No, it's not part of Joseph's Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and you'll never guess what country it's from- but get your tongues ready for twisting because Sally will be selling sea shells in... you guessed it- The Seychelles!
Seychelles is a chain of islands that are located off of the east coast of Tanzania. They became independent from France in 1976 and originally had this flag:
This one only lasted a year until a coup d'etat brought the Seychelles People's United Party to power. The red and the blue in this flag represented both the old Democratic Party (blue and white) the new People's United Party (red and white) and the British and French that once ruled the island. With the coup d'etat, the flag changed to this:
This was a variant on the old flag of the Seychelles Peoples United Party which included a rising sun- but that was removed once they came to power because the sun of freedom now shone over the whole country. The red in the flag stands for progress and revolution, the green for earth and agriculture and the wavy bar for the waves that bathe the islands' beaches and the resources the country draws from the Indian Ocean.
This flag last until 1996 when multi-party elections were once again allowed. You can see in the picture above that the red, white and green was retained- colors of the SPUP while the blue and yellow of the Democratic Party were added with the resumption of multi-party elections in the country. The current flag was adopted on January 8th, 1996 for national and civil usage.
Honestly, the Seychelles is one of of my favorite flags. It catches your attention and while other countries might get caught up in symbols, I like the fact that their national flag has evolved solely through the use of colors. (Somewhat like South Africa's new flag as well.) (It's capital and largest city is Victoria, by the way.)
Ladies and Gentlemen: Seychelles!
And until next time, keep your flags flying- freak or otherwise!
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