LUDZIDZINI ROYAL VILLAGE, Swaziland.
More than 50,000 bare-breasted virgins vied to become the King of Swaziland’s 13th wife on a ceremony which critics say ill
befits a country with the world’s highest HIV/AIDS 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 cellphone," said one dancer,
16-year-old Zodwa Mamba, who wore a traditional brightly colored tasseled
scarf.
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