By James Hall

SWAZILAND, Oct 4 (IPS) û The vow of Swaziland's maidens to adhere to age-old chastity rules after these had been in abeyance for years made international headlines a year ago.

ôKing Orders Girls to Forego Sex," was a typical story title of a European publication, which parroted the media belief that 34 year-old King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa's last reigning hereditary monarch, imposed a ôsex boycott" on his post-pubescent female subjects.

ôIn fact, the girls chose to retain their virginity, and the custom of umcwasho helps them do this," says Lungile Ndlovu, the 24-year-old college student who heads the young women's regiment. Both Swazi boys and girls belong to regiments of their age mates, with whom they learn customs, and they bond as they grow older. Some of King Mswati's most trusted advisers are members of his age-mate regiment.

Ndlovu sought King Mswati's approval after securing the enthusiastic endorsement of traditional elders at the Queen Mother's royal village, Ludzidzini, last year. The chastity custom is called umcwasho, named after headgear adorned by a long tassel running down the girls' back. The tassel colours are gold and blue wool for post-pubescent girls up to age 18, and red and black for young women 19 up to marriage.

However, not since the 1970s, when King Mswati's father King Sobhuza reigned, had the custom been followed.

ôWe discussed this with the authorities beforehand. There was fear that AIDS was doing such harm to the country that a return to traditional values was desirable," Ndlovu told IPS last year. She chose the belated birthday celebration of King Mswati, a national holiday postponed until September last year due to the monarch's illness, to announced the revival of umcwasho.

Gradually, the headgear began to appear in rural areas and towns. Girls would wear the umcwasho to schools. The greatest enthusiasm was found in bands of girls who acted as vigilantes, patrolling their neighbourhoods to see which girl had fallen pregnant.

Girls who fall pregnant are immediately expelled from school. If a seducer chooses to ignore a child produced from a sexual encounter, the mother's family sinks further into poverty as they are forced to support another child.

However, the maiden regiments, when they learn of a pregnancy, march straight to the homestead of the man they believe violated the chastity rules, and ceremoniously throw their tassels on the thatched roof of the main hut, where they remain to shame the family in the eyes of the community. The boy or man is obliged to pay a fine of one cow to the maidens, who slaughter it for a feast.

This is a far cry from the original draconian laws announced last year, which said any maiden who fell pregnant would be put on trial by her chief, without right to legal representation. And if found guilty would have to pay a one-cow fine, the equivalent of an average workers' monthly salary. No punishment was stipulated for the girl's seducer.

To date, not a single girl has been put on trial, thus easing the fears of such advocacy groups as the Swaziland branch of Women in Law for Southern Africa.

Also announced last year, girls who wear trousers, such as jeans and tracksuits, would be fined a cow. The rule drew the ire of rights groups, and turned out to have been imposed by powerful traditional elders who disliked women wearing pants. But the rule has quietly been dropped, and to date no woman has been fined.

From the perspective today, has the chastity lifestyle achieved its goals? In the area of AIDS prevention, the answer is sadly negative.

ôWe see a great awareness of AIDS in Swaziland, and everyone knows that wearing a condom will reduce transmission, but there has been no change in behaviour at all," a Western diplomat stationed in the capital Mbabane told IPS this week.

Swaziland is poised on the brink of surpassing Botswana as the nation that has the highest incident of HIV infections in the world. 34.4 percent of the adult population is either HIV positive or has AIDS.

ôGirls are not stopping having sex. There is still too much pressure from society that says a woman's function is to bear as many children as they can, and girls say they are not complete until they have a child. They can't wait to have kids, umcwasho or not," says Agnes Kunene, a nurse in the commercial capital Manzini.

Indeed, while the population growth rate is declining, this is not because fewer babies are born. Swaziland still has one of the highest birth rates in the world. Population growth is slowing because of AIDS, not because of a change in procreative behaviour.

ôIndvuna (headman) and Maiden Caught Having Sex," was a headline in this week's Times of Swaziland. The story reported how a local traditional leader broke uncwasho rules by seducing a girl at a community celebration. Unlike other violators, he has not been castigated by the maidens' regiments, the newspaper says, because there are no hard and fast rules to deal with adulterers.

The local media is also filled with stories of ôbaby dumpings'', infants left to die of exposure at the bottom of pit latrines, or in bushes along roadsides. The police have arrested several mothers, and charged them with murder if the babies died or child endangerment if the infants survived. But no policy has emerged from the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to deal with core attitudes that encourage girls to yield to sexual urges of their own and the demands of partners.

ôUntil behaviour actually changed, the chastity lifestyle is a show without substance," says unene.(END/IPS/AF/HD/JH/MN/02)