Pan-African flag

{{redirect|Red, Black and Green|the Solidarity Unit, Inc. album|Red, Black and Green (album)}}

{{Infobox flag

| Nickname = Various other names

| Image = Flag of the UNIA.svg

| Image_size = 200px

| Alt =

| Use = Africans and Afro Caribbean/Americans.

| Symbol =

| Proportion =

| Adoption = 13 August 1920

| Design = A horizontal triband of red, black, and green.

| Designer = Marcus Garvey

}}

The pan-African flag (also known as the Afro-American flag, Black Liberation flag, UNIA flag, and various other names) is an ethnic flag representing pan-Africanism, the African diaspora, and/or black nationalism.{{Cite web |title=Behind the Pan-African UNIA flag |url=https://www.icaew.com/insights/diversity-and-inclusion/black-history-month/history-of-the-bhm-flag |access-date=2024-03-20 |website=www.icaew.com |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Pan-African Flag {{!}} Black Student Center {{!}} CSUSM |url=https://www.csusm.edu/bsc/pan-afflag.html#:~:text=Red:%20the%20blood%20that%20unites,wealth%20of%20Africa,%20the%20Motherland. |access-date=2024-03-20 |website=www.csusm.edu}}{{Cite journal |last=Shelby |first=Tommie |date=2003 |title=Two Conceptions of Black Nationalism: Martin Delany on the Meaning of Black Political Solidarity |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0090591703252826 |journal=Political Theory |language=en |volume=31 |issue=5 |pages=664–692 |doi=10.1177/0090591703252826 |issn=0090-5917}} A tri-color flag, it consists of three equal horizontal bands of (from top down) red, black, and green.{{cite news |last1=Donnella |first1=Leah |title=On Flag Day, Remembering The Red, Black And Green |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/06/14/532667081/on-flag-day-remembering-the-red-black-and-green |access-date=June 17, 2021 |work=NPR |date=June 14, 2017}}

The flag was created as a response to racism against African Americans in 1920 with the help of Marcus Garvey.{{cite web |title=Behind the Pan African UNIA flag |url=https://www.icaew.com/insights/diversity-and-inclusion/black-history-month/history-of-the-bhm-flag}} The Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL) formally adopted it on August 13, 1920, in Article 39 of the Declaration of the Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World, during its month-long convention at Madison Square Garden in New York City.{{cite news|title=25,000 NEGROES CONVENE :International Gathering Will Prepare Own Bill of Rights|work=The New York Times|date=August 2, 1920|url=http://www.proquest.com|via=ProQuest|access-date=October 5, 2007}}{{cite news|work=Christian Science Monitor|title=NEGROES ADOPT BILL OF RIGHTS: Convention Approves Plan for African Republic and Sets to Work on Preparation of Constitution of the Colored Race Negro Complaints Aggression Condemned Recognition Demanded|date=August 17, 1920|url=http://www.proquest.com/|via=ProQuest|access-date=October 5, 2007}}. Variations of the flag can and have been used in various countries and territories in the Americas to represent Garveyist ideologies.

History

File:Every race has a flag but the coon.jpg"|alt=|left|220x220px]]

The flag was created in 1920 by members of UNIA in response to the "coon song" that became a hit around 1900, titled, "Every Race Has a Flag but the Coon".{{cite news|date=October 1912|title=New Flag for Afro-Americans|page=134|work=African Times and Orient Review|issue=1|url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/lcrbmrp.t8126/?sp=154}}{{cite book|title=RACE FIRST: The Ideological and Organizational Struggles of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association|location=Westport, Conn|publisher=Greenwood Press|date=1987|page=43}} This song has been cited as one of the three songs that "firmly established the term coon in the American vocabulary". In a 1927 report of a 1921 speech appearing in the Negro World weekly newspaper, Marcus Garvey was quoted as saying:{{cite news|last1=Garvey|first1=Marcus|title=Honorable Marcus Garvey, Gifted Man of Vision, Sets Out In Unanswerable Terms the Reasons Why Negroes Must Build in Africa|work=Negro World|volume=XXII|issue=6|publisher=Universal Negro Improvement Association|date=March 19, 1927}}

