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Saturday, February 13, 2010

The Republic of Burkina Faso


The national flag of Burkina Faso

The flag was adopted in 1984 following the 1983 coup which brought Thomas Sankara to power. It features a top half of red, and the bottom is green. A gold star is at the flags centre. The red represents the nations revolutionary struggle, the green represents hope and abundance, and the gold represents the nations mineral wealth.

Burkina Faso gained independence from France in 1960 under the name of the Republic of the Upper Volta. The first flag was a horizontal tricolour of black, white and red. The colours where taken from the names of the 3 main Volta rivers, the Black, white, and red Volta rivers.


However, independence resulted in coup and counter-coup and years of strife, until Thomas Sankara finally came to power. With his hands on power, he set up various committees to "defend the revolution" and his zealous activities finally culminated in a new name for the nation, and a new flag.


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