ABSTRACT
Prior to the eruption o f Shaka’s wars in Zululand, Swaziland was occupied by various Sotho tribes as well as the Embo-Nguni people who had settled in southern Mozambique in the 16*h century. The descendants o f the latter’s leader, Dlamini, had been led across the Lebombo mountains by Ngwane III during the mid-1700s (Esterhuysen, 1998). Sobhuza I and his descendant Mswazi II (c. 1840-1875) established ‘Swazi’ hegemony over the territory and either defeated or drove out many o f the Sotho (Van Warmelo, 1966). White settlers occupied large portions o f the territory (now the Mpumalanga province o f South Africa) in 1846 and the Swazi domain was substantially reduced. Bounded in the west by the Boer Transvaal Republic and in the east by Portuguese East Africa, the territory was declared a British protectorate by the end o f the 1 9 ^ century. It fell under Transvaal administration from 1895 until 1903, when Britain assumed control through its high commissioner in South Africa. Swaziland was partitioned between whites (60%) and Swazis (40%) by a British proclamation in 1907 (Esterhuysen, 1998). The Swazi monarchy was retained under British administration and King Sobhuza II was installed in 1921 (Marquard, 1969). Unlike in Lesotho, much o f the land was sold to white settlers (numbering 8,000 by the 1960s), who established commer cial sugar estates and plantations. Effectively, Swaziland served as a migrant labour reserve for South Africa, the combination o f ‘traditional’ authority and indirect British control ‘acting in the colonial economic interests’ (Freund, 1984, p. 139).
