This Week In Vexillology #2

I'm digging into my own collection this week.

I'm still looking for a way to display them all but reaching into my random grab bag of vexillological fun, we come up with this weeks flag, appropriately enough starting with the letter A- for Angola! (Shout-out to the 1992 Dream Team. Angola was their first victim on their Road to Gold in Barcelona.)

The overall design of the flag is based on the party flag of the MPLA (Movimento Para O Libertação de Angola), which eventually came out on top of the long, bloody Angolan Civil War. The cog wheel and the machete are emblems of agriculture and of industry. The emblems are similar to the Soviet-style hammer and sickle. The flag was adopted on November 11th, 1975 for National and Civil usage.

For an interesting slide into 'what if,' here's the flag of UNITA (União Nacional Para A Independência Total De Angola) the other half of the Angolan Civil War:

Dug this description up from over here:

The flag of UNITA is a red over green over red tri-bar. On the green stripe is a 16-pointed rising sun (Angola had 16 provinces at independence; the subsequent creation of two more has not been recognized in the UNITA flag). Crowning the dawn is a black cockerel, placed to the left of the sun. The top red stripe stands for the revolution against Portugal, the bottom one for the 'second liberation struggle' - against the Cubans who back the ruling MPLA militarily. (Since the UNITA flag was used before 1975, this symbolism must have been added later). The green stands for hope, victory, and agriculture. The flag is popular amongst Angolan emigrés and was frequently seen in Lisbon during the 1992 Angolan election period.

If you're into learning about massive, bloody messes of the Cold War, Angola's Civil War was a doozy. South Africa, China, The Soviet Union and the United States all had fingers in the pie at various points along the way and Cuba staged a massive military intervention to support the MPLA in November of 1975 and maintained a military presence there until 2002.

Angola, take a bow. And until next time, kids- keep your flags flying: freak or otherwise!