We were wondering whether the tales of bestiality allegedly involving the King of Swaziland that are circulating on the internet – particularly on Facebook and Scribd, and apparently printed and handed out within the kingdom – would be picked up by mainstream media. Then Southern Africa Report, a Johannesburg-based weekly political and economic analyses brief (sort of like Africa Confidential), ran an analysis piece on recent economic and political developments in Swaziland, and began its report with the allegations:

For traditionalists, King Mswati III’s troubled year, the rapid collapse of Swaziland’s economy and the surge in pro-democracy protests has little to do with South Africa’s revision of [the regional] Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) disbursements late last year. It has its roots, instead, in an unfortunate variation in the mystic, and private, Incwala ceremony last December.

The ceremony is cloaked in secrecy and marks the king’s return to public life after a period of withdrawal and spiritual contemplation.

Among its highlights is a symbolic demonstration by the king of his power and dominance in a process involving his penetration of a black bull, beaten into semi-conscious immobility to ensure its compliant acceptance of the royal touch. The royal semen is then collected by a courtier and stored, for subsequent inclusion in food to be served at Sibaya – traditional councils – and other national forums.

But last year’s selected bull, according to a recent account from a whistle-blowing Incwala initiate, objected strongly, and threw off Africa’s last absolute monarch.

The symbolism was not lost on those who witnessed it. Mswati survived popular attempts to remove him, and the near-collapse of the Swazi economy in 2011 – but does not intend to risk another year like it.

The piece in The Southern Africa Report article then abruptly changed focus to the more usual fare of these kinds of publications: reporting about customs unions, economic indicators and the firing of judges.

The source of the lurid stories about the king and the bull is identified as one Sithembiso Simelane, “a former regiment, who has since joined the revolution.” Simelane’s account was posted by ‘Pius UnSwazi Rinto’ (based in Durban, South Africa) who refers to himself a member of “The people of the Future Republic of Eswatani” which hopes “to bring true democracy in Swaziland.”

For context: Swaziland is an absolute monarchy with the very unpopular royal family, aided by the police and the army, clamping down on any oppositional activity. The main opposition group is PUDEMO, which has been banned in Swaziland and operates mainly from neighboring South Africa. It is unclear whether Simelane is associated with PUDEMO. This is also the first time we’d heard of “The people of the Future Republic of Eswatani.”

Since the details about the Incwala has been republished on a range of sites (including aggregator sites like Allafrica.com and in some cases cut and pasted without any attribution), we thought it odd that a news publication would publish such allegations that are primarily based on one source and a few repostings on social media sites.

Anyway, for Swazi watchers, there’s a lot more going on here. The whole thing a mix of politics, repression, religion and exile. Read the full account (and the comments). It’s quite something.

Swazi police has since jumped onto the ‘testimony’ with “an appeal to the nation for assistance in identifying and arresting certain individuals who are printing and distributing pamphlets in business and other public areas.” We are not sure whether they plan to arrest the founders and staff of Scribd and Facebook, neither which are based in Swaziland.

We are neither prurient teenagers nor prudes at AIAC, so we looked at these leaked stories as media critics and cultural scholars. Having read the classic anthropological papers about the Incwala ritual, two things in this account by Sithembiso Simelane struck us. New elements in his testimony are: (1) the part about the snake (“the belief is that it cleans him of all the troubles he faced this year so that he emerges a new and strong person the next year”) and (2) the actual penetration – by the King – of a comatose bull (usually an ox). If true, these are recently introduced parts in the ritual. Otherwise, previous anthropologists (or local oral historians) never included these particular details in their descriptions, or they were oblivious to them.

With the Swazi media now barred from covering this year’s ritual, we’ll have to rely on individual accounts – be it those from apostate regiment members or future anthropologists.