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Well what about just asking your client what kind of War Mask he has intended? As using the African type of shield there are as you showed many examples of this so there is no problem in using this type.

Donnchadh wrote:

What would you do if a client asked for an African war mask as a charge when there are so many very different styles from so many different African cultures and countries?

I’d say that if the client is choosing a specific pattern of mask, it’d be a good idea to specify it in the blazon, e.g. "a Yoruba war mask" or whatever the case may be.

Not to make this complicated, but there are different shield shapes among the different African cultures and countries too.  The oval shield, pointed at the top and bottom, as used in SA heraldry (and the national arms of Botswana, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania), is from southern and east Africa, whereas - so I understand - the majority of African-Americans originated in west Africa, e.g. present-day Cameroun, Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, where they have different styles of shield.  Would the client want to be more regionally specific?

As a matter of interest, here’s a SA coat of arms featuring what appears to be a stylised war mask.  They’re the arms of the Army’s former Sector 20 HQ, dating from the 1980s. Quite a striking design.

http://www.geocities.com/heraldrysa/HQ-Sector20-A.jpg

I agree with Arthur. If an African-American client asked for an "African" mask as a charge, I’d Google for masks (and shields) of the Ibo, Ashanti, Yoruba, Hausa, and other West African peoples. Here’s a rather striking Ibo ceremonial shield, for example:

http://www.arttribal.com/Igbo/I7I9O016.jpg

And a war mask from Ghana:

http://www.africanart.com/ProductImages/mk_46cv.jpg

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I can draw you one in paint (I’m really good at paint!) if you tell me what style you wanted. Just link an image of a shield with the shape that you like.

Any information as to the charges??

Feel free to PM as well.

Regards,

Gauteng Province, South Africa:

http://images.vector-images.com/198/gauteng_prov_coa_n6379.gif

Kwazulu-Natal Province, South Africa:

http://images.vector-images.com/198/kwazulunatal_prov_coa_n6380.gif

Bophuthatswana, South Africa:

http://images.vector-images.com/198/bophuthatswana_bantustan_coa_n7164.gif

Cheers,

—Guy

Ciskei:

http://images.vector-images.com/198/ciskei_bantustan_coa_n7519.gif

Gazankulu:

http://images.vector-images.com/198/gazankulu_bantustan_coa_n7520.gif

More, but with Western-style shields, at:  http://vector-images.com/heraldry.php?id=198

Uganda:

http://www.orphanage.org/africa/uganda/fed/discus3.jpg

Samburu Council:

http://www.samburucouncil.com/images/coat-of-arms.gif

Cheers,

Guy

The upper picture I posted before is a shield.

Here’s one from the Fon people of Benin:

http://www.forafricanart.com/assets/images/Dogon 2/FonShield2.jpg

One from the Ivory Coast:

http://www.sas.upenn.edu/African_Studies/Sculpture/gdsld_akan.gif

Something various described as a mask or a shield from the Punu people of Gabon:

http://www.rebirth.co.za/images/Punu_Mask_SIE0759.jpg

Wandala shield from Cameroon:

http://i4.ebayimg.com/04/i/000/88/87/abfd_1.JPG

(A caveat:  I know nothing about these objects except the names of the countries and some of the tribal groups of West Africa, so my posting them shouldn’t be taken as a statement of their authenticity.)

http://www.uploadfile.info/uploads/6de5b24610.gif

The most comonly "African" shield.

http://www.uploadfile.info/uploads/1632aaa927.gif

The same shield, but a bit "stouter". I envision this would go well with a fess.

http://www.uploadfile.info/uploads/95c87aa924.gif

Here is a dubiously African shield I drew. I can make some more variants of it, as this design has some potential. This one is on a horizontal "plane" more or less, so I can draw a more symetric vertical one. Unless you want it assymetric to give it a more, for lack of a better term, "primitive" look.

***One more I just did***

http://www.uploadfile.info/uploads/ff2b91e505.gif

Regards,

Here are the arms of an African-American, Ellsworth G. Stanton III, MBE:

http://www.theheraldrysociety.com/mainimages/ellsworthstanton.gif

http://www.theheraldrysociety.com/resources/elsworthgstantoniii.htm

I hope you find the arms as interesting as I did.

Cheers

For family reasons, this is an area of some personal interest so I’ve given it some thought.

First, "back to basics"—the shape of the shield on which arms are displayed is not & never has been an integral part of the design, though of course it may be of paramount importance to the particular individual.  Any of the arms Guy posted nwould be equally valid, though perhaps not equally popuklar with the owners, displayed on any nor all of dozens of shield shapes.  The shape of a shiled is only of heraldic consequence if its an inescutcheon stated to be of a particular shape or type.

Secondly, something as culture-specific as a war mask is unlikely to represent the owner’s actual origins unless he has actually traced his descent, or at least a DNA haplotyope (if that’s the right term) showing where at least some of his ancestors came from.  Sub-Saharan Africa is not a monolithic culture—it is hundreds of distinct cultures with widely divergent artistic styles.  Many African cultures use masks, but they are of hundreds of different patterns, each more or less distinctive of one particular region or tribe or social class or religious practice etc.  Picking one at random is rather like adopting an existing historic coat of arms—one is quite likely affirming a relationship one cannot prove, and equally likely denying one’s actual ancestors.  Alex Haley of Roots fame could, if he chose, identify an appropriate mask (or other cultural artifact) from his own ancestral culture; as could any other African American who had "done the research" and been fortunate enoughto strike pay dirt; or perhaps taken one of the readily available DNA tests which can identify at least the general part of Africa that at least some of their ancestors likely originated.  However, most African Americans—like most Americans in general—have relatively little actual knowledge of their more remote ancestry.

I’m by no means suggesting that African Americans shouldn’t bear arms—they have the same right as anyone else, and I hope we would encourage them as much as we would anyone else, and for the same reasons.  I do believe they should approach designing arms carefully—but then I believe that applies to everyone else as well…

Absolutely.  My point in posting the pictures was really just to show that West African shields seem to tend to be round, not the vesica shape that seems to be characteristic of East and South Africa.  Thus an African-American who chooses a shield like those used in the Tanzanian and Kenyan national arms, thinking that it reflects his heritage, is probably mistaken.

That doesn’t mean he’s wrong to use it—any more than someone of Scottish ancestry is wrong to use an Italian horse-head shield.  Just that he should be clear about what it does and doesn’t signify.

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