This is perhaps why, for example, Google Maps still refers to Swaziland despite being a digital service that could be updated very quickly.

Not everyone has taken this stance though. The US Embassy in eSwatini quickly changed its branding – and even updated its Twitter account.

In the end, individuals and organisations around the world will most likely just choose the name Swaziland or eSwatini based on personal preference. But it is inside the country that the official change really has the greatest significance. And not everyone is convinced it is a good use of public funds.

“We reject the change of the name […] It is not an outcome of a consultative process,” says Mlungisi Makhanya, secretary-general of the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), a socialist Swazi opposition party.

Makhanya says he has no problem with a name change in principle, but says it should have been more transparently planned. He says he and others are worried about the costs that will be incurred – but many are afraid to speak out.

“It is very difficult to tell now [how much it will cost]" he says and is deeply worried that it could run to hundreds of millions of lilangeni [the currency in eSwatini]. The Central Bank of Swaziland recently changed its name to the Central Bank of eSwatini, he points out – but coins and banknotes still need to be updated.

But others strongly disagree. Andrew Le Roux is president of the Federation of Swaziland Employers and Chamber of Commerce.

“There’s a large misconception about the king that somehow he’s some playboy African monarch,” Le Roux tells me, he describes him as a hard-working individual.

Far from being a bugbear, a modified national identity is an opportunity for Swazis to decide who they are and how they want to represent themselves to the world, says Le Roux.

Many businesses have “Swaziland” in their name. I ask if there is any official or legal pressure to change this, but Le Roux says there is not.

And he’s noticed renewed interest in the country from the rest of the world following the announcement. “The name change generated more online traffic than almost any other news out of Swaziland in the last couple of years,” he says.

It’s certainly a conversation starter. Will other nations look to eSwatini as a refreshed nation, a place they should be doing business with? Perhaps.

If so, the change may end up paying for itself in the long-run. But there are certainly no guarantees of that and those Swazis who say it is a distraction from some of the serious issues they want their government to deal with can hardly be blamed for saying so.

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