By Lungelo Nkambule | 2018-04-21
The country’s name change by His Majesty King Mswati III on Thursday has been met with mixed reactions.
Following the announcement by His Majesty the King, locals have taken to social media to air their views and some have even taken it a step further by making fun of the new development. His Majesty, when delivering his speech at the 50/50 double celebrations at Mavuso Sports Centre, said the name was inherited from the British hence if the nation was true to the meaning of independence, now was the time to give the country a name of its people.
“As we are aware the name Swaziland was inherited from the British, if we are to give true meaning to our independence.
Time has come to give our country a name of its people. It must be said that this process is long overdue, particularly if you consider how other countries in the region localised their names soon after independence.
Tsine singemaswati, therefore, I have the pleasure to present to you, on this historic day, a new name for the kingdom, our country will now be called Kingdom of Eswatini,” he said.
People after this announcement took to social media, some agreeing that it was long overdue while others felt it was really unnecessary and there would be too many repercussions for a country with a 65 per cent unemployment rate.
Some wondered if the companies whose names contained the word Swaziland would have to rename their companies as well and some wanted to know what the new abbreviation would be because SD no longer existed. People did not waste time as they took to Wikipedia to make the necessary changes. Wikipedia now states that the country is the Kingdom of Eswatini and was formally known as Swaziland. Swaziland was a name given to the country during the colonial era.
Other countries that did away with their colonial names after independence include Zimbabwe, which was known as Rhodesia, Malawi was known as Nyasaland and Botswana, which was known as Bechuanaland.
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