Misuzulu Zulu’s coronation at the football stadium follows a bitter dispute over royal succession.
Tens of thousands of others gathered at a football stadium in Durban on Saturday to celebrate the coronation of South Africa’s Zulu king.
President Cyril Ramaphosa will present the certificate to officially recognize the new 48-year-old leader of the country’s richest and most influential classical monarchy.
Misuzulu Zulu ascended the throne she once held through her father, Goodwill Zwelithini, who died in March 2021 from a diabetes-related illness.
The coronation, the first South Africa has witnessed in more than 50 years, comes after a year of bitter disputes over royal succession that spilled over into the courts.
Although the name king confers executive power, monarchs wield wonderful ethical influence over more than 11 million Zulus, who make up nearly one-fifth of South Africa’s population.
Amabutho, royal regiments, dressed in skirts, sang songs of praise for their king.
Women wore brightly colored wide-brimmed Zulu hats and classic coats, while young women in pleated skirts and beads danced on the terraces of the 85,000-seat Moses Mabhida Stadium, which was built for the 2010 FIFA World Cup tournament.
Among the delegates, King Mswati III of Africa’s last absolute monarchy, Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, who is also uncle of the new Zulu king.
The Zulu kings are descendants of Shaka, the nineteenth-century leader still respected for uniting much of the country as a Zulu nation, who fought bloody battles against British colonizers.
Zwelithini, who died after more than 50 years at the helm, left behind six and at least 28 children.
Misuzulu, the first son of Zwelithini’s third wife, whom he appointed regent in his will.
But the queen died suddenly a month after Zwelithini, leaving a will naming Misuzulu as the next king, a progression that was not well received by other family members.
The new monarch’s first call means “to the Zulus,” but his path to the crown was not easy.