Waterford Kamhlaba UWCSA

Waterford Kamhlaba United World College of Southern Africa is a remarkable and pioneering secondary school based in Mbabane, Swaziland. For almost 50 years it has provided exceptional opportunities for academic achievement, personal growth and leadership development for students from across southern Africa and beyond.

Founded in 1963 with just 16 students, Southern Africa’s first multiracial school has successfully demonstrated that students thrive and excel in a non-racial environment, educated side by side on equal terms. The school has grown to accommodate over 600 students, and its earliest ideals of courage, leadership, equality, personal responsibility and academic excellence remain at its core.

Waterford School was opened on a mountainside site on the edge of Mbabane, Swaziland, in 1963 by British founding head teacher Michael Stern, OBE. In 1967 His Majesty King Sobhuza II, Ngwenyama of Swaziland, granted the title “Kamhlaba”, eloquently describing Waterford’s culturally rich and diverse community thus: “We are all of the earth, which does not see differences of colour, religion or race. We are ‘kamhlaba’ – all of one world.”