More than 50,000
bare-breasted virgins vied to become the 13th wife of
the king of Swaziland on Monday in a ceremony critics say
ill befits a country with the world's highest
HIV rate. King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa's
last absolute monarch, arrived dressed in a leopard-skin
loincloth to watch the Reed Dance ceremony, which he has
used since 1999 to pluck new brides from the girls
dressed in little more than beaded mini-skirts.
Wielding machetes
and singing tributes to the king and queen mother, also
known as the Great She-Elephant, the girls danced around the
royal stadium in the hope of catching the eye of the
37-year-old monarch. "I want to live a nice
life, have money, be rich, have a BMW, and cell
phone," said one dancer, 16-year-old Zodwa Mamba, who
wore a traditional brightly colored tasseled scarf.
Critics say
Mswati, who has courted controversy for his lavish lifestyle
while two thirds of his subjects live in abject poverty,
sets a bad example by encouraging polygamy and teenage
sex in a country where 40% of adults are HIV-positive.
Monday's
ceremony was the culmination of a week of preparations,
which included the lifting of a royal ban on sex with
virgins, decreed in 2001 to help rein in HIV. Last
week Mswati lifted the five-year ban a year early,
ordering thousands of maidens to throw off chastity scarves
worn to ward of preying men. (Reuters)