The Royal Palaces and the Peoples' Beehives
Swaziland is a former British colony of 1.1 million people, squashed between South Africa and Mozambique. The easiest way to get there is to travel via South Africa.
Royal Palaces are always popular with tourists, and Swaziland has quite a few, even if they're not all that fancy, to be honest. But then Swaziland is one of the world's poorest countries, with a quarter of its one million citizens relying on food aid. So that should be taken into account before writing the buildings off as uninteresting. Actually, more interesting then the Royal Palaces are the traditional and everyday homes of many Swazilanders, the curious beehive woven huts. These strange houses look a little like igloos in that they are round like half domes, with no windows, just a low down door that it is necessary to crawl through to enter.
So, let us be more positive. Since often the only money that stays in Africa is what the government officers and their relatives spend there (rather than dump in their offshore bank accounts), the sort of government spending demonstrated by the ruler of Swaziland, King Mswati III is most encouraging. In the last few years he's spent $700,000 on eight Mercedes cars with the usual conveniences such as cocktail fridges and air-conditioning (and gold plated number plates) all of which need washing (jobs for locals) particularly as Swaziland has almost no paved roads. Africa's last not-quite-absolute monarch has built and maintained not one but thirteen “Royal Places” if not quite “Royal Palaces” (one for each of his wives). Within Swaziland, the male citizens admire him for his virility, although he has some way to go before he emulates his late father, who boasted 99 brides. Not entirely coincidentally, Swaziland has been hard-hit like many African countries by the AIDS/HIV virus, with two out of every five adults infected with it. (The continent's second worst figures.)
In 2004 the international press picked up the story in the Swaziland newspapers of the King's latest request to the country's parliament for $15 million. Purchased in time for Christmas that same year, a Daimler-Chrysler car equipped not only with television but more importantly a DVD player, refrigerator and solid silver champagne service is truly a sight worth seeing, 
Even though much of the money spent on the building and upkeep of those Royal Palaces eventually goes to Swazilanders, or maybe Filipinos. Poor people anyway.
Alas, the country receives a mere $20 million dollars or so of aid a year, which is barely enough to pay for the King's needs. In 2003 he had to abandon plans for a $30 million executive jet.
Commentators warn small-mindedly of local people being covered in dust as the King's convoy sweeps elegantly past.