Dictator
King Mswati III
Africa's last absolute monarch, ruling Eswatini since 1986 with political parties banned.
King Mswati III has ruled Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) as Africa's last absolute monarch since 1986, when he was crowned at eighteen. Political parties have been banned in the country since 1973, and while a parliament exists, it holds little real power, with the king retaining authority to appoint the prime minister, veto legislation, and rule by decree. Pro-democracy protests in 2021, calling for multi-party elections and a constitutional monarchy, were met with a lethal crackdown that Amnesty International says killed dozens of demonstrators.
Mswati maintains upward of a dozen wives in the Swazi royal tradition and has faced persistent criticism over lavish personal spending, including a fleet of luxury cars, in a country where a majority of the roughly 1.2 million population lives below the poverty line.