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.