Swaziland

Last modified: 1997-09-03 by zeljko heimer
Keywords: swaziland | africa |
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• Royal standard

Royal standard

The Royal Flag of Swaziland is the same as the national flag with the addition of a small gold lion centred on the upper blue stripe, facing away from the hoist. The lion is sideways on with three paws on the ground and one raised (stantant).

The supporters of the state arms are a lion and an elephant. The former represents the king, the latter 'the great she elephant', the queen mother. This is considered a very flattering description in Swazi: maybe it loses something in translation!

The lion on the flag seems to follows European heraldic conventions, so maybe one could say that this has been influenced by European traditions. Although since the lion isn't indigenous to Europe, I thnk we should say that Africa has influenced Europe on this occasion.