Flag of Angola

Flag of Angola

Use	National flag
Proportion	2:3
Adopted	11 November 1975
Design	a horizontal bicolor of red and black with the Machete and Gear Emblem (a five-pointed star within a half gear wheel crossed by a machete (in the style of a Hammer and Sickle)) in the center.

The national flag of Angola came into use at independence on November 11, 1975. It is split horizontally into an upper red half and a lower black half with an Emblem itself resting at the center. It features a yellow half gear wheel crossed by a machete and crowned with a star.

History

As in some other African countries, this flag is a modification of the ruling party's flag. The guerrilla movement and eventual governing party, the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), used the same design with a golden star in the center. Red stood for socialism and black for Africa. The star was modeled after the red star of the Soviet Union, which sponsored the MPLA.

Later the explanation was made less party-specific: The red is for the blood spilt by Angolans during their independence struggles, while the black is for the continent of Africa. The symbol in the middle is of a crossed cog wheel (representing workers and industry) and machete (representing the peasantry, agricultural production and the armed struggle) with a gold star. It was adopted during a time when Angola had a Marxist government, and thus was supposed to evoke the image of the hammer and sickle found on the flag of the former Soviet Union, a common symbol of Communism. The flag is most recently described and explained in article 162 of the Constitutional Law of the Republic of Angola (Constitution) of August 25, 1992.

2003 proposal

In 2003, a new, more "optimistic" flag was proposed by the Parliament's Constitutional Commission of the National Assembly (Angolan Parliament), but was not adopted. The sun design in the middle is meant to be reminiscent of cave paintings found in Tchitundo-Hulu cave. The flag maintained the same flag proportions of 2:3.^[1]

Gallery

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  Flag proposal for the Portuguese overseas province of Angola (1967) – never used.

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  Flag of the former movement and now governing party MPLA

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  Flag of UNITA, a rebel movement that fought against the MPLA government from 1975 to 2002

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  Proposed Flag of Angola (1996)

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  Proposed Flag of Angola (2003)

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  Presidential Standard of Angola

References

1. Angola - proposal for a new flag

External links

• Angola at Flags of the World
• http://www.angola.org/referenc/proposed_flag.html