3-075-041 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sketches from Swaziland: "Execution Koppie" (hill on which criminals are put to death), 1890. 'Close to the King's kraal stands a solitary little hill, or "koppie," upon which the executions of obnoxious persons take place. Only four chiefs, besides the King, have the power of putting people to death; but they make full use of this privilege: the crime need not necessarily be a very great one to bring a man to the koppie. Several Indunas have been executed for opposing in council some measure which was favoured by the King. 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. Their walk brings them to the koppie. 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'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.