FREE
STATE
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ORANJE VRIJSTAAT -
ORANGE FREESTATE |
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HOMELAND |
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ORANJE VRIJSTAAT - ORANGE
FREESTATE |
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The area north of the Orange river of South Africa was
first visited by Europeans towards the close of the 18th century. Between
1817 and 1831, the region was devastated by the Zulu chief Mzilikazi and
large areas were depopulated. In 1824 farmers of Dutch, French Huguenot and German
descent called Trekboers arrived from the Cape Colony, seeking pasture for
their flocks. They were followed in 1836 by the first parties of the Great
Trek. The emigrants soon came into collision with Mzilikazi. In November 1837
Mzilikazi was decisively defeated by the Boers. In December 1836 the emigrants beyond the Orange River drew up in general assembly an elementary republican form of government. After the defeat of Mzilikazi the town of Winburg was founded and Piet Retief chosen as governor and commandant-general. In 1846 the British Major Warden occupied Winburg for a
short time, and the relations between the Boers and the British were in a continual
state of tension. Sir Harry Smith, who became governor of the Cape at the end
of 1847, issued a proclamation declaring British sovereignty over the country
between the Orange and the Vaal eastward to the Drakensberg. The republican
party headed by Andries Pretorius, did not submit without a struggle but they
were defeated by Sir Harry Smith in an engagement at Boomplaats and Andries
Pretorius crossed the Vaal in retreat. In 1851 the Basutho king Moshoeshoe joined
the republican party in the Sovereignty in an invitation to Pretorius to
recross the Vaal. A convention allowing the independence of the country was
signed at Bloemfontein in 1854 and the Boer government assumed office and the
republican flag was hoisted. On the abandonment of British rule
representatives of the people were elected and met at Bloemfontein on 28
March 1854, and between then and 18 April were engaged in framing a
constitution. The country was declared a republic and named the Orange Free
State. The relations between the British and the Free State, remained
perfectly amicable down to the outbreak of the Second Boer War in 1899. In 1900, after British forces had occupied Bloemfontein,
the Orange Free State was annexed by Britain as the Orange River Colony. On 31
May 1902 the Peace of Vereeniging was signed and the Orange Free State and
the South African Republic were placed under British rule. Self-government
was restored to the Free State region in 1907, and in 1910 the colony became
the Orange Free State Province within the Union of South Africa. The province
remained unchanged when the Union of South Africa became the Republic of
South Africa in 1961; but, after apartheid was abolished and the provincial
governments were reorganized in 1993–94, the Orange Free State was renamed
simply Free State. |
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In 1854
the State Secretary, Jacob Groenendaal, and later President Hoffman himself,
wrote to the Netherlands and asked King William III to give the OFS a coat of
arms and a flag. After much deliberation this request was granted and on 12
January 1856 the King’s special envoy, Cornelis Hiddingh, arrived in
Bloemfontein with the royal gifts. The arms showed an orange fess wavy between three bugle-horns and the shield was surrounded by
two flags. Buglehorns were an old emblem of the House of Orange and the fess wavy indicated the Orange River. In the meantime a new government
had taken office in the OFS and a great seal for the new republic had been
made in Cape Town. The matrices of this seal arrived in Bloemfontein at the
same time as Hiddingh. When the Volksraad
(House of Assembly) met on 28 February 1856 the coat of arms was accepted,
with the provision that the orange fess
would fall away and the new great seal be added. This combined coat of arms
was officially taken into use on the OFS’s third anniversary. In the centre
of the seal stands a tree and sheltering under it to the left are a number of
sheep and to the right a lion; an ox-wagon stands in the base. The meaning of
each symbol is indicated by words:
above the tree vrijheid
(liberty), on a ribbon underneath the sheep geduld
(patience) and under the lion moed
(courage). The meaning of the ox-wagon is indicated by the word immigratie (immigration). Behind the
shield two national flags are crossed. [1] |
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First design of
an achievement for Oranje Vrijstaat as designed by J.Z. Mazel, Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Jhr. F.A. Ridder van Rappard [2]. The fess wavy is for the Orange River. The motto means: “Ultimately the small with will become a tree”. (Embellished drawing of C. Woltman) |
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Second design of
an achievement for Oranje Vrijstaat by Willem Jan Baron d’ Ablaing van Giessenburg, member of the Hooge Raad van Adel and drawn by T. van der Laars. The bugle horn is from the arms of the mediaeval principality of Orange. [3] This design was rejected amongst others because if the savages would be taken for Bushmen, that would imply that Oranje Vrijstaat existed by the grace of the Bushmen. [4] |
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Third design of
