Portly and beaming, King Mswati III of Swaziland basked in the adoration of 50,000 topless virgins yesterday when the flower of his country's girlhood paraded before him, vying to become his new queen.
Legions of half-naked teenage girls danced, twirled and pounded the earth outside the royal kraal, proclaiming their willingness to become the 13th wife of the last absolute monarch in sub-Saharan Africa.
"We are happy, we are healthy and we are alone," sang thousands of tuneful, high-pitched voices. "We are the flowers of the Swazi people."
King Mswati, reclining on a throne placed under a golden awning, smiled broadly at the display. The former pupil of Sherborne school in Dorset has already amassed 12 wives, one fiancée and 27 children.
This annual ceremony, known as Umhlanga, or the Reed Dance, is the highlight of Swaziland's traditional calendar. Every chief in the country of one million people dispatches a group of teenage virgins to the royal kraal in Ludzidzini.
Some travel from neighbouring South Africa, home to many Swazis, and every year the ceremony expands. Yesterday's occasion attracted more girls than ever before, more than twice as many as last year.
Yet in a country where 42.6 per cent of the adult population are infected with HIV or Aids - the highest rate in the world - the Reed Dance is increasingly controversial. Critics accuse King Mswati of setting a bad example.
"It's as if the girls are going on an auction sale with the king picking," said Mario Masuku, the leader of the People's United Democratic Movement, a banned opposition party.
"I would not encourage my daughter to take part in this. It is being abused just for the personal satisfaction of one man."
Last year, the 37-year-old monarch cast his eye over the assembly of virgins and chose 16-year-old Miss Teen Swaziland, Nothando Dube. Critics point out that his eldest daughter, Princess Sikhanyiso, is 17.
The participants in yesterday's parade included the reigning Miss Swaziland and a glamorous presenter on state television.
Yet the king's new fiancée was not announced at the end of the occasion. He will take his time over the choice, carefully perusing a video that is made of the festivities, before his bodyguards descend on the home of the chosen girl and whisk her away for a lifetime in royal service.
There will be significant compensations. The king will build his new fiancée a palace and give her an expensive car. She will become a fully-fledged queen when the king has impregnated her.
Last year, he spent ￡8.5 million on constructing eight new palaces for his wives and refurbishing three existing ones, and ￡450,000 on new BMWs for his queens.
These facts are not lost on the Reed Dance's participants. "I want to be a queen because I want to be famous and I want people to look at me," said Gindza Mondlanha, 22, a trainee policewoman. "I also want a BMW, not a Mercedes, a BMW series X5, that's what you have if you become a queen."
Miss Mondlanha then joined an endless column of girls, circling outside the royal kraal, dancing and gyrating before their monarch.
Yet some of the girls were ardently hoping not to catch the royal eye. "I don't like it and I don't believe in it," said one 21-year-old participant, who asked not to be named.
"I want to pick my own husband and get all the love I deserve as a woman."
