Flag of Guinea-Bissau
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The national flag of Guinea-Bissau was adopted on 24 September 1973, the day the country proclaimed its independence from Portugal. It is almost identical to the flag of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde, the country's dominant party and previously sole ruling party.
The black star symbolises the leadership of the PAIGC, with its colour representing the people of Africa. Yellow and green correspond to Guinea-Bissau's northern savannas and southern forests, respectively, and the two are also meant to represent agriculture. Little legislation has been made on the proper colours of the flag, though a piece of legislation from 1993 states, "Anyone who, publicly, by words, gestures or written disclosures, or by other means of communication with the public, outrages the Republic, the national flag or anthem, the weapons or emblems of Guinean sovereignty or fails to respect due to him, is punished up to three years in prison."<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref>
Design and symbolism
Like the flag of Cape Verde upon independence, the flag of Guinea-Bissau is based on that of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), which is the same but with the party's initials below the black star. The party adopted its flag in 1961, echoing the Pan-African colours used by the existing flags of neighbouring Ghana and Guinea, namely red, yellow, and green.<ref name="Smith Britannica">Template:Cite web</ref> The black star symbolises the leadership of the PAIGC, with its colour representing the people of Africa. Yellow and green correspond to Guinea-Bissau's northern savannas and southern forests, respectively, and broadly speaking the yellow is said to refer to agriculture and the fruits of labour, while green is said to represent the agriculture in the jungle. The yellow is also sometimes reported to represent the Sun<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> or mineral wealth,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> green represents hope, and red represents bloodshed in the revolution.
Colours
There has not been legislation on the specific shades of these colours, but these have been used as standards by such organisations as Olympic Games.<ref name=":0" />
(1958–present) |
Red | Yellow | Green | Black |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Refs | <ref>Flags and anthems manual London 2012</ref> | |||
| Pantone | 032 C | 109 C | 355 C | Black |
| CMYK | 0-0.92-0.82-0.19 | 0-0.17-0.91-0.01 | 1-0-0.35-0.42 | 0-0-0-100 |
| RGB | 206-17-38 | 252-209-22 | 0-148-96 | 0-0-0 |
| Hexadecimal | #CE1126 | #FCD116 | #009460 | #000000 |
History
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The African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde was established in Bissau on 19 September 1956 as the African Party of Independence (Partido Africano da Independência), and was based on the Movement for the National Independence of Portuguese Guinea (Movimento para Independência Nacional da Guiné Portuguesa) founded in 1954 by Henri Labéry and Amílcar Cabral.<ref name="M">Peter Karibe Mendy (2013) Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau, Scarecrow Press, p305</ref> The party had six founding members; Cabral, his brother Luís, Aristides Pereira, Fernando Fortes, Júlio Almeida and Elisée Turpin.<ref name="M" /> Rafael Paula Barbosa became its first president, whilst Amílcar Cabral was appointed secretary-general.<ref name="M" />
In 1961, the party adopted a flag based on the flags of two countries it was considering unifying with in some way following independence - Guinea-Conakry and Ghana. (The two had already formed Union of African States in 1958). They used the Pan-African colours of yellow, green and red, which had been popularised by Ghana and before that, Ethiopia. They added the Black Star of Africa, an established symbol of anti-colonial resistance, and put it and a red bar on the left (hoist) side of the flag, to represent the country's position on the West coast of Africa.<ref name="Smith Britannica" /> The flag also has a further geographical meaning, with the yellow stripe representing Guinea-Bissau's northern savannahs, and the green stripe representing its southern forests. This flag differed from the modern Guinea-Bissau flag, however, as it also featured the initials of the African Party's Portuguese initials PAIGC.
Adoption
The flag was adopted upon Guinea-Bissau's proclamation of its independence from Portugal on 24 September 1973.<ref name="Smith Britannica"/> The Independence of Guinea Bissau was proclaimed by the National Assembly, which was appointed by the PAIGC, the independence party which fought for independence from Portugal for Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde. The latter also adopted a flag similar to the PAIGC flag upon its independence, though later abandoned the Marxist ideas of the party, and abandoned the flag in the process.
The first edition of the Government Gazette of Guinea-Bissau was published on 4 January 1975, and describes the flag as follows:
Notably not specifying the exact shades of each colour, nor the ratio of the flag (1:2).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The second constitution gave a similarly vague description:<ref name=":0" />
Though this one clarifies that the star has five points.