Last modified: 2019-12-31 by bruce berry
Keywords: namibia | turnhalle | swapo | swanu | cod | canu |
Links: FOTW homepage |
search |
disclaimer and copyright |
write us |
mirrors
See also:
![[CANU flag]](../images/n/na}canu.gif)
image by Pascal
Gross, 08 Apr 2003
There's an image of the flag at this webpage.
On October 7, 2002, the Itengese nation severed all ties with Namibia and
declared the independent, sovereign Free State of Caprivi Strip/Itenge - their
national homeland. The Itengese Government-in-Exile of the Caprivi African
National Union (CANU) adopted a new flag to represent national unity, heroism,
freedom, justice, sovereignty and confidence in the future. An important
consideration in the design of the flag was the present illegal Namibian
Occupation of the territory
of Caprivi Strip, Itenge,
so there is no black with its symbolism of gloom and mourning.
The CANU flag, which is also the national flag of the Free State of Caprivi
Strip/Itenge, is rectangular in shape, divided into three major horizontal
stripes - Blue, White, and Green - separated by narrow red stripes. There
appears in the centre of the flag, on the white and red stripes, two grey
elephants of equal size facing each other with their trunk raised, the front
halves entwined once around each other with only the tips thereof raised above
the height of their heads.
The width of the National Flag of the Free State of Caprivi Strip/Itenge shall
be two-thirds of its length.
The national flag is a blue-white-green tricolour with red fimbriations.
The uppermost is blue, the middle one is white and the nethermost is green,
separated by narrow red stripes. s.
The two elephants represent the national unity and togetherness of the Itengese
people.
The colours of CANU and the national flag are representative of
Caprivian/Itengese history, as well as occurring in nature. The significance of
the individual colours has been explained in various histories: Blue is
referred to as the colour of faith, loyalty and devotion; it also reflects the
qualities of the sky, rivers, and lakes.
White represents the striving towards enlightenment and virtue; it also
represents unity and peace. Green represents Caprivi Strip,
Itenge's agriculture and natural resources. The red fimbriation represents the
struggle for freedom."
Jarig Bakker, 08 Apr 2003
In today's paper was a story about a declaration of war by some Caprivi
Liberation Army to the Namibian government. They declare that they want
an independent Caprivi, but, giving the history of the area, this might
be closely connected with the conflict in Angola, as they seem to be
friends with UNITA in
neighbouring Angola. Obvious question: what flag would they choose, given the several different ones used in Caprivi in the past?
Jorge Candeias, 5 Aug 1999
![[Congress of Democrats flag]](../images/n/na}cod.gif)
image
by Antonio Martins, 24 May 2000, after image from this
site, reported by Dov Gutterman, 14 April 2000
There is a new party, the Congress of Democrats (COD). Its flag has a blue
field. There are two white lines that form a cross divided in four equals
parts with a big yellow five pointed star in the center fimbriated in white.
The fimbriation joins with the two lines (same width). The flag is printed
in colorful leaflets of the party. They have T-shirts with the flag too, and in the central
office of the party in Windhoek, their flag is flying from
a pole painted with blue and yellow stripes; on another higher pole the national
flag is flying.
Santiago Tazón, 25 Oct 1999
image by Tomislav Todorović, 13 Aug 2016The flag
of the Democratic Turnahalle Alliance (DTA) is equal diagonal stripes
of blue over red, charged in the centre with a white roundel bearing a
hand couped at the wrist, giving the "Victory" sign, in blue outline, above
the letters D.T.A. in red. This was the flag in use at the time of the
1989 elections.
Previously the DTA used a flag which was vertically divided in the
centre, with light blue at the hoist and white in the fly. There were eleven
gold stars forming a circle, one for each of the ethnic groups in the territory.
Bruce Berry, 20 Feb 1998
Turnhalle (literally : Gymnastics Hall in German) is the name of the sports house in Windhoek where the constitutional conference about Namibia was held in September 1975. The Hall was built in 1913 by the Germans. At the conference there were 134 delegates from 11 organizations present:
The official web-site of party of the DTA of Namibia (founded in 1989 as the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance) shows the flag of the party. This is four equal diagonal stripes of white, blue, red and white. In the centre is a white disc on which is the logo of the party - an outline in blue of a hand showing "V' for victory with the acronym of the party in red below as shown above.
image sent by Mikhail Revnivtsev, 03 March 2010
image
sent by Mikhail Revnivtsev, 03 March 2010
The website also has a gallery showing party
supporters dressed in robes of red, white and blue and flags with 7 and 11 red,
white, blue horizontal stripes.
Mikhail Revnivtsev, 03 March 2010
The image above which is said to represent the party flag, is actually just one version of the party logo, used in combination with other graphics, as a blue-red diagonal "ribbon" charged with the roundel and superimposed over the other charges. The stand-alone logo, as shown on the party website is a rounded rectangle, divided diagonally blue above red, charged with a black outline of the victory sign on a white disc. The logo may also have the victory sign in blue above red initials DTA and the corners are not necessarily rounded. As shown in the photo gallery on the party website it clearly looks flag-like, but no use of it as a real flag is recorded so far.
image by Tomislav Todorović, 13 Aug 2016
As can be seen from the photo
gallery, another flag of DTA is a blue-white-red horizontal tricolor. The ratio
may be about 2:3 but may also be more oblong, as seen in some of the other
images. Clearly, the ratio is either not prescribed or not strictly
enforced. As the above examples reveal, the shade of red is the same or
very similar to that of the Namibian national flag, and
blue may also be the same, but is often visibly darker, and very rarely, may be
lighter.
