About Eswatini
Swaziland, Eswatini, or eSwatini?
In April of 2018, as part of the 50/50 celebration which marked both 50 years of independence and the king’s 50th birthday, King Mswati III announced that henceforth Swaziland would be known by its indigenous name, eSwatini. The word “Swazi” is a Zulu pronunciation held over from colonial days.
The change-over to Eswatini is slowing taking place. Many people still refer to their land as Swaziland and themselves as Swazi, but there is a noticeable change in speech and written references such as signs and business documents. For example, the University of Swaziland, abbreviated UNISWA, is now the University of Eswatini, abbreviated UNESWA. At the Swaziland National Museum, the name Swaziland has been taken down from the front of the building, making room for Eswatini to be added.
Outside of the kingdom, adoption of “Eswatini” has been much slower. Many people outside of Eswatini, even in neighboring South Africa, do not recognize the name. They only know the country as “Swaziland.”
Google adopted the new name almost immediately. Other entities still refer to the country as Swaziland. If you need to contact your bank to notify them of your travel plans (so that you can use an ATM card or credit card while you visit) you may have to say “Swaziland” instead of “Eswatini.”
Grammatically, eSwatini is the correct way to write the name in the siSwati language. However, when writing in English, the government, newspapers, university, and other organizations follow English language conventions and capitalize only the first letter, rendering it Eswatini. Since we are all English-language users, we use Eswatini for our correspondence and documents, such as this manual.
Here are some other helpful words:
- liSwati – a person from Eswatini
- emaSwati – multiple people from Eswatini
- siSwati – the indigenous language of Eswatini
Where is Eswatini?
The Kingdom of Eswatini is located in southern Africa. It is a landlocked country nestled between South Africa and Mozambique. View Eswatini on Google Earth
How large is Eswatini?
With an area of 6704 sq. miles, Eswatini is larger than Connecticut and smaller than New Jersey. Interactive map at TheTrueSize.com
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