Officially named the Kingdom of eSwatini (the "land of the Swazis") on April 19, 2018, the king's birthday [Link] ('Swaziland' now dismissed as pejorative). A British protectorate from 1906 until independence on September 6, 1968, King Sobhuza II terminated a brief period of Westminster-style democracy in 1973, and ruled by decree until absolutism was tempered by a new constitution written in 2005. Eswatini is a diarchy (not a monarchy) led by the King and the Queen Mother of Indlovukazi, who are joint rulers.
