Labotsibeni Mdluli

Labotsibeni Mdluli, also known as Gwamile, was born around 1858 or 1859 at Luhlekweni in northern Swaziland, the daughter of Matsanjana Mdluli. In 1875 she became the chief wife of Prince Mbandzeni, who became king, and by the time of his death in 1889 he had granted so many overlapping land concessions to European settlers that the country's future was threatened.

After her son Bhunu was chosen as heir she became the Ndlovukati, or queen mother. Under the unwritten constitution of Swaziland the queen mother was a dual monarch, with political influence equal to the king's, and with the supernatural power to make rain. In 1899, when Bhunu died, she became queen regent for her grandson Mona, then an infant of a few months, who would become King Sobhuza II.

She ruled during the South African War, from 1899 to 1902, and with the support of a co-regent, Prince Logcogco, and her council, she was the last independent ruler in Africa south of the Zambezi. After the war Britain took control of Swaziland, and Labotsibeni led the Swazi people's fight against the loss of their land to settlers, organising in 1906 a campaign of protest and later a deputation to London, which failed in its goal but made a mark.

She was a firm believer in education. She backed the Swazi National School at Zombodze, where her grandson was a pupil, and sent him in 1916 to Lovedale in the Cape, a school run by the United Free Church of Scotland, so that the future king would be able to deal with the modern world on equal terms.

In 1921 she handed power to Sobhuza at his installation, having been the primary Swazi political power for more than three decades, and the longest-reigning of all Swazi rulers before her. She died on 5 December 1925 at Embekelweni, then the national capital, and the Times of Swaziland called her the best known native woman in Southern Africa.