But he soon grew tired of opposition from pesky political parties, so he banned them in 1973 and dissolved Parliament. King Mswati III, his son, has styled himself a modernizer, taking fewer wives than his father did and signing a new Constitution in 2005. But political parties are still not allowed, and the king retains the power to appoint the prime minister and dissolve Parliament whenever he likes. This has made Swaziland an outlier in an increasingly democratic continent.

Swaziland is, on paper at least, a middle-income country. But most of its people live in poverty, and it has the highest rate of H.I.V. infection in the world. Its economy, unlike those of many other African countries, is virtually stalled. Corruption corrodes public life: one senior government official estimated that $5 million a month is lost to graft.

“This is the kind of government where everyone is free to do anything without fear of punishment,” said Sibongile Mazibuko, the president of the teachers’ union and a leading figure in the fight for better wages for government workers. “There is no remorse. There is no shame. There is no embarrassment.”

The government has responded to the protests by clamping down hard. When nurses at the capital’s main government hospital tried to mount a protest march, they were blocked from leaving the hospital’s parking lot by police officers in riot gear who threatened them with cudgels and tear gas. The nurses, dressed in red coats, danced and sang protest songs in the parking lot.

“People are afraid,” whispered one of the nurses, who did not wish to give her name. “We don’t mind having a king. But the prime minister should be elected by the people. Politicians have to be accountable to us.”

But when the people speak, politicians do not seem to be listening. Dozens of parents gathered near the Parliament building on the outskirts of this city on a recent afternoon, hoping to present a petition to lawmakers demanding a raise for teachers so they would return to the classroom. The police responded by blocking off roads to the Parliament building. The parents gathered in a field nearby, singing.