BY MBONO MDLULI
MBABANE – In order to ensure that everyone gets food in constituencies and chiefdoms, His Majesty King Mswati III has encouraged the revival of lilima.
Lilima can be described as cooperative farming, where people will come together to help a certain family during ploughing seasons. The family can be helped in farming tasks such as planting, weeding, and harvesting. In most cases, families that were helped were the ones that did not have enough resources, so that they could also have enough food after harvesting.
Dispersing Emabutfo today at Ngabezweni Royal Residence, His Majesty said lilima should be done by Emabutfo in their respective chiefdoms, after they have done their job during Incwala ceremony. He said now that they had finished weeding the Royal fields, it would be wonderful for them to cooperate with all the families in communities to ensure that everyone had food during the harvesting season.
He was of the view that the rains presented a good opportunity for lilima to be done. The king said such a custom was observed in ancient times and there were no people that went to bed hungry. Many viewed the king’s command as one that could help the country achieve its goals of food sovereignty.
Once the country achieved food sovereignty, it would be able to produce enough food for its people and lilima could ensure that such a feat was achieved in chiefdoms. The king envisaged bumper harvest at the end of the current planting season because of the rains that are currently witnessed in the country. Because of that, the king wants every Liswati to be at the receiving end of the bumper harvest.
The king further mentioned that the challenges faced by the country still had to be addressed. He believed that one day, all Emaswati would be able to have their own jobs so that they could be able to survive.
