Flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

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Flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.svg

Vexillological symbol : National flag on land and at sea Normal or de jure version of a flag?
Aspect ratio: 3: 4
Officially accepted: February 18, 2006

The flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo was officially adopted on February 18, 2006 following the ratification of the new constitution. Their appearance is largely based on that of the two national flags in the period from 1963 to 1971, but these have a much darker shade of blue.

Description and meaning

The state flag shows a red, gold-framed stripe on a blue background, which runs from bottom left to top right, and a gold star at the top left. The blue color is said to stand for peace among the peoples of the Congo. The red stripe indicates the blood of the country's martyrs, while the gold frame represents prosperity. The star is supposed to symbolize the unity of the country and the diagonal stripe its future.

history

Congolese soldiers set the national flag

The country's first flag goes back to a flag of the Congo Free State adopted by Leopold II of Belgium on June 21, 1877 , which shows a central yellow star on a blue cloth. According to Henry Morton Stanley , it should symbolize a light thrown into dark Africa. Despite an era of cruelty and exploitation under this flag, it was continued in a similar form after independence, due to the long tradition and a lack of national liberation movement.

On July 1, 1960, a new flag was introduced based on the one from 1877. There were liekseitig six stars inserted, symbolized that the six provinces. The blue of the flag was inaccurately described as sky blue , which resulted in different versions in different shades of blue.

Since there have been 21 provinces since an administrative reform of 1963, the old flag had to be replaced by a new one. This happened on July 1, 1963. The newly introduced flag dispensed with the smaller stars for the individual provinces and only took over the large star from its predecessor, which was now no longer in the center but in the top left. A darker blue has now been used for the background, and a red diagonal stripe with yellow edges has been added. The flag from 1963 is very similar to today's national flag except for the blue tone of the background and the exact stripe size and is considered to be the predecessor flag.

This also applies to the flag from 1966. It is a slight modification of the 1963 version and differs from this only in that the star has been reduced in size and the diagonal stripe has been slightly changed in appearance and shape. So today's national flag looks more like this version than the one from 1963.

In 1971, President Mobutu Sese Seko changed the country's name to Zaire and introduced a new national flag on November 21, 1971. Mobutu Sese Seko made the country a one-party state and made himself president of the only party allowed, the MPR ( Mouvement Populaire de la Révolution ). The new national flag was based on the almost identical party flag of the MPR. The flag includes the pan-African colors of red, yellow and green. The torch stands for freedom and the fight for it.

With the end of Mobutu Sese Seko's reign, the country was renamed Congo again and the national flag was changed again. On May 17, 1997, the 1960-based flag was introduced. However, the statement of the six stars no longer corresponded to reality, as the country now consisted of eleven provinces. The blue was defined as dark Pantone 286 C, which was again referred to as sky blue . Nevertheless, there were also versions in light blue. In 2003, the new constitution reaffirmed light blue as the color without precisely defining the tone. The light version prevailed.

Individual evidence

  1. Congo booklet
  2. ^ A b Karl-Heinz Hesmer: Flags and Coats of Arms of the World Chronicle Verlag, 2008.
  3. Flags of the World - Republic of Congo - Historical Flags (English)
  4. ^ Flags of the World - Democratic Republic of Congo - Flag Details
  5. CONSTITUTION DE LA TRANSITION: PROMULGUEE LE 4 AVRIL 2003 PAR LE PRESIDENT DE LA REPUBLIQUE SUR LA BASE DU PROJET DE CONSTITUTION DE LA TRANSITION SOUSCRIT A PRETORIA PAR TOUTES LES PARTIES LE 06/03/2003 (French)
  6. Vexilla Mundi: Flag history Congo ( Memento of the original from January 7, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.vexilla-mundi.com

Web links

Commons : Flags of the Democratic Republic of the Congo  - Collection of images, videos and audio files