Eswatini’s High Commissioner to Ghana, H.E. Mahlaba Almon Mamba, has disclosed that it is traditionally forbidden to look directly into the eyes of the wives of the Eswatini King, King Mswati III.

According to a Joy Prime post shared on social media, the Diplomat added that, the King who is in Ghana on a four-day state visit, has 15 wives carefully chosen from across Eswatini’s regions to ensure balance.

The Kingdom of Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, has a unique tradition, where the king is allowed to marry several wives.

King Mswati the Third (born Makhosetive Dlamini; 19 April 1968), who rules the southern African nation, has about 36 children.

His first two wives are selected by a special council. None of these two wives' sons can rise to the position of king.

According to tradition, the king's first wife must hail from the Matsebula clan, while the second one must be a member of the Motsa clan.

The king, thereafter, has the freedom to choose wives from the other clans. There are at least 17 founding clans in Eswatini Kingdom.

He heads an absolute monarchy, as he has veto power over all branches of government and is constitutionally immune from prosecution.

He was crowned as Mswati III, Ingwenyama and King of Swaziland, on 25 April 1986 at the age of 18, becoming the youngest ruling monarch in the world at that time.

With unrestricted political power and able to rule by decree, Mswati III (together with his mother, Ntfombi Tfwala, now Queen Mother [Ndlovukati]) is the last remaining absolute monarch in Africa and one of the only twelve remaining absolute national or subnational monarchs in the world.

Under his reign, political dissent and civic and labor activism are subject to harsh punishment under laws against sedition and other laws. Political parties have been banned in Eswatini since 1973 when King Sobhuza II declared a state of emergency that remained in force until 2005, when the constitution came into effect.