By Brian Sihlongonyane
Africa-Press – Eswatini. Allow me to fundamentally and unequivocally disagree with your article Editor.
Your argument is not only misguided, but it also lacks political, ideological, and scientific grounding.
It dangerously oversimplifies the relationship between culture and power, ignoring the historical and material realities of how culture functions under authoritarian systems.
You argue that progressives are “ignorant” for rejecting certain cultural practices imposed by the State but what you fail to grasp is that in any society, the dominant culture is always that of the ruling class.
This is the essence of cultural hegemony.
What you refer to as “our culture” is in reality, a politically curated version of culture, strategically packaged and deployed by the ruling elite to maintain control.
Culture is never neutral and under Tinkhundla, it has been weaponized.
When progressives challenge the cultural dictates of the regime, they are not rejecting being emaSwati nor refusing to embrace their Africanness. They are rejecting a co-opted and politicized cultural narrative that serves as one of the soft-power pillars of oppression.
Therefore, to pretend that culture exists outside power relations is to deliberately ignore how systems of domination reproduce themselves.
The introduction of imvunulo in schools, for example, cannot be separated from the broader political project of Tinkhundla.
It is not a spontaneous celebration of identity but is an extension of a regime that has historically used cultural symbolism to sanitize oppression, discipline dissent, and manufacture consent.
You ask why there is criticism and answer is simple; because culture under Tinkhundla is not culture but it is political theatre.
Moreover, your comparison to expensive Western sportswear misses the point entirely, criticism was never about affordability alone.
It was about coercion and the political motives behind cultural enforcement. Western attire imposed by schools is not tied to state ideology.
Until Tinkhundla is dismantled, progressives are fully justified in rejecting cultural practices imposed under coercive political conditions.
Accepting them would mean conceding ideological ground to a regime that survives by manipulating symbols, rituals, and traditions for its own survival.
Culture must unite us, yes but unity cannot be built on authoritarian dictates.
Culture must be freely embraced, not imposed and it must not be used as a tool to shame, silence, or delegitimize those fighting for a democratic and just society.
If culture is to have meaning beyond propaganda, then it must be liberated alongside the people.
Until then, rejecting the regime’s weaponized version of culture is not ignorance, it is resistance.
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