#eSwatini

[south-africa-official]

Official post of Africa

Swati royal, Eswatini, Sikhanyiso Dlamini, by camisa florida

[miku-earth]

Calling all artists!

and those who might have seen such art!

I've searched high and low to make sure every country is represented by the "Miku worldwide" trend, but I'm yet to see any art for:

🇳🇪 Niger (not to be confused with Nigeria!)

🇲🇼 Malawi

🇬🇳 Guinea

🇧🇮 Burundi

🇨🇫 Central African Republic

🇪🇷 Eritrea

🇱🇸 Lesotho

🇬🇼 Guinea-Bissau

🇸🇹 São Tomé and Príncipe

🇸🇿 eSwatini - seen! ✅

other African nations not listed have already had a Miku posted or in the queue!

If you have seen any art in the 'Miku worldwide' trend from one of these countries, please let me know!

Please pass this around so that it is more well known! For those without tumblr, there is a contact link on the site miku.earth :)

[inatungulates]

Lowland nyala Tragelaphus angasii

Observed by kawickens, CC BY-NC

[uwmspeccoll]

Decorative Sunday

Kyle Meyer (b. 1985), a New York-based photographer and fiber artist with an MFA from the Parsons School of Design, has worked with the marginalized gay community in Eswatini since 2009, where homosexuality is illegal. The photographic essay Interwoven is his debut monograph exploring the challenges faced by gay men in this hyper-masculine culture. Edited by Santa Fe art historian Chelsea Weathers with an interview of Meyer by art history professor Andy Campbell, Interwoven was published in Santa Fe by Radius Books and New York by Yossi Milo in 2020.

These portraits fuse digital and Polaroid photography with traditional Swazi fibers, giving voice to silenced members of the LGBTQ community. Tension between the necessity of the individuals to hide their queerness and their desire to express themselves openly inform both the subject and the means of fabricating the work. Each piece from the Interwoven series is labor-intensive, taking days or sometimes weeks to complete. Meyer often photographs his subjects wearing a traditional headwrap made from a vibrantly colored textile typically associated with women. He then produces a print of the portrait and shreds it, together with the fabric from the headwrap, weaving the strips into patterned three-dimensional works. The final portrait presents each person's individuality while using the fabric as a screen to protect their identity. Meyer writes:

It would be taboo for men to wear these head-wraps in public, as that would indicate homosexual tendencies. . . . Each man’s gaze is directly on the viewer as if demanding attention to their true identity while still being hidden behind the fabric, which is a metaphor for their culture suppression. This masked, submissive state is typical in their everyday lives. Through this series, I aim to channel a voice for these silenced men and embracing an otherwise frowned-upon identity with a sense of pride without neglecting the reality of their every-day existence.

View more posts of Radius Books.

View more Decorative Sunday posts.

[omgthatdress]

[otonkolos]

National animal of Eswatini 🇸🇿

[skulkie]

A strange blog post on research and perhaps a cry for help?

This might be the most unusual post for my silly blog, but I feel like I need to talk about this somewhere so here we go!

A few months back I arrived at the Wikipedia page for the current king of Eswatini, King Mswati III. I've always had an interest in family trees, so I was curious to know about his wives and their children. I was surprised to discover that there is a decided lack of centralized information on them, with inconsistencies across the board. So what does Skulkie do?

I build a family tree with everything I can find. Ever.

I've stared at Wikipedia pages; I've read all of A History of Swaziland by Dr J.S.M. Matsebula (who, by the way, I cannot find); I've sifted through articles from various Swati news sources; I've stared at site pages that haven't been online since 2013; there's more but I'm getting off track. I've seen a lot of information and I've been inputting it into a family tree making website that I like well enough.

So we're approaching 900 names. I believe most, if not all, are real people, with generally accurate connections (sometimes the marrying between families gets a little hard to follow but I'm trying my best).

It's not sourced properly yet, and I'm hoping to do a second edition, with sourcing and potentially less inaccuracy then I assume it has now. Based on some of the dates I have (which, aside from the currently living or the most famous, is few), this goes back as far as 1440 (probably further, considering I have the name of the father of the person born then). It even connects outside of Eswatini to other Bantu peoples, it's frankly a fascinating read.

Now I have a new issue.

What do I even do with this?

Currently I'm trying to see if I can figure out who works in the History Department at the University of Eswatini (UNESWA) through Linkedin (UNESWA's website, while very pretty, lacks in information and would benefit from a renovation). I have no idea what I'll do when I do get in contact but it just. Seems appropriate.

I don't really know what I'm going to do in the end. If anyone has suggestions that would be cool. I've never done research that I've enjoyed and never wanted to go further into it so I am way out of my depth. I'm chronically online so if you dm me or send me an ask or just reblog I'll be there for questions or suggestions.

[lev-nevelevinskya]

Swazi Miku from Eswatini! 🇸🇿

Next up is Fiji 🇫🇯

I forgot to add her music details I’m giving to all my Miku drawings in this series 🫠

[viagginterstellari]

Street shop - Manzini, 2023

[folkfashion]

Swati woman, Eswatini, by Retlaw Snellac

[have-you-been-here]

Mbabane, Eswatini

[contagiouswatermelon]

Most of these are islands because those are the ones I know of, but I tried to include a few landlocked ones as well

[inatungulates]

Southern white rhinoceros Ceratotherium simum simum

With pied crow Corvus albus

Observed by itsmemarlo, CC BY-NC

[workingclasshistory]

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Acknowledgements

Written and edited by Working Class History.

Theme music by Ricardo Araya. Check out his YouTube channel at youtube.com/@peptoattack

[postcard-from-the-past]

Indigenous people from Swaziland, modern-day Eswatini

South African vintage postcard