TOPLINE Civil unrest in the small, landlocked African kingdom of Eswatini continued to escalate Friday as nurses&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-59011033" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">refused</a>&nbsp;to treat police officers after a tumultuous week during which the country&nbsp;<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/10/22/eswatini-bans-protests-as-tensions-flare" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">banned protests</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/southern-african-envoys-due-travel-eswatini-after-anti-monarchy-protests-2021-10-21/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">suspended Facebook access</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-18/schools-shut-as-pro-democracy-protests-escalate-in-eswatini" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">shut down schools</a>&nbsp;indefinitely as months of pro-democracy protests&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/pro-democracy-protests-flare-up-eswatini-2021-10-14/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">came to a head</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



It comes a day after South African President&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/PresidencyZA/status/1451045191931023360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1451045191931023360%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2F2021%2F10%2F21%2Fafrican-nations-deploy-envoys-to-eswatini-to-help-stem-unrest" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cyril Ramaphosa</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/10/21/african-nations-deploy-envoys-to-eswatini-to-help-stem-unrest" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">deployed</a>&nbsp;special envoys to discuss the crisis with King Mswati III on behalf of the Southern African Development Community, an intergovernmental body that Ramaphosa chairs and Eswatini is a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sadc.int/member-states/swaziland/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">member</a>&nbsp;of.



Nurses at three hospitals in Eswatini demonstrated Friday after civil servants were met with an “unprecedented show of force” from police at a pro-democracy rally on Wednesday during which 30 nurses were injured and a bystander was killed, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-59011033" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BBC</a>&nbsp;reported.



Over 80 people have been killed by authorities and two members of parliament detained since the nationwide anti-monarchy protests began in July, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/10/eswatini-detained-mps-must-be-immediately-released-and-all-charges-against-them-dropped/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Amnesty International</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mfonobongnsehe/2014/06/03/the-5-richest-kings-in-africa/?sh=6ba62e6e41d2">$50 million</a>. That’s at least how much&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;estimated Mswati’s net worth to be in 2014, while 80% of citizens live on less than&nbsp;<a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2012/09/21/the-human-development-cost-of-the-king-of-swazilands-lifestyle-and-his-bevy-of-wives/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$2</a>&nbsp;a day.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Eswatini, called Swaziland&nbsp;<a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/04/20/604000612/swaziland-gets-a-name-change-call-it-eswatini-now" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">until 2018</a>, is a country of 1.2 million in Southeast Africa known for its sugar industry — and for being named the most unequal nation on the planet by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/oxfam-challenges-african-leaders-champion-new-economic-models-are-fit-future" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Oxfam</a>. According to the intergovernmental International Sugar Organization, Eswatini ranks&nbsp;<a href="https://www.isosugar.org/sugarsector/sugar" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">among the top ten</a>&nbsp;sugar exporters in the world.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/optimist/vaccine-world/coca-cola-bill-gates-covid-vaccines-africa-eswatini-b956279.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Coca-Cola</a>&nbsp;has long had a presence in the country, and has been&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jan/02/coca-cola-accused-swaziland-dictator" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">accused</a>&nbsp;in the past of “propping up” the dictatorial Mswati.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



“<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-59011033" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Eswatini protests: Nurses refuse to treat police after colleagues shot</a>” (BBC News)



“<a href="https://apnews.com/article/africa-south-africa-democracy-political-and-civil-unrest-botswana-515167b66cd631fcb0691c16cce5ce67" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Southern African states send delegation to troubled Eswatini</a>” (Associated Press)



“<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/10/22/eswatini-bans-protests-as-tensions-flare" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Eswatini bans protests as tensions flare amid pro-democracy calls</a>” (Al Jazeera)



“<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-18/schools-shut-as-pro-democracy-protests-escalate-in-eswatini" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Eswatini Closes Schools to Quell Pro-Democracy Protests</a>” (Bloomberg)



“<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/pro-democracy-protests-flare-up-eswatini-2021-10-14/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Pro-democracy protests flare up in Eswatini</a>” (Reuters)



“<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/02/us/africa-monarchy-eswatini-protests-swaziland.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Africa’s Last Absolute Monarchy Convulsed by Mass Protests</a>” (New York Times)



By <meta charset="utf-8">Téa Kvetenadze, Forbes Staff



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/teakvetenadze/"></a>

ESWATINI-UNREST

Nurses Refuse To Treat Eswatini Police As Protests Immerse Africa’s Last Absolute Monarchy

The UNICEF released a report in November last year titled COVID-19: A Catastrophe for Children in Sub-Saharan Africa, stating that prolonged school closures due to Covid-19 have presented multiple problems in the sub-Saharan African region. There is now a higher rate of teenage pregnancy, poor nutrition, and permanent dropouts from school.



