Swazi Nation Land

In Swaziland, as in much of southern Africa, land ownership is a hugely emotional political question. Many people believe that the land was stolen in the colonial era and much of the history of the 20th century was involved in two parallel struggles: to regain political independence and to regain control of the land. In Swaziland there was a period of complete chaos at the start of the colonial era in the 1880s and 90s when the whole country was signed to unscrupulous coloinal settlers.

When the British arrived in 1902 this was the main problem that they faced - how to settle what they called the land question. In 1907 they decided to divide land in the following way: one third to white settlers. One third to the Swazi Nation and one third was reserved as crown land for future development. The Swazis saw this as being grossly unfair and set about raising money by taxing men working on the mines to buy back more land. The king at the time, Sobhuza II, made land acquisition a priority and by the 1950s he had more than half the land directly under his control.

He continued the traditional system of government before colonialism where the chiefs had say over who was on the land and how long they could stay there. This system still exists and all adult Swazis have the right to land by mutual agreement with a chief of their choice. Many people have land and it is probably this, more than anything else, that gives Swaziland its political stability.