Incwala — Royal Ceremony

The festival

The Incwala is the most sacred royal ceremony of Eswatini, deployed over several weeks around the summer solstice, between December and January. The bemanti go to get water from the rivers and the ocean, the young men cut off the sacred lusekwan shrub, then the king enters into ritual retreat before reappearing and authorizing the tasting of the first fruits of the harvest. In Ludzidzini and in the royal residences of the country, regiments, songs and dances bind the nation around its sovereign.

More than a festival, a founding act of Swazie identity, to which visitors attend with respect.