Which African country is an absolute monarchy?

Eswatini is an absolute monarchy, making it Africa’s last remaining absolute monarchy.

The landlocked southern African kingdom is ruled by King Mswati III, who has been monarch since 1986. The king holds extensive executive, legislative, and judicial authority under a system combining the constitution with Swazi law and custom. He appoints the prime minister and selects some members of Parliament, while the country’s political parties are prohibited from contesting elections directly.

Eswatini did once have a Westminster-style constitution after independence from Britain in 1968. King Sobhuza II suspended that constitution in 1973 and ruled by decree. A new constitution was adopted in 2005, but it preserved the monarchy’s dominant position rather than converting the country into a constitutional monarchy in the usual European sense.

The country was officially called Swaziland until 2018, when Mswati III announced the name Eswatini. Morocco is also a monarchy, but it is generally classified as a constitutional monarchy, so it is not the canonical answer to this question.