{{blockquote|Show me the race or the nation without a flag, and I will show you a race of people without any pride. Aye! In song and mimicry they have said, "Every race has a flag but the coon." How true! Aye! But that was said of us four years ago. They can't say it now. ...}}

The Universal Negro Catechism, published by the UNIA in 1921, refers to the colors of the flag meaning:{{cite book|last1=Mcguire|first1=George|title=Universal Negro catechism: a course of instruction in religious and historical knowledge pertaining to the race.|date=1921|publisher=Universal Negro Improvement Association|location=New York|page=34|hdl=2027/emu.010000685445}}

{{blockquote|Red is the color of the blood which men must shed for their redemption and liberty; black is the color of the noble and distinguished race to which we belong; green is the color of the luxuriant vegetation of our Motherland.}}

According to the UNIA more recently, the three colors on the Black Nationalist flag represent:

red: the blood that unites all people of Black African ancestry, and shed for liberation;
black: black people whose existence as a nation, though not a nation-state, is affirmed by the existence of the flag; and
green: the abundant natural wealth of Africa.{{Cite web|url=http://theunia-acl.com/index.php/history-red-black-green|title=History – Red – Black – Green|website=The Official Website of the United Negro Improvement Association and the African Communities League|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180827122232/http://theunia-acl.com/index.php/history-red-black-green|archive-date=27 August 2018|access-date=13 November 2019}}

File:TexasBlackPowerFlag1A9574EE-E286-49D7-8418-190C17C207E3.jpg Black Liberation flag]]

The flag later became a Black Nationalist symbol for the worldwide liberation of Black people. As an emblem of Black pride, the flag became popular during the Black Liberation movement of the 1960s. In 1971, the school board of Newark, New Jersey, passed a resolution permitting the flag to be raised in public school classrooms. Four of the board's nine members were not present at the time, and the resolution was introduced by the board's teen member, a mayoral appointee. Fierce controversy ensued, including a court order that the board show cause why they should not be forced to rescind the resolution, and at least two state legislative proposals to ban ethnic flags and national flags (other than the U.S. flag) in public classrooms.[https://www.csusm.edu/bsc/pan-afflag.html#:~:text=Red%3A%20the%20blood%20that%20unites,wealth%20of%20Africa%2C%20the%20Motherland. Pan-African Flag | Black Student Center - CSUSM]

=Juneteenth=

June 19, 1865, is the date in which enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, finally received the news of their freedom. This is commemorated every June 19 with Juneteenth, which is considered the longest-running African American holiday. Many in the African American community have adopted the Pan-African flag to represent Juneteenth.{{cite news|last=Wilson|first=Sara|date=June 16, 2021|title=Juneteenth colors and its meaning behind the federal holiday|url=https://www.wdhn.com/news/juneteenth-colors-and-its-meaning-behind-the-federal-holiday/|work=WDHN|access-date=August 16, 2021|archive-date=August 15, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210815175510/https://www.wdhn.com/news/juneteenth-colors-and-its-meaning-behind-the-federal-holiday/|url-status=live}} The Juneteenth holiday became an official federal holiday June 17, 2021, and does have its own flag, however, created in 1997{{snd}}the Juneteenth flag.{{cite news |last1=Philippe |first1=McKenzie Jean |title=The Juneteenth flag was created in 1997. |url=https://www.oprahdaily.com/life/a36233221/juneteenth-flag-meaning/ |access-date=27 May 2022 |publisher=Oprah}}

