British princess upset at King Sobhuza
MBABANE – “Your Majesty, Princess Margaret does hope that you will be wearing your uniform tomorrow,” Anne Glenconner raised this concern with King Sobhuza II.
In her book, titled ‘My extraordinary life in the shadows of the crown’, Anne (87) narrated the princess’s fascinating encounter with the King of Swaziland, now Eswatini, in 1981.
The 246-page book, launched in 2020, was authored in such a way that the events are narrated humorously and with no intention to offend the Eswatini royal family.
It presents the character of King Sobhuza II. At least, 1 205 words are dedicated to Princess Margaret’s visit to Swaziland (Eswatini).
At a dinner preceding the Diamond Jubilee in Mbabane, Princess Margaret sent her lady-in-waiting to relay a message to King Sobhuza II that he shouldn’t put on his traditional attire during the event.
She recalled Princess Margaret exclaiming, somewhat bemused: “If he doesn’t wear a top of any sort, I don’t know where I will put it!”
ATTENDS TO THE QUEEN
A lady-in-waiting is a woman who attends to the queen or princess.
Her lady-in-waiting was Anne herself, the author of the book. She accompanied the British royalty to the country to represent Queen Elizabeth II during the celebrations held at the Prince of Wales in Mbabane in September 1981.
Indeed, Anne did raise the princess’s concerns with King Sobhuza II.
The King is said to have smiled, nodded and said nothing.
With no straight answer, both Princess Margaret and Anne were left wondering what to expect the next day.
The book was launched in 2020. It is reportedly melting from the shelves in London.
Meanwhile, they had to wait hours in Mbabane before the King appeared. The stadium, according to Anne, was full of people, some of whom had walked for up to three weeks from their rural communities to catch a glimpse of him.
The atmosphere was electric as the crowds were bursting with anticipation. She said Prince Kabani (Prince Gabheni) sat next to her. She reportedly asked him what his father would be wearing, but he was noncommittal.
“There was no choice: we just had to wait until the King appeared to find out,” according to the book.
She mentioned that they sat there stifling in their English clothes and watched the different things happening in front of them.
There were many dance troupes who moved in perfect unison.
The King continued to keep his own time. So they had to wait.
POINTING AT HER WATCH
While Princess Margaret became more and more tetchy, she kept looking at her lady-in-waiting and pointing at her watch.
Finally, a shining black stretch limo came to a halt in front of them.
“Out got King Sobhuza II,” she said. To their dismay, he was wearing a similar outfit to the previous day; huge feathers in his hair and nothing on except his leather apron.
“I could see Princess Margaret’s mood sinking further, a look of despair in her eyes,” she stated.
“The King’s daughters followed their father out of the limo. They, too, wore nothing on their torsos and were rather large, emerging from the car with their big bare bosoms and wide smiles.”
Anne said the crowd were delighted to see the Eswatini royals and erupted into cheers. At this point, Princess Margaret beckoned to her, mouthing: “Can you ask Prince Kabani (Gabheni) to do something about the King’s feathers?”
“Otherwise I won’t be able to get the ribbon over his head.”
She passed the message on and the prince nodded, but nothing happened. Instead, they continued to stand for hours as more people danced past them, and Eswatini’s army put on an extensive display.
Eventually the moment came where Princess Margaret was to present the King with the ribbon and the order.
Luckily, moments before, Prince Gabheni took quite a few of the feathers out of the headdress to make it easier for Princess Margaret to put on the ribbon.
However, while the ribbon went over his head all right, she then had to fumble around his groin, working out where best to place the order.
When they finally left the stadium, the princess turned to her lady-in-waiting, looking completely fed up, and said: “I’m going to tell the Queen that I shall never again give any of her orders to anybody who isn’t properly dressed.”
The author also wrote: “Before we left Swaziland (Eswatini), as is British royal custom when visiting all countries, she gave various presents to the King.”
“The tour to Swaziland, now Eswati