Post-Colonial Heraldry in Kwazulu-Natal
42 Shield, Symbolism and Identity Shield, Symbolism and Identity: Post-colonial Heraldry in KwaZulu-Natal Introduction In the days of chivalry, mediaeval knights riding to battle or jousting at tourneys were covered from head to toe in armour, and with the visor on their helms shut, it was impossible to identify the knight-within, so to speak. For this reason the knight’s cloak, worn outside his armour, the cloth worn outside the horse’s armour, and later, the knight’s shield as well, were decorated with easy-to-recognise brightly-coloured patterns and devices: crosses, circles, stars. Many knights also wore distinctive crests on their helmets. Over the years, as these symbols of identity proliferated, they became formalised and codified. The shield became the main carrier of the various symbols and images, and together with helmet and crest, and various other bits and pieces — all described below — these became known collectively as a ‘Coat-of-Arms’ or ‘Armorial Bearings’. When the Age of Chivalry ended, and knights no longer rode to joust in tourneys, or to defeat the infidel at the gates of Jerusalem, the coats-of-arms, still in, on and around their shields, remained. They became the identifying symbols, not only of aristocratic families, but of institutions. Countries and provinces, cities and boroughs, guilds of tradesmen and other corporations, universities and schools, all used coats-of- arms, which were normally registered. Identity has become an enormously important issue in the post-colonial era, and especially so in Africa, where for so long it has become a given that colonial settlers stripped the local inhabitants of their identity and replaced it with a quasi-European identity.
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