A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor Of Philosophy in History in the Department of History at the University of Zululand, 2018 / This is a historical study of modern politics in the Kingdom of Swaziland. It is a study of a leading driver for democratic change in Africa’s ‘only absolute monarchy’. The leading driver is a modern political formation known as the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) and the study demonstrates a variety of ways in which the Swazi monarchy responded to PUDEMO’s struggle to democratise the Kingdom of Swaziland. These ways are presented as signs of democratic practice in a country that abolished the Independence Constitution and cardinal practices of liberal democracy in 1973, five years after the end of formal British rule. The thesis uses the experience of PUDEMO to show that the signs of change were not simply products of monarchical benevolence, but came about as a result of pressure put by PUDEMO on the Swazi leaders. It is a study of the history of PUDEMO and its contribution to the process of democratisation of Swaziland. It interrogates the various ways in which PUDEMO has influenced change towards a democratic dispensation in the country.