LUDZIDZINI ROYAL VILLAGE, Swaziland - Tens of thousands of bare-breasted young maidens danced in front of King Mswati on Friday -- many hoping to catch his eye and become his next wife.
A record 50,000 young women staged Swaziland's annual "Reed Dance," taking part in a traditional ceremony now seen as an audition to join King Mswati's many wives.
The 35-year-old king, sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch, now has 10 wives and one fiancee -- a royal luxury that has drawn criticism as his small southern African kingdom battles poverty and a raging AIDS (news - web sites) epidemic.
Lined up in rows, the maidens danced topless before the king for three hours, undeterred by blustery winds or last year's controversy surrounding Mswati's choice of three teenage reed dancers as his latest queens.
"I am tired of being poor. I want to be a queen. I hope the king sees me," said 17-year-old Nomsa Gama, wearing the traditional dance costume of a small piece of beaded fabric around her waist.
"There have never been this many girls before. They all want to catch the king's eye," Thulani Dlamini, a traditional warrior assigned to chaperone the maidens, said.
Mswati usually reviews videotapes of dancing girls recorded by the government-owned television station to select new brides, according to palace sources.
Controversy swirled after last year's reed dance, when the mother of one dancer charged that her daughter was later abducted from a schoolyard by palace aides and forced to join the royal household.
The mother brought suit in the High Court seeking the girl's return but eventually dropped the complaint.
The case threw a spotlight on the reed dance as a place where young women might find royal favor, and on Friday tens of thousands showed up with their own Cinderella dreams.
The dancers paraded around in military-style divisions before lining up shoulder-to-shoulder, swaying, singing songs and raising toy spoons and kitchen knives blunted with oranges on their ends.
Mswati, who came to the throne in 1986, observed the dance from a reviewing platform with his mother, coming down several times to greet the dancers.
Last month the palace announced that Mswati would marry the last of three girls chosen during last year's reed dance -- a move seen as clearing the decks for more selections to be made this year.
While women's rights activists have slammed Mswati's marriage habits as feudalistic and health care workers have raised concerns they send the wrong message about AIDS, the prospect of joining royalty has a strong allure for many young Swazi women.
"I want a limousine, and a house like they give the queens. I want my children to school in England," said 14 year-old Phindile Thwala, one of this year's dancers.
