Change Your Image
wyngaard
Reviews
Without the King (2007)
Excellent but biassed documentary on Swaziland
I've been waiting for some time to see this documentary as I have been living and working in Swaziland since 1985. We are given a fairly honest look at some parts of Swaziland - the monarchy on the one hand and on the other hand the upcoming generation, many of whom are living on the outskirts of the main towns, Mbabane and Manzini, in the hope of making a better living in the towns but devoid of any means to produce their own food and therefore living in great poverty if they should fail to find some form of occupation. However there are also other groups of which nothing is shown in the documentary - the business people earning good salaries and living a stable life and those in the rural areas, staunch supporters of the monarchy and who are mostly subsistence farmers. What was the aim of Michael Skolnik in making the documentary? Was he trying to warn the world of a possible revolution in the country? If so, why did he not also speak to the intelligentsia, many of whom are also disillusioned with the monarchy and would probably have been a better choice to influence world leaders rather than having to listen only to aggressive people, many of whom were obviously intoxicated while being interviewed? If his intentions was to give the world a picture of what is going on in Swaziland, (the good and the bad) then it would have been better if people from other backgrounds could also have been included. A few remarks on some of the more sensational things shown in the documentary: At one point it is said that people are so poor that they have to eat intestines from cows and chicken heads and feet. Although this is not my personal favourite, for many Swazi people this is a delicatessen which they enjoy eating. Frozen chicken pieces are sold in stores in packages which include the head and feet. The empty churches have absolutely nothing to do with the fear of people to gather for prayer. That is absolute rubbish! Most churches in Swaziland are small and not well attended, even though it is considered to be a Christian country, but this has nothing to do with any restrictions from government. The problem of AIDS is accurately shown in the documentary, except that the situation is even worse than is shown in the movie.