Thereby showing he's hip and with it in the digital age.
Africa's last absolute monarch, King Mswati III announced the changes at celebrations marking 50 years of Swazi independence from Britannia and his 50th birthday.
Somebody else had already called dibs on "Wakanda."
"I would like to announce that from today onwards, our country will be known as the Kingdom of eSwatini," the king said at Golden Jubilee celebrations in the second city of Manzini .
Now they gotta change all the road signs, all the money, official documents... It'll give them something to do for the next few years.
eSwatini means "land of the Swazis" in the local Swati language.
"Swaziland," of course, means... ummm... something else.
Unlike some countries, the landlocked nation between South Africa and Mozambique did not change its name after winning independence from Britannia in 1968.
They'd have had to change all the road signs, and the money, and all the official documents...
"African countries on getting independence reverted to their ancient names before they were colonized. So from now on the country will be officially be known as the Kingdom of eSwatini," the king said.
But if "Swaziland" means the same thing as "eSwatine," why bother? I mean Cambodia decided to be Kampuchea, both of which are pronounced approximately the same, and look what happened. And then there's the matter of Dahomey. Nobody knows where it went.
He also said many people abroad confused the country with Switzerland
...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell...."Harriet, are you sure this is Geneva? It don't look like the postcards."
"Stop worrying, Bob! Quick! Take my picture with the king! Woo! He goosed me!"
"Whoa! My wife! Goosed by the king of Switzerland!"
"Whenever we go abroad, people refer to us as Switzerland," the king said.
"They expect us to yodel!"
Known for his lavish lifestyle in a nation with crushing poverty and an HIV/AIDS rate of 27 percent, King Mswati III has ruled by decree over his 1.3 million people since taking over the throne from his father at the age of 18 in 1986.
Royal decree number 578: All left-handed people are required to move to the left hand side of the country. Any leftists living on the right side of the country will be executed, effective May 8th."
One of his father's more than 60 sons, King Mswati III has 15 wives and more than two dozen children.
"Hey, you! The comely young maiden! Yeah, you! You wanna be wife number 16?"