Furthermore, the report read: “School closures have caused the number of children and adolescents not going to school to rise from around 100 million before the pandemic to 350 million.” A classroom report of different countries:



NIGERIA



Despite the fact that Nigeria is battling with the second wave of the pandemic, learners returned to school on January 18 this year. However, the House of Representatives asked the government to postpone the reopening by three months, due to the increasing number of Covid-19 deaths.



<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="alignleft size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1230667585-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-49958" width="335" height="223" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1230667585-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1230667585-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1230667585-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1230667585-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1230667585-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1230667585-600x400.jpg 600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 335px) 100vw, 335px" /><figcaption> (Photo by Olukayode Jaiyeola/NurPhoto via Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>



&#8220;We are particularly concerned that when the infection rates hovered around 500 and under, schools were closed but now that it hovers well above 1,000 infections daily, schools are being reopened. Why are we rushing to reopen schools without adequate verifiable and sustainable arrangements to protect and secure our children?” The House Committee on Basic Education and Services stated in a press release, reported This Day.



SOUTH AFRICA



The government announced on January 15 that schools will remain closed until February 15. This is due to concerns around the country’s more serious second Covid-19 wave. Teachers have had to report to schools at the beginning of February.



At the end of January the country&#8217;s Basic education Minister, Angie Motshekga, indicated in a gazette that the return of students will be staggered. Business Tech further reported that private school pupils will be allowed to return to school two weeks earlier than their public school counterparts.



KENYA



<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1230423366-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-49956" width="444" height="295" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1230423366-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1230423366-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1230423366-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1230423366-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1230423366-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1230423366-600x400.jpg 600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 444px) 100vw, 444px" /><figcaption>. (Photo by Dennis Sigwe/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>



Schools in Kenya reopened at the beginning of the year after being closed since March 2020. VOA News reported that Kenya has yet to contain the pandemic and there are concerns among teachers and parents about being exposed to the infection.



ZIMBABWE



<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="alignright size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1230436018-1024x678.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-49957" width="267" height="177" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1230436018-1024x678.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1230436018-300x199.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1230436018-768x508.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1230436018-1536x1017.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1230436018-2048x1356.jpg 2048w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1230436018-600x397.jpg 600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 267px) 100vw, 267px" /><figcaption> (Photo by Tafadzwa Ufumeli/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>



At the end of last year, the country announced it would postpone the date schools reopen. Originally, learners were to return on January 4, but a new date would be announced in due course. This, however, is not only due to the pandemic but also coupled with the threat of flooding posed by Cyclone Chalane.



eSWATINI



After eSwatini strengthened its lockdown regulations on January 7, with a spike in Covid-19 cases, Deputy Prime Minister Themba Masuku announced that schools would remain closed indefinitely.



According to the SABC, the President of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers in eSwatini, Mbongwa Dlamini, commended the government for postponing the reopening of schools.



“As a trade union of teachers, we are saying that the government should make sure that before schools are open, the schools should be safe for teaching and learning. So if the schools are not safe for teaching and learning, it is best for the government to wait.”

