months old. Swaziland was indirectly involved in the war with various skirmishes between the British and the Boers occurring in the country until 1902.
British indirect rule over Swaziland (1906–1968) In 1903, after the British victory in the
Second Boer War, Swaziland became one of the British "
High Commission Territories", the others being
Basutoland (now
Lesotho) and
Bechuanaland (now
Botswana), although a protectorate was not established because terms had not been agreed with the Swazi Queen Regent
Labotsibeni Mdluli. The Swaziland Administration Proclamation of 1904 established a commission with the task of examining all the concessions and defining their boundaries. This work was finished by 1907, and the Swaziland Concessions Partition Proclamation provided for a concessions partition commissioner to be appointed to set aside areas for the sole use and occupation of the Swazis. The commissioner had the power to expropriate up to one third of each concession without compensation, but payment would need to be made if more than a third was taken. In the event, in 1910 he completed his work and set aside 1,639,687 acres, some 38% of Swaziland's area, for the Swazi. The queen regent then encouraged the Swazi to go to work in the Transvaal to earn money to buy more land from the Europeans. Sobhuza's official coronation as king was in December 1921 after the regency of Labotsibeni, after which he led an unsuccessful deputation to the
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom in London in 1922 regarding the issue of the land. In the period between 1923 and 1963, Sobhuza II established the Swazi Commercial Amadoda which was to grant licences to small businesses on the Swazi reserves and also established the Swazi National School to counter the dominance of the missions in education. His stature grew with time, and the Swazi royal leadership was successful in resisting the weakening power of the British administration and the possibility of the incorporation of Swaziland into the
Union of South Africa. Following the 1967 elections, Swaziland was a protected state until independence was regained in 1968.
Independence (since 1968) Following the elections of 1972, the constitution of Swaziland was suspended by King
Sobhuza II who thereafter ruled the country by
decree until his death in 1982. At that point, Sobhuza II had been king of Swaziland for almost 83 years, making him the
longest-reigning monarch in history. A regency followed his death, with Queen Regent
Dzeliwe Shongwe as head of state until 1984 when she was removed by the Liqoqo and replaced by Queen Mother
Ntfombi Tfwala. An attempt to transfer neighbouring parts of
South Africa, more precisely parts of the Zulu
homeland of
KwaZulu and parts of the Swazi homeland of
KaNgwane, to Swaziland in 1982 was never realised. This would have given land-locked Swaziland access to the sea. The deal was negotiated by the governments of South Africa and Swaziland, but was met by popular opposition in the territory meant to be transferred. The territory had been claimed by Sobhuza II as part of the Swazi monarchs' traditional realm, and the South African government hoped to use the area as a buffer zone against guerrilla infiltration from
Mozambique. (The South African government responded to the failure of the transfer by temporarily suspending the autonomy of KaNgwane.) The 1990s saw a rise in student and labour protests calling on the king to introduce reforms. Thus, progress towards constitutional reforms began, culminating with the introduction of the current Swazi constitution in 2005. This happened despite objections by political activists. The current constitution does not clearly deal with the status of political parties. In 2011, Swaziland suffered an economic crisis which was caused by reduced
Southern African Customs Union (SACU) receipts. This caused the government to request a loan from neighbouring South Africa. However, they did not agree with the conditions of the loan, which included political reforms. During this period, there was increased pressure on the
Swazi government to carry out more reforms. Public protests by civic organisations and
trade unions became more common. Starting in 2012, improvements in SACU receipts eased the fiscal pressure on the Swazi government. A new parliament, the second since the promulgation of the constitution, was elected in 2013. The king then reappointed
Sibusiso Dlamini as prime minister for the third time. On 19 April 2018, Mswati III announced that the Kingdom of Swaziland had been renamed as the Kingdom of Eswatini, reflecting the extant Swazi name for the state
eSwatini, to mark the 50th anniversary of Swazi independence. The name Eswatini means "land of the Swazis" in the Swazi language and was partially intended to prevent confusion with the similarly named
Switzerland. Eswatini workers began anti-government protests against low salaries in September 2018. They went on a three-day strike organised by the
Trade Union Congress of Eswatini that resulted in widespread disruption. In June 2021,
pro-democracy protests broke out across the country, sparking riots, looting, and street skirmishes with police and soldiers. This civil unrest began as a result of years of anger towards the lack of meaningful reforms that would nudge Eswatini in the direction of democracy, as well as the government's reported banning of the submission of petitions. At least 20 people were killed by state security forces and dozens more injured and detained. The government shut down the Internet (with the compliance of mobile providers MTN and Eswatini Mobile) making it difficult to access reliable news from the country. The king was also said to have fled the country, though government officials disputed those claims, also calling for an end to the protests. ==Geography==