Cultural differences...

Apparently, King Mswati III, of Swaziland, chose his thirteenth wife from a ceremony performed before him in August. She is only 17, one year younger than his oldest daughter, who is 18. His other recent wives have also been young. She will be taken out of school in order to prepare to be a king's wife, but will not wed him until she becomes pregnant. Interestingly, he announced his engagement weeks after he lifted a ban on girls having sex before 18, as a purported means to curb the spread of HIV, although he had already broken that law with another then 17-year-old wife and fined himself a cow for it. Even though his polygamy seems strange to our culture, which is generally opposed in this and other countries, apparently his own subjects are dissatisfied with his lifestyle. Maybe we all aren't so different after all...