At Biola, a school that is only six percent international and 61 percent Caucasian, vibrant Swazi Sikhanyiso Dlamini — or Pashu — was bound to stand out with her British lilt and atypical clothing. But even in her native Swaziland, Dlamini is set apart; she’s a princess — an identity that she doesn’t publicize at Biola.

“Somehow people always find out,” she laughed. “I think it’s because of my personality that they find out, because I’m just weird … my personality gives it away.”

She said she doesn’t tell most people, partly for security reasons, and partly because it just isn’t proper.

“It breaches protocol,” she said. “You don’t introduce yourself as royal, you are introduced.”

Either way, the 21-year-old speech and drama major says she has had no problem making friends at Biola, citing her freshman year social life as hindering her academics.

“That’s why I’m still a junior this year,” she explained. “But it’s all in God’s time.”

A story of conversion

The princess is unabashedly Christian; her official Web site opens with John 3:16, part of her Facebook reads “For me, to live is to die” and her voicemail states “Worthy is the lamb who was slain … remember Jesus loves you, and I love you.”

Dlamini said she became a believer as a 17-year-old watching television evangelist Rod Parsley.

“I was so heavily convicted, and I changed,” she confessed. “I went back to school and people didn’t recognize me because I changed.” She said she had been a bisexual, a drinker and a heavy flirt.

“The things that have been noticed about me in real life just pale in comparison to the things God is doing with me behind closed door,” she said, talking about her personal and prophetic relationship with God.

An advocate for the Swazi people

Now Dlamini — a proud virgin — says she is a “strong advocate for chastity in [her] country.” Swaziland has the highest rate of AIDS in the world with 38.6 percent of the population HIV positive, and the princess has been involved in helping educate Swazi girls about HIV, sexual myths and staying pure.

She recently took several weeks off school to travel in Swaziland, South Africa and France as a part of an AIDS campaign. She is also involved in alleviating poverty in Swaziland through creating jobs.

“There’s not a single day when I don’t think about how I can improve the lives of Swazi people,” she said matter-of-factly.

She recently accepted a position offered to her by Bill Clinton as a global ambassador for Green Olympics and Peace games. She also has a foundation called Unshakable Confidence through which she runs her ministries.

“Everyone has a level of responsibility.”

Dlamini said the closest ministry to her heart is orphans. She sponsors four orphanages with around 187 children each, supplying them with necessities.

She said her ministries aren’t completely noble because everything we do in life is selfish — she described her work as “sucking up to God.”

“When people approach me with really big problems I just think there’s a really big blessing coming,” she said.

Dlamini said she does feel a sense of responsibility because of her position, but she refuses to let anyone off the hook. “We all have something to offer … everybody has a level of responsibility,” she stated strongly.

She juggles her philanthropic duties as a princess with a budding career as a rapper and her work as a student.

“I don’t know how I survive,” she said. “I don’t know how I cope. I guess Proverbs 31. That’s the destiny of a woman. She’s supposed to do all these things. I know that God has given me that ability.”