KENYA-HEALTH-VIRUS-EDUCATION

Covid’s Effects On African Classrooms

It’s an early morning in May and as the sun rises, red, orange and yellow hues bathe the swaying sugarcane fields of Malkerns, a small town in the landlocked southern African country of Swaziland.
Swaziland, renamed ‘the kingdom of eSwatini’ in April this year on its 50th birthday, awakens to the sounds of the rustling wind and chirping birds. Very soon, these natural notes will be replaced by the cacophony and camaraderie of thousands of guests jetting into the country for the annual Bushfire Festival, a three-day fiesta of art, culture, music and food in the last week of May.
It’s a busy time of the year for a kingdom that is one of the world’s last remaining monarchies.
Within the Bushfire Festival arena, djembe drums beat to the rhythm of the heartbeat of Africa. Revelers indulge in traditional feasts at the food markets as the musicians take center-stage.
The likes of South Africa’s Samthing Soweto, Brazil’s Flavia Coelho, Nigeria’s Yemi Alade and Mali’s Salif Keita are present, offering a profusion of sounds and melodies.
In the camping arena is a confluence of cultures, as over 29,000 guests who have traveled here to attend the festival make new friends and form unlikely collaborations.
Many stop to admire a hand-crafted grass hat worn by a young woman who has traveled from Lesotho. Anna Thai is originally from Memphis, Tennessee, in the United States.
“The people here are very relaxed and accepting of each other. There are so many from different countries, so many languages and so many different faces and I really enjoy the diversity of it,” she tells FORBES AFRICA.
What started as a cultural meet around a small amphitheater, where artistes performed in front of a crowd of no more than a hundred, is today one of Africa’s most talked-about festivals.
&nbsp;
<div id="attachment_36776" style="width: 955px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36776" class="wp-image-36776 size-full" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Jiggs-Thorne_KM.jpg" alt="" width="945" height="628" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Jiggs-Thorne_KM.jpg 945w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Jiggs-Thorne_KM-300x199.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Jiggs-Thorne_KM-600x399.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Jiggs-Thorne_KM-768x510.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 945px) 100vw, 945px" />Swazi-born Jiggs Thorne. Photo by Karen Mwendera.</div>
<blockquote>“We started off as kind of a charity running a business and very quickly learned that it needed to be a business running a charity.” &#8211; Jiggs Thorne</blockquote>
Swaziland-born Jiggs Thorne, the founder and director of the festival, always had a passion for the arts, but admits he had to learn the business aspect of the festival the hard way.
“The important thing is I never studied to become a festival director and that’s the thing with entrepreneurs, you are driven by passion; the kind of passion that gets you up and creates that drive you need to make something work. And you have to be incessant,” Thorne tells us.
Born in Manzini, he was inspired by his parents who owned a restaurant. He went on to pursue a degree in drama and politics at the University of Natal in South Africa.
In 1994, when he finished his degree, he decided to return to his home country and apply his passion for the arts. Thorne wanted to develop the local arts scene.
In 2000, he set up House On Fire, the eclectic venue where the festival is now held.
However, its business model wasn’t sustainable, and Thorne realized that if he didn’t act quickly, his dream would slowly fade away.
“Well, I was very much an artiste and I think I’ve become entrepreneurial along the way and we started off as kind of a charity running a business and very quickly learned that it needed to be a business running a charity,” he says.
The Bushfire Festival came into being.

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“It was always about a positive light, warmth, about celebrating diversity,” he says.
A majority of the funding came from sponsorships, and partnerships – the festival is called MTN Bushfire.
With his brother Shelton, Thorne fine-tuned the business model to keep its mandate as a creative arts platform and business at the same time. As Thorne came from an arts background, he had to depend on others to make his dream work.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2012/07/01/setting-fire-swaziland/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read More: Setting Fire To Swaziland</a>
“There needs to be integrity in the way in which you deal with people so I think that’s kind of paramount in this equation where you are dependent on others to make it happen,” says the 48-year-old father of two.
The festival grew beyond what Thorne had imagined, he says, contributing over E50 million ($3.7 million) to Swaziland’s economy.
“When the king travels overseas, people ask him about Bushfire, you know. So it’s quite a surreal thing that the concept that came up all those years ago in a sense has become owned by others,” laughs Thorne.
This year, the local newspapers, radio stations and social media were abuzz with news on the festival.
Thorne owes its success to his team and his parents who left the legacy for him and the family to build on.
“It was kind of the fire they started and it’s a light that we’ve been able to follow. They are the legacy, says Thorne, who runs the festival with his siblings and extended family.
“Entrepreneurship is something that you don’t really study, you learn, and it’s something that takes over, and it’s kind of all-encompassing,” he signs off.
After the curtains come down on the festival, it’s back to the idyllic sights and sounds of Swaziland, until next year, when the little town of Malkerns will fire up again.

Tag: Eswatini

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

Nurses Refuse To Treat Eswatini Police As Protests Immerse Africa’s Last Absolute Monarchy

Covid’s Effects On African Classrooms

Kingdom Calling At The Bushfire Festival