3-075-040 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sketches from Swaziland: "Execution Koppie" (hill on which criminals are put to death) and hoeing the King's Fields, 1890. 'Close to the King's kraal stands a solitary...hill, or "koppie," upon which the executions of obnoxious persons take place...The last man who suffered the extreme penalty was Sandlana, the late Prime Minister, whose crime was that the King thought he was plotting against him. The executions are performed in a simple and quiet way - no crowd, with no fuss of any kind. When a man is condemned, he is told to go for a walk with the two executioners...Arrived at the top, the condemned man stands till an executioner fells him with a blow of a knobkerrie on the back of the skull. The body is left for the vultures to devour; but, as a rule, it is removed in the night by the friends of the deceased. An interesting sight at this season of the year is the hoeing of the King's mealie fields by the warriors of his bodyguard (the Hlavela Regiment). All agricultural work of the country is carried on by the women, except in the King's fields, which are tilled by men - the warriors of his own regiment. His wives, of whom Umbandine had about seventy, are, therefore, relieved of such labour, and live a life of ease, not to say laziness'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.