It is surprising that shields from south-east Africa have not been included in the re-evaluation of material culture from the region that has occurred in recent years. The symbolic and aesthetic qualities of these utilitarian and ceremonial objects warrant careful re-consideration.

The Zulu used a variety of different shields for different purposes. The largest types of regimental war shield, known as isihlangu, were the property of the state rather than the individual warrior, and were stored at the royal homesteads; they were only used when the regiments assembled to serve the king. The shields were made from the hides of matched herds of cattle, kept by the king, in the early days of the kingdom, and differences in shield patterns were carefully maintained. However, by the 1870s, there are suggestions that shortage of cattle made this more difficult. Ludlow describes the Zulu consciousness of colour and pattern in the production of shields:

'The cattle are of all colours and combinations of colours, pure white, black and white, red and white, spotted, and the most delicate shades of slates, roans, and browns. The Zulus take great pride in the marking of their cattle, as all the war and dress shields are made from cow hides. Each regiment in the king's army had its own peculiar coloured shield … The war shields are about 5ft high and 3ft wide with a stick run through the back, at the top of which is a plume made of wild-cat's skin, and hanging in front from this are two bullocks' tails. The dress-shields are much smaller, and some of the smallest carried only by the young Zulu are not very much larger than the palm of the hand. These dress-shields do not have the bullocks' tails in front but with this exception are made precisely like the war shields' (WR Ludlow, Zululand and Cetewayo, London, 1882, p35).

These two shields (items 8a and 8b) were most likely collected at the time of the Anglo-Zulu war of 1879 when British soldiers took many examples back home with them as souvenirs and trophies of the battles. There is a similar light brown and cream shield in the National Army Museum, London, illustrated in 'Ashes and blood': the British army in South Africa 1795-1914, London, 1999, no83, p245, and it is thought that, on the basis of colour and pattern, it may have belonged to the uThulwana regiment which fought at Rorke's Drift. See also L Hooper, P Davison, and G Klinghardt, 'Some Nguni crafts - part 4: Skin-working technology', Annals of the SA Museum, 70(4), pp371-373.