King Mswati III of Swaziland’s brutal rulership over an impoverished nation encapsulates the colonial legacy of corruption in African politics.

In the World Policy Journal’s “The African Angle”, George B.N. Ayittey explores how centuries of Western influence have shaped the way leaders, like King Mswati III, govern their people.

To the uninformed, King Mswati III represents the epitome of the terrible African rulers that provided the colonialists their raison d’etre. The nonsensical myth or propaganda of the 19th century was that colonialism was good for Africans because it freed them from their terrible and despotic rulers. The truth of the matter is the other way round. Those terrible and despotic rulers were, in fact, the product of colonialism.

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