Study of economic development and political development in Swaziland - covers colonialism and the process of gaining independence; examines economic structure incl. The role of South Africa R in foreign investment, monoculture of sugar, the emergence of a Royalist comprador Bourgeoisie (ruling class) and its financial control of the Swazi National Development Fund (investment), gross domestic product, and the economic recession; outlines the social class structure, the institutional framework, political power and regional level political problems. References, statistical tables.

This book describes the basis of Swazi traditional life and examines how modern values are influencing change. It focuses on Hilda Kuper's original study and subsequent analyses to describe that traditional society.

Swaziland—recently renamed Eswatini—is the only nation-state in Africa with a functioning indigenous political system. Elsewhere on the continent, most departing colonial administrators were succeeded by Western-educated elites. In Swaziland, traditional Swazi leaders managed to establish an absolute monarchy instead, qualified by the author as benevolent and people-centred, a system which they have successfully defended from competing political forces since the 1970s. This book is the first to study the constitutional history of this monarchy. It examines its origins in the colonial era, the financial support it received from white settlers and apartheid South Africa, and the challenges it faced from political parties and the judiciary, before King Sobhuza II finally consolidated power in 1978 with an auto-coup d’état. As Hlengiwe Dlamini shows, the history of constitution-making in Swaziland is rich, complex, and full of overlooked insight for historians of Africa.

Based upon information collected during half a century of field research in Swaziland, this case study presents rare insight into the dynamics of the country's independence, problems facing traditional leaders, and conflicts of interest and personalities.