The Republic of Zimbabwe

The National Flag of Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe first emerged as Southern Rhodesia during the late 1800's, and became a British Protectorate. They where given a British Blue Ensign as the flag of the Protectorate. In the fly, a shield was placed representing the new protectorate. The shield featured a green background, with a yellow pickaxe upon it. In a white stripe over the shield where two Scottish thistles, and a red lion. 

Southern Rhodesia joined Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland in a Federation, and the flag used combined elements from each territories shield.

Finally, in 1964, it ended, with each nation gaining its independence. Southern Rhodesia declared independence under a white minority government, and renamed itself as Rhodesia. It kept its national coat of arms, and placed it within the centre of a tricolour flag of green, white, green. Similar to the flag of Nigeria.

Because of the white government running the nation following a system of Apartheid, there rose up various groups to fight the government, including ZANU, a movement led by Robert Mugabe, who would follow on and become the President of an independent Zimbabwe.

Because of the fighting, the government slowly fell under pressure and entered into negotiations with some of the rival factions, and in 1979, saw the creation of the Republic of Zimbabwe Rhodesia. And saw the introduction of a new flag. A horizontal tricolour of red, white and green. And also had a black stripe edged in white running vertically up the hoist of the flag. At the top of the black stripe, they placed a Zimbabwe bird, in yellow. The red represents the struggle for independence, the white represents purity, and the red represents the natural resources of the land. The black represents the majority African people, and the thin white represents the minority white people. The yellow on the bird represents the mineral wealth of Zimbabwe.

This nation was very short-lived, as towards the end of 1979, it became a colony of Britain, but only for a short time, as in 1980, it was formally granted its independence in 1980, as the Republic of Zimbabwe. And in April that year, saw the adoption of a new flag. 

The flag features 7 horizontal stripes, a central black stripe, then going out from that stripe, red, yellow, and green. A white triangle was placed on the hoist of the flag, edged in black. In the triangle, a red star, and on the red star, a Zimbabwe bird. The bird is a representation of a carving found in Greater Zimbabwe, and represents the nations history. The red star represents the nations hope for the future, as well as ZANU PF's socialist beliefs. The green represents agriculture, and the rural areas of the land. The yellow represents the mineral wealth of Zimbabwe, and the red represents the blood shed for Zimbabwe. Black represents the black community of Zimbabwe, and the white represents the hopes of the nation for peace.