A strikingly different ratio is 3:1, shown in its election manifesto launch, as
shown
here, differs enough to be considered a distinctive variant. The parallel
existence of such "horizontal" and "vertical" variants resembles such use in
India - for example, by the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra
Kazhagam or Puthiya Tamilagam - but currently it
seems impossible to prove either the existence or the lack of any influence from
India on the flag of DTA.
images by Tomislav Todorović, 13 Aug 2016 (based on those found
here by Mark Sensen)
The photos shown above sent by Mikhail Revnivtsev seem to originate from
the old website of DTA, which was shut down some time after this contribution
was sent to FOTW-ml and all of its content was lost. This is evident from the
fact that only these two photos can now be found at the party
website dealing with its
history. It is obvious that both the 7-striped and and 11-striped flags
could be used either with red or with blue stripe at the top. When red is at the
top, 7-striped and 11-striped flags look exactly like the "double
Prince flag" or "triple Prince flag" from the
Netherlands. It may be difficult to prove the existence of such influence,
but it should not be excluded, since it may have come via South Africa, which
had governed Namibia at the time DTA was founded and whose flags at the said
time were derived from the Prince flag.
images by Tomislav Todorović, 13 Aug 2016 (based on those found
here by Mark Sensen)
The photos from gallery also reveal that blue-white-red colour scheme-stripes,
but other patterns as well - is still much used for party supporters' clothing.
An interesting feature are the shawls in party colours, which also used by the
other political parties in Namibia, but curiously, widely used in India as well
- again, the influence or lack thereof cannot currently be proved.
Tomislav Todorović, 13 Aug 2016
At an
extraordinary congress of the
party, the DTA was
renamed the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) on 04 November
2017. The
party logo was modified so as to include the new name abbreviation, but the blue-white-red tricolor remains in use,
as confirmed
here in December 2018.
Tomislav Todorović,
01 Oct 2019
image by Mason Kaye, 14 June 2004
The red flag is the flag of the Labour Front (represents merged people).
Jaume Ollé, 14 June 2004
image
by Mason Kaye, 14 June 2004
From the collection of maps on flags provided by Mason Kaye, we have a blue map of
Namibia on a white background.
Rob Raeside, 14 June 2004
The blue flag (blue as in image, not black as in description) is the flag of Baster Party (Rehoboth Liberated
Democratic Party).
Jaume Ollé, 14 June 2004
image by
Anto'nio Martins-Tuva'lkin, 14 June 2004
This is quite different from the traditional Rehoboth flags previously referred
to as being:
" In 1872 a national flag of German influence was adopted: it was black over white over red. Another, more distinctive variant comprised concentric squares of, from the inside, white, red,
black".
However, we have only the 'variant' depicted. Above is the 1872 Rehoboth flag,
with assumed ratio 3:5.
Anto'nio Martins-Tuva'lkin, 14 June 2004
![[South West Africa National Union (SWANU) flag]](../images/n/na}swanu.gif)
image
by Jarig Bakker, 2 Apr 2001
There was another liberation movement called SWANU, with a similar flag.
Does anyone know about this flag?
Mark Sensen, 10 Aug 1999
I think it was dissolved in the early '80s. According to a Danish
encyclopedia, SWANU was established in 1959 and SWAPO in
1960.
Ole Andersen, 14 Aug 1999
The flag of SWANU (South West Africa National Union) was very similar to that
of SWAPO (South West Africa People's Organisation) in that it also comprised the
three horizontal stripes of blue, red and green. In the case of SWANU, two
narrow gold stripes separated the blue, red and green from one another. The
SWANU flag was thus blue, gold, red, gold and green stripes in the same
construction format as the current flag of Gambia.
Bruce Berry, 18 Aug 1999
SWANU (South West African National Union) at first joined
hands with SWAPO. Later this Hereo-supported group joined with the Damara
Council and other smaller groups to form a multiracial coalition (Source:
Political Handbook of the World,
1997). SWAPO in Namibia represents the major
Ovambo group (47% of the Namibian population), while SWANU (is that now
Congress of Democrats?) represents the Herero
(7%) and
Damara (7%).
Jarig Bakker, 02 Apr 2001
South West African People's Organization (SWAPO)
image
by Jorge Candeias and Tomislav Todorović, 13 Aug 2016
In Dorling Kindersley's 'Flags of the World', it says that the Namibian flag
combines the colours of the SWAPO flag with that of the second largest
party, the DTA.
I know that SWAPO used a blue-red-green horizontal tricolour during the
independence struggle.
Vincent Morley, 19 Feb 1998
The flag with blue red green horizontal
stripes on the Namibia page is the flag of SWAPO as illustrated on p. 20 of the book "Collins Eyewitness
Guides FLAG" written by William Crampton published 1989 and in 1990 by Dorling
Kindersley in the UK [cra90n]
and also by Collins in
Australia where I live.
Gilbert Read, 02 Sept 2005
image
from www.caprivifreedom.com,
23 Dec 2010
The United Democratic Party is political party from
Namibia, whose programme is for the independence of the
Caprivi Strip (also
called Itenge). It has a flag consisting from four stripes of blue, white, red
and green symbolizing the four rivers of this region. A black triangle at
the hoist symbolises Africa. In the fly is a white oval containing a grey
elephant. More information can be found at party
website.
Jakub Grombir, 23 Dec 2010
