Islam in Swaziland: history and Muslim population data

History of Islam in Swaziland

The Kingdom of Eswatini has an area of 17,364 sq km and its map is presented in Figure 3.5.3. It was occupied by the British in 1902 and gained its independence from the UK in 1968 and changed its name from Swaziland in 2018. Islam entered here in 1963 with the first Malawian workers in asbestos mines. The Muslim population reached 700 or 0.1% in 1986, and according to census data, the Muslim population increased to 2,188 or 0.2% in 2017.

Thus, assuming that the percentage of Muslims will remain constant; then the Muslim population is expected to remain below 4,000 throughout this century.