Times Of Swaziland: ADDRESSING PRINCES AND PRINCESSES

ADDRESSING PRINCES AND PRINCESSES
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The Editor on 11/07/2019 08:39:00


Sir,
Almost on a daily basis I buy myself a copy of my favourite newspaper, The Times
of Swaziland. This is because I enjoy reading news that is fair and balanced,
especially the local news. I am, however, not so happy with the free and
indiscriminate use of the title “prince’ or “princess’ by some of the
journalists when identifying certain personalities in their stories.
I am wondering if these titles are very important only for certain individuals
and not so much for others. I read in the newspaper; Prince Guduza, Prince
Kekela, Chief Prince Magudvulela, Chief Machawe ‘Jabhane’ Dlamini, PM
Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini, Andreas Dlamini (Director of Communications) or
Sigcokosiyancinca Dlamini (Eswatini TV CEO), for example.
You will notice that the last four names do not carry the title ‘Prince’. I
may be ignorant of the reasons for such inconsistencies as all these men also
have ‘royal blood’, however, my suggestion is that such titles should be
reserved only for sons and daughters of a king and not descendants of a king,
except when that descendant is a recognised chief.
In Eswatini culture, descendants of kings are called
‘banftwabebantfwabenkhosi’, NOT ‘bantfwabenkhosi’.
Omitted
This is because a prince or princess is held in very high esteem and reverence
by his/her community and the nation as a whole. The word ‘Umlangeni’, which
denotes ‘royalist’ could be used instead of  ‘Prince’ or, better still,
both words omitted outright.
I believe this will remove the ambiguity that journalism has created to the
public with reference to Dlamini chiefs for instance, some being recognised as
royalty and others supposedly not, and also with regards to some members of the
entire royal household that may not be known as such to the writers.
Titles
However, if on the other hand the omission of the titles for some members of the
various royal houses is intentional then I would be happy to be enlightened on
the criteria used by the editorial to identify those that qualify to be
addressed as either prince or princess.
As things stand, the publication may be viewed as being contemptuous of certain
royal households or royalists. I want to believe that this is a mere oversight
though.
Yours Sincerely,
Babe N. Dlamini