Party At The Palace

Do you know what the Swazi's definitely know how to do well?

Party!

They have a whole range of festivals throughout the year. One of the most sacred is the Incwala. This is the first fruits ceremony, where the king gives permission for his people to eat the new crops of that year.

But I was here for the almighty Reed Festival.

Earlier this week I saw hundreds of girls on their way to the Queens Mother's house for the beginning of the week-long dance off. And now I find myself at the centre of it all....

After a morning of meetings with two fair trade businesses I arrived at the Royal Residence.

There is a buzz of excitement in the air as 60,000 maidens from across the country carry their reeds to the Palace to repair the Queen Mother's home.

Standing right in front of me, tens of thousands of girls are singing and dancing as they make their way. I stand in awe. I can honestly say that I have never seen anything quite like it.

I walk along and soon I'm drawn into the crowd. We chat and sing and walk and it feels like the most natural thing in the world.

There is a group of girls from the Mahlangatsha region located to the west of Swaziland. They told me about their experience of the Reed Dance.

Every young unmarried girl has to attend otherwise they pay a fine of one cow to the king. They tell me about the song and dance they have been preparing and how far they walked to collect the reeds. I admire their strength and enthusiasm.

After delivering the reeds to the Queen Mother, the girls and I make our way to the stadium.

I wish them good luck and go in through the high security metal detectors.

As I enter I spot three of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. They are from the Ndelbele tribe in the Limpopo region of South Africa.

The women are adorned with bracelets and necklaces symbolising their faithfulness to their husbands. I stepped in and asked if I could take a picture. They smiled and asked me to be in it.

I passed my camera over to someone and the next thing I knew I was being removed by bodyguards. It appears these ladies were part of the South African Royal Family!

They just laughed and insisted that I was allowed to take the photo.

The security guard then assumed I was part of the media group, so the next thing I knew I was being directed to their section, only three rows down from King Mswati and his 13 wives, along with the Queen Mother, the South African Royal Family and many other VIPs.

I couldn't believe my luck!

....That was until I was asked by the head of police to show my media pass!

Arhhhh!

I was about to explain everything when he interrupted me and asked where I was from. It turns out that he had carried out a year's training with the Police Force in Durham!

I knew being from the north of England would do me favours at some point!

So now that the head of Swazi Police and I had bonded, I settled into my seat to watch the show.

I had tears in my eyes hearing the immense sound of 60,000 girls singing.

The princesses turned up wearing red feathers in their hair to acknowledge that they are Royalty and danced for the king, who passed by me wearing little more than a loin cloth and feathers.

The media went crazy - including me.

I followed the king around, snapping away as he danced with the girls.

Once we all returned to our seats I interviewed by a French TV station on my views of the day and what I thought of polygamy.

This made me stop and think.

Up until now I had been enjoying being part of such a huge event, an important part of Swazi culture, tradition and identity.

But in reality was this event not just adding to the already out of control HIV/AIDS crises? Encouraging the nation to live in a polygamist society?

Suddenly there was a blatant sexual undertone to the event. Did this send out the right message to young Swazi's both male and female?

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