I finally made a decision on what to talk about on my Comm 3 public speech Friday next week.

Since last Tuesday, I'd been listing topics that included blogging, the "Dumbledore Is Not Dead" theory, accents from different countries, and the evolution of my boring hairstyle. I was trying to come up with a topic that is fresh, educational, and interesting to a large audience. In other words, I aimed at something that is about sex or at least related to it. So I trashed the topics listed above and tried to make use of Swaziland's polygamous royal traditions.

I learned about it a few months ago. Do you know that Swaziland's King Mswati III now has 12 wives and two official fiancees? Since he was crowned King in 1986 (he was still 18 years old then and was the youngest monarch in the world), he's been enjoying the privilege of choosing a bride in the annual Umhlanga or Reed Dance Festival, where maidens dance wearing only short skirts, beads, and tassles (for women who are already bethrothed) with their "twins" exposed (for the uninitiated, please read my August 25 entry). Twenty to thirty thousand women cut tall reeds (don't ask me why) and dance as a way of paying homage to the Queen Mother. Yes, it's supposed to be an event held as a tribute to the Queen Mother, but it's also a time when the King can choose an addition to his entourage of wives. You can probably imagine the boredom and severe tedium of the King as he watches these women dance for him, with many of them probably wanting to be chosen as one of his wives.

But one does not become the King's wife immediately. Like what happened in last year's Umhlanga. The king chose a 16-year-old Miss Teenage Swaziland finalist to become one of his wives. She was his fiancee until June this year, when the girl was found pregnant, and was thus married to the King. You see, according to Swazi tradition, the King's fiancee can only become a queen when she falls pregnant, proving that she can produce an heir.

King Mswati III himself is a son of his very prolific father, the late King Sobhuza II, who had more than 70 wives and 200 children. He is the 67th son.

Now we have to put it into context that in Swaziland's total population today, 40% of them are HIV positive. King Mswati III is not a good example for his people for sure.

The King had earlier tried to curb the rising statistics of AIDS victims through his ban on sexual relations for girls under 18 (which he lifted last month, a year early than scheduled). The ban barely made a difference since it was implemented in 2001.

You know what? The more that I find information about Swaziland's royalty and the Swazi people in general, the more that I notice that being intimate with the opposite sex is deeply imbeded with their culture.