Swaziland

Swaziland - a royal experience. What a welcome! About the "ultimate destination", I am less sure. Crossing the border was a much quicker and troublefree experience than what I remembered. Still it took more than 45 minutes to cross both borders. We still need to fill out a entry/departure card. Being used to crossing the border with France in less than 1 minute (even though Switzerland is not in a customs union with the EU, whereas Swaziland and South Africa are in the same customs union), one still has a feeling that the importance of the nation state puts sometimes too heavy a weight on already disadvantaged economies.


Swaziland tries to keep its specifity which is not an easy task when one is so close to the giant South Africa. The landscape is gentle, it is very green, the agricultural sector seems to be efficient. They were actually happy that their sugar export quota to the EU was increased and that they retained their export status for beef products. The people are quite laid back and verz few still weat the traditional dress.

I was also happy to update my collection of emalangeni, the local currency, which is tied to the rand. Both currency are freely accepted in the country. I also bought the local newspaper: Times of Swaziland. The front page was full of crime stories... If the country retains its rural character and its constitutional specificity, signs of urbanisation are evident. In 10 years since my last visit (thanks for not commenting on that...), the face of the capital city has changed dramatically.