= 2010s usage=

In the United States, following the refusal of a grand jury to indict a police officer in the August 9, 2014, shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, a Howard University student replaced the U.S. flag on that school's Washington, D.C., campus flagpole with a "black solidarity" flag (this tricolor) flying at half-mast.{{cite web |url=https://twitter.com/Chinonyeezy/status/537279736133980160 |title=Chocahontas on Twitter: "Howard University replaced the American flag with a Black solidarity flag today. At half mast. |access-date=2015-08-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150313022654/https://twitter.com/chinonyeezy/status/537279736133980160 |archive-date=2015-03-13 }}{{cite web|last=Jaschik |first=Scott |url=https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2014/12/01/howard-u-president-issues-statement-flag-protest |title=Howard U. President Issues Statement on Flag Protest |website=Insidehighered.com |date=2014-12-01 |access-date=2017-04-06}}{{cite web|url=http://www.howard.edu/newsroom/releases/2014/20141124flagpole.html|title=Statement by President Frederick Concerning the University Flagpole|website=Howard University|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150808040052/http://www.howard.edu/newsroom/releases/2014/20141124flagpole.html|archive-date=2015-08-08|access-date=13 November 2019}}

= 2020s usage=

In February 2023, the Pan-African flag was flown over the Denver Federal Center to commemorate Black History Month, which was the first time that flag was flown over any federal building.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/black-history-flag-denver-federal-center-history/|title=Black History Flag flies over federal building for the first time in history|website=www.cbsnews.com|date=February 2023 }} In Martinique, a new flag was raised which symbolises the same ties to Africa.

Derivative flags

=Flags of nation states=

File:Flag of Kenya.svg|Flag of Kenya

File:Flag of South Sudan.svg|Flag of South Sudan

File:Flag of Malawi.svg|Flag of Malawi

File:Flag of Malawi (2010-2012).svg|Flag of Malawi (2010–2012)

File:Flag of Biafra.svg|Flag of Biafra (1967–1970)

File:Proposed Flag of Angola (1996).svg|Proposed flag for Angola (1996)

File:MNLA flag.svg|Flag of Azawad

File:Flag of Martinique.svg|Flag of Martinique

A number of flags of nation states in African and the Caribbean have been inspired by the UNIA flag. The Biafran flag is another variant of the UNIA flag with a sunburst in the center. Designed by the Biafran government and first raised in 1967, the colors are directly based on Garvey's design.{{Cite journal |last=Okonkwo |first=Ivan Emeka |date=June 2018 |title=POLITICAL ACTIVISM IN VISUAL EXPRESSION: IPOB AND THE BIAFRA QUESTION IN THE SOUTH EAST OF NIGERIA |url=https://journals.ezenwaohaetorc.org/index.php/IJAH/article/view/670 |journal=Igwebuike: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities |volume=4 |issue=2}}

The flag of Malawi issued in 1964 is very similar, reflects the Black Nationalist flag's order of stripes. It is not directly based on Garvey's flag, although the colors have the same symbolism: Red for blood symbolizing the struggle of the people, green for vegetation, and black for the race of the people.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qzPyJtiaBEAC&dq=flag+of+Saint+Kitts+and+Nevis+pan-african+flag+similar+to+the+Malawi+flag&pg=PA151|title=There Was a Country: A Memoir|first=Chinua|last=Achebe|date=October 11, 2012|publisher=Penguin|isbn=9781101595985 |via=Google Books}}

The Kenyan flag (Swahili: Bendera ya Kenya) is a tricolor of black, red, and green with two white fimbriations imposed, with a Masai shield and two crossed spears. It was officially adopted on 12 December 1963 after Kenya's independence, inspired by the pan-African tricolour.{{Cite web|last=Gathara|first=Patrick|date=2018-08-02|title=GATHARA - BLACK, RED AND GREEN: The story behind the Kenyan flag|work=The Elephant|url=https://www.theelephant.info/features/2018/08/02/black-red-and-green-the-story-behind-the-kenyan-flag/|access-date=2020-06-29|language=en-US}}

The flag of Saint Kitts and Nevis has similar colors, arranged diagonally and separated by yellow lines. It similar to the Malawian flag in that the colors are not directly taken from the Pan-African flag but the symbolism is the same.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NSu5BAAAQBAJ&dq=flag+of+Saint+Kitts+and+Nevis+pan-african&pg=PA289|title=Flags of the Night Sky: When Astronomy Meets National Pride|first=André G.|last=Bordeleau|date=2013|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=9781461409298 |via=Google Books}}

