Swaziland

Swaziland, officially the Kingdom of Swaziland (/swɑːzɨlænd/ or /swɑːzɨlənd/; Swazi: Umbuso weSwatini ; sometimes called kaNgwane or Eswatin) is a sovereign state in Southern Africa. It is neighbored by Mozambique to its east and by South Africa to its north, west and south. The country and its people take their names from Mswati II, the 19th-century king under whose rule Swazi territory was expanded and unified.

At no more than 200 kilometres (120 mi) north to south and 130 kilometres (81 mi) east to west, Swaziland is one of the smallest countries in Africa. Despite its size, however, its climate and topography is diverse, ranging from a cool and mountainous highveld to a hot and dry lowveld. The population is primarily ethnic Swazis whose language is siSwati.

Amantanyula (2002):

I was reading the Swaziland 'What's On' and there was a revue of the book called (Emajaha Ekuluseni) meaning, 'boys in the field looking after the cattle'. And the subject of sexuality came up. It was the "amantanyula" or, boy's doing each other while looking after the cattle that grabbed me the most. The question is, as amantanyula is an African word and sodomy a western one, are they different things? My understanding is that amantanyula means sodomy. I may be wrong but many Africans do not have a problem with amantanyula but would have a problem with sodomy... Talking about freedom of sexuality, we are not talking constitutionally, but culturally. Is it African to be gay or not? The book takes a very African point of view. Most of the young Swazi boys in the book grew up in the late 1980s and slept with other boys, and yet would still regard themselves as African. African boys who happen to take it up the ass as a boy. But we all grow up in a different way, in a different Africa. Isn't that so? In some African countries, culture includes same sex behaviour but not gay identity or a gay community as like in western culture. Back in 1986-1987, until late1990 in a small village in South Africa called KwaNgwane, which is very nearby to Swaziland, you could find the same amantanyula practise. And inside Swaziland boys who looked after the cattle in the forest would have sexual intercourse with each other. This was only for boys over the age of 16 to prove their "man-hood" before they slept with any woman. It was okay that both parents and the community would know about it and they would be happy that their boy is becoming a man. Though they never understood, what they were promoting was homosexuality, they respected it as traditional behaviour and they praised it and loved it - so much that some never stopped. "Some boys passed into manhood and got married but now and then they still need some man's wood to remain pure men," say's Mr Bhokondvo Nkosi, a Maths teacher of Emagogeni high school. "The difference before the western influence is that it was ok to practice this type's of sexuality and now most African parents are considering it as "homosexuality" as it is labelled and therefore it is regarded as a silly influence from the civilised countries and as a western disease." ...