MBABANE, Oct 16 (AFP) - Africa's last absolute monarch, King Mswati III of Swaziland, is still revered by many of his subjects, but has reached a political crossroads as opposition and international pressure mounts for change in the tiny country wedged between South Africa and Mozambique.
Framed photographs of the all-powerful monarch, dressed in traditional clothes, hang in almost every shop in the capital city of Mbabane and the citizens of Swaziland refer to him as the "Ngonyama" (lion).
Born on April 6, 1968, only four months before Swaziland attained independence from Britain, King Mswati is, like the country he rules, a mix of traditional African and modern Western influences.
He was born to Ntombi Tfwala, a young wife of King Sobhuza, and named Makhosetwe (King of Nations).
Prince Makhosetwe grew up at Swazilands royal residence, where he showed a great enthusiasm for the military from an early age.
He joined the Umbutfo Defence Force as a cadet when he was five, and later progressed in the national defence force.
When Sobhuza II died of pneumonia in 1982, the royal council chose the 14-year-old prince Makhosetwe to be the next king.
Because he was too young to take up the throne, he continued with his education, attending Sherborne, a prestigious school in the south of England.
He was introduced as crown prince in September 1983 and was crowned king on April 25, 1986 at the age of 18.
While he has embraced Western-style market-driven economic policies, King Mswati has adhered to his traditional political culture, which allows him full control of the executive, judiciary and executive arms of government.
Like all the Swazi kings before him, he is a polygamist. He has nine official wives and two fiancees.
Tradition -- his father had more than 70 wives -- dictates that he takes several new brides over the next few years.
King Mswati has, however, done away with some of the more inhumane aspects of traditional Swazi culture.
For example, he has kept a son that was born of his first wife, breaking the cruel tradition of killing the offspring of these women who play a central role in the Incwala, the nations main spiritual pageant.
For all its simmering political tension, King Mswati presides over a relatively prosperous country.
But AIDS and unemployment is threatening that prosperity.The United Nations Development Programme estimates an HIV/AIDS adult infection rate of some 33.4 percent, while unemployment stands at an estimated 65 percent.
Swaziland has a relatively well-developed infrastructure, built during an economic boom in the 1980s, when international economic sanctions against neighboring South Africa gave it a comparative advantage in attracting foreign direct investment.
However, the economic boom ended in the mid-1990s. Since then, the countrys economic growth rate has fallen by more than half to around 2.0 percent.
Meanwhile, the young king is under growing pressure to reintroduce political plurality.
Increasingly, donor governments are demanding a more accountable political system as a precondition for lifeblood aid, while local agitation, led by the labour movement and opposition parties, threatens the countrys stability.
While King Mswati is under considerable political pressure, the monarchys enduring popularity means that he is unlikely to see the kind of upheaval that toppled other totalitarian regimes in the region in the 1990s.
It is not unlikely though that King Mswati will be the last of Swazilands absolute monarchs.
He is meant to be succeeded by one of his sons. But if he were to die soon, they would all be too young to accede to the throne.
A regent would have to be appointed until the heir comes of age, and this could spark a power struggle.
Throughout history, the death of the Swazi kings have been followed by a period of political turbulence. The death of Mswati's father in 1982 prompted a three-year power struggle that ended only when he took the throne.
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