=Derivative flags in the United States=

==The Kwanzaa Bendera==

In the 1960s The Us Organization redesigned the UNIA flag also changing order and significance of the colours to: black, red and green. Defining "black" for the people, "red" for struggle, and "green" for the future built "out of struggle".{{Cite book |last=Karenga |first=Maulana |url=http://archive.org/details/kwanzaacelebrati00kare_0 |title=Kwanzaa: A celebrations of family, community and culture |publisher=University of Sankore Press |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-943412-21-4 |location=California, USA |pages=88–89}}

United States Postal Service issued a stamp in 1997 to commemorate the African-American festival of Kwanzaa with a painting by artist Synthia Saint James of a dark-skinned family wearing garments traditional in parts of Africa and fashionable for special occasions among African-Americans. The family members are holding food, gifts, and a flag. The flag in the stamp may have been meant to represent the Pan-African flag but instead used the similar flag (a black, red, and green horizontal tricolour) of the Black nationalist organisation Us Organization, which shares its founder, professor and activist Maulana Karenga, with Kwanzaa.{{Cite book |last=Mayes |first=Keith A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QGCOAgAAQBAJ&dq=kwanzaa+flag+stamp+Synthia+Saint+James&pg=PA181 |title=Kwanzaa: Black Power and the Making of the African-American Holiday Tradition |date=2009 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-28400-8 |pages=181, 230 |language=en}}

The bendera (flag in the Kiswahili language) was documented as an supplemental symbol of Kwanzaa, in Karenga's 1998 book The African American Holiday of Kwanzaa, and included in ceremonial use during the festival.

==Artworks==

In 1990, artist David Hammons created a work called African-American Flag, which is held by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Based on the standard U.S. flag, its stripes are black and red, the canton field is green, and the stars on the canton field are black.{{Cite web|url=https://www.moma.org/collection/works/222169|title=David Hammons. African American Flag. 1990 {{!}} MoMA|website=The Museum of Modern Art|language=en|access-date=2019-10-08}}

African America Flag.svg|David Hammons's African-American Flag

Hammons flag.jpg|African American Flag in New York city

Alternative names

The flag goes by several other names with varying degrees of popularity:

the Afro-American flag
the Bendera Ya Taifa (Kiswahili for "flag of the Nation"), in reference to its usage during Kwanzaa
the Black Liberation flag
the International African flag
the Marcus Garvey flag
the UNIA flag, after its originators
the Universal African flag
the Red Black Green (RBG) flag
the Black Nationalist flag

Proposed holiday

In 1999, an article appeared in the July 25 edition of The Black World Today suggesting that, as an act of global solidarity, every August 17 should be celebrated worldwide as Universal African Flag Day by flying the red, black, and green banner. August 17 is the birthday of Marcus Garvey.{{cite web | url=https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/individuals/marcus-garvey | title=Marcus Garvey (August 17, 1887 - June 10, 1940) | date=22 December 2017 }}

Notes

References

{{Cite magazine |date=December 13, 1971 |title=The Nation: Black Flag |language=en-US |volume=98 |magazine=Time |issue=22 |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,910142,00.html |issn=0040-781X}}

External links

[http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/us-afro.html Afro-American flags] at Flags of the World
[http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.award/rpbaasm.0615 Sheet music] from the American Memory website of the Library of Congress
[http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/138.html 'Fly the Red, Black, and Green'] article proposing holiday at The Black World Today, July 25, 1999
[https://web.archive.org/web/20030429013805/http://africawithin.com/kwanzaa/kwanzaa_stamp.htm Kwanzaa Stamp] U.S. postage depicting similar flag, with explanatory press release
[http://www.theunia-acl.com UNIA official website]

Category:Flags of international organizations

Category:African and Black nationalism

Category:Pan-Africanism

Category:Flags introduced in 1920

Category:Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League

Category:African-American flags