South African heraldry

South African heraldry dates back to the 1650s, inheriting European (especially Dutch and British) heraldic traditions.

Arms are borne by individuals, official bodies, local authorities, military units, and by a wide variety of organisations.

South Africa has had its own heraldic authority since 1963, to provide armigers with legal protection, and to promote high standards of armorial practice.

The first known armorial display in South Africa took the form of stone beacons bearing the Portuguese Royal Arms, which were erected along the coast by navigators who explored the sea route in the 1480s.

Heraldry was introduced into the region by the Dutch, when they founded the first European colony, at the Cape of Good Hope, in 1652.

[6] British military forces occupied the colony during the Napoleonic Wars, and the Netherlands handed it over permanently to Great Britain in 1814.

Amongst the native peoples of the region, hereditary signifiers were generally oral as opposed to pictorial in nature.

Praise poetry traditions such as Isiduko and Isibongo provided peoples such as the Zulus and the Xhosas with symbolic capital in much the same way as heraldry did the British and the Cape Dutch.

[1][8] The UK conquered the two Afrikaner republics in the Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902), and the four territories united in 1910 to form the Union of South Africa.

As self-government developed during the first half of the 20th century, some official attention began to be paid to heraldry.

[2][4] After an Afrikaner nationalist government took office in 1948, with a republic high on its agenda, steps were taken to bring order to the armorial chaos.

[9] From 1963 to 1969, the Heraldry Act also provided for arms to be granted by the state president to official bodies and by the provincial administrators to local authorities.