An eye-opening account of the women of Swaziland struggling for their rights under the crushing burden of tradition. In Africa’s last absolute monarchy, the king chooses a new wife each year at a ceremony called the Reed Dance. No one is allowed to refuse. Interviews with trade unionists, women’s rights activists and King Mswati III’s first wife reveal how the custom of polygamy, perhaps necessary once for social cohesion, has entrenched a patriarchal order which tolerates rape and child abuse, and fuels the Aids epidemic. Candid conversations with the king’s wife, shot in the royal palace, offer rare insights into the intrigues and excesses of court life—a startling glimpse of a decadent society frozen in time, heading for disaster.