Swazi

The Swazi kingdom grew from communities united under the Dlamini royal line. Its people included Nguni-speaking groups and others incorporated through conquest and alliance. The name bakaNgwane recalled an earlier ruler, Ngwane, while the name Swazi later came from Mswati, a king of the nineteenth century. The royal line thus joined communities of diverse origins.

Ngwane's successors established royal homesteads in the southern country around Shiselweni. In the early nineteenth century Sobhuza I faced pressure from the Ndwandwe and the rising Zulu kingdom. He moved his royal centre north and brought other communities under his authority. In the Ezulwini valley, the kingdom gained a political centre that would endure beyond his reign. Marriage alliances and diplomacy helped Sobhuza hold together a realm formed in a time of conflict.