Preconceptions
The summer after my freshman year at Rice, I went on an internship to Japan (http://nanojapan.rice.edu/2008_Lu,%20Benjamin.html). One thing that I found really interesting from this experience was that, even though I was familiar with Japanese culture and have family living in Japan, my perspective and understanding of Japanese culture changed quite a bit during my 12 week internship. Since I am again traveling abroad (but this time to a country that I am much less familiar with), I thought it would be interesting to jot down everything I know about Swaziland and the Swazi people coming into the program and see how these preconceptions change. I am a little embarrassed by how little I actually know about Swaziland (not to be confused with Switzerland), but by the end of the program, I hope that I will be able to say much more about the Swazi people and their culture.
As any travel guide will tell you, Swaziland is a small country landlocked in South Africa and is approximately the same size as New Jersey (so I’ll be right at home). Swaziland is one of the few remaining true monarchies in the world. The Swazi people originate from a single, mostly homogeneous tribe. As a result, Swazi culture in general is rather conservative and etiquette/tradition is important (reminds me a little bit of Japan). Unlike Japan, the Swazi men are polygamous. Siswati is the native language of the Swazi people; however, like its neighbor South Africa, Swaziland is a former British colony and so English is universally spoken. Like many sub-Saharan African countries, maize and cornmeal are staple foods. Though Swaziland is considered a middle-income country, it has the highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the world. As a result, the average life span has dropped dramatically in the past 30 years.