Swaziland (Eswatini)

Swaziland is the country’s colonial name, which it kept for the first 50 years of independence. However, in April 2018, King Mswati III decided to resurrect the country’s Swati name, eSwatini, and announced to cheering crowds that the country would be renamed the Kingdom of eSwatini. The reason eSwatini’s king was able to change the country’s name without consulting parliament is due to his status as an absolute monarch: whatever he says goes. Though he generally rules with consensus, he is still one of the two most powerful people in the country (known as “the Lion”), while his mother, Queen Mother Ntfomb, is the second and known as “the Great She Elephant”. Because mother and son are equal in power, they can theoretically keep each other in check.