an achievement for Oranje Vrijstaat. This design was accepted by the Dutch Minister of External Affairs: Argent, a fess wavy Orange between three buglehorns. The shield placed on two national flags being of seven stripes white and orange with a canton of red, white and blue. It was not adopted unchanged because at the same time a design for a seal was made by the British Government in Cape Town. (Photo O.F.S. Archives) |
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Great Seal of
Oranje Vrijstaat engraved in Cape Town at the request of President Boshof to Sir George Grey, governor of the Cape. Presented to the Volksraad on 4 February 1856. [5] The seal shows an Orange tree, sheep, a lion and a wagon, the words VRYHEID and IMMIGRATIE and the motto GEDULD EN MOED on a ribbon. The legend reads: GROOT ZEGEL VAN DEN ORANJE VRIJSTAAT. (Photo O.F.S. Archives) |
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Finally adopted
achievement of Oranje Vrijstaat cut by C. Spruyt for the
Raadsaal in Bloemfontein, 1857. The arms are a combination of the design of the achievement from the Netherlands and the seal from Cape Town, to spare the sensibilities both of the King of the Netherlands as well as of the British Governor of the Cape. The achievement was accepted by the Volksraad on 28 February 1856 and came into official use on 23 February 1857, the third anniversary of the Freestate. [6] (Photo O.F.S. Archives) |
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Arms of Oranje
Vrijstaat as on the Government Gazette from 1863 until 1866 (Photo O.F.S. Archives) |
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The second Great
Seal of Oranje Vrijstaat, 1891. The seal shows the arms of the state within the legend GROOT ZEGEL VAN DEN ORANJE VRY STAAT (Photo O.F.S. Archives) |
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Seal of the
Orange River Colony, 1903. The seal shows the royal achievement of the United Kingdom and a landscape with springboks. The legend reads: EDWARDVS VII D : G: BRITT : ET TERRARVM TRANSMAR : QVÆ IN DIT: SVNT BRITT: REX F: D: IND: IMP: • ORANGE RIVER COLONY •. (Photo O.F.S. Archives) |
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Arms of Orange River Colony The
Orange River Colony obtained a coat of arms by Royal Warrant of 10 December
1904. They are blazoned: Argent, on a Mound a Springbuck, and on a Chief
Azure the Imperial crown all proper. It was the first time a springbuck (Antidorcas marsupialis - Bovidæ)
officially entered into South African heraldry. |
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Badge of self-governing Orange River
Colony, 1907. The badge shows the springbok from the arms. [7] |
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Achievement of
Orange Free State Province, july 1955. This achievement was only slightly different from the arms of 1857 in that the ornamental frame on which the arms were mounted was left out. |
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On 25 May
1937 the Orange Free State Provincial Council resolved that the arms of the Oranje
Vrijstaat be officially recognised as the arms of the Province of the Orange
Free State. The decision was forwarded to the Secretary of the Interior, who
in reply pointed out the Royal Warrant of 1911. In 1950 the
Secretary for the Interior took up the question of provincial arms with the
Prime Minister and each of the Provinces was asked to indicate which arms
they desired to adopt. The Free State had reached their decision in 1937, and
stuck to it. In 1954
the Administrators of the four provinces were notified: “. . . Her Majesty
the Queen has approved, formally, the withdrawal, with effect from the 22nd
June, 1954, of the Royal Warrant of the 4th May 1911, in terms of which
certain Coats of Arms were granted to the Provinces. Those Provinces which
have not, as yet, done so, are now, at liberty to use the Coat of Arms which
they desire to adopt.” Following
the withdrawal of the Warrant of 1911, the Orange Free State applied to have
its arms recorded in the College of Arms, which was done in July 1955. [9] |
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The provincial
coat of arms for the Free State province were registered with the Bureau of
Heraldry on 7 May 1999. The arms are described as follows : Arms: Per
chevron inverted, Or and Vert, the head of an Orange River Lily (Crinum
bulbispermum) with three blossoms and four buds slipped proper and a
chief dancetty, the peaks terminating in merlons, Azure; the shield ensigned
of a circlet Or, embellished with representations of cut diamonds Argent,
enamelled Azure against the upper and Vert against the lower facets,
heightened of four heads of maize Argent, leaved Or, alternating with as many
ears of wheat of the last. Supporters:
Two cheetahs proper Special
Compartment: A representation of the Free State plains proper Motto: KATLEHO KA KOPANO (Success through Unity) ð see illustration in the head of this essay |
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More details about
the arms of Oranje Vrijstaat / Orange Free State |
On
the arms of the Union of South Africa, adopted in 1910, the Orange River colony
was represented by the orange tree from the fist seal of the Oranje Vrijstaat.
As there arose a problem with the design of the Great Seal of the Union, the
quarters of the U.S.A.-arms were explicitly assigned to the four provinces by
Royal Warrant of 4 May 1911. The arms for the Orange River officially became
Or, upon an island and Orange tree Vert fructed proper. The provisions of
this Warrant however were never implemented. 
© Hubert de Vries, 2009.03.10
Heraldry of the World