The Sunday Mail
IT is well known across the continent and beyond that the glamorous rainbow colours belong to Rastafarians (macolour emaRasta). They originate from the Ethiopian emblem, which is the oldest flag on Earth.
Ibo Foroma
Life can be gloomy, adding this miraculous colour combination into your life, clothing, walls, art, furniture and so on will beautify your sorrowful soul.
The original Ethiopian flag consists of a red, yellow, and green coloured pennants and dates way back before the documented 17th century. Although the proportion and shape of the colours may have varied, the Ethiopian emblem remains to have all three colours.
Each colour has its’ own interpretation and bears special importance in the Ethiopian Empire’s Solomonic dynasty.
The colour red represents faith, the Father, the province of Shoa and the honouring of living and passed heroes. Yellow represents charity, the Son, the province of Tigris and mineral wealth. Green represents hope, the Holy Spirit, the province of Amhara and the vegetation of the glorious garden of Eden.
During the reign of Emperor Menelik II, on October 6 1897, the Ethiopian flag was changed as the pennants were transformed to rectangles.
In early 19th century the colours were re-arranged and the Lion of Judah bearing a cross, features on the central stripe, was featured in the centre of the flag.
In 1949 the Imperial flag was introduced by His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I portraying the Empire’s flag with the central Lion of Judah encircled by the collar of the Order of Solomon’s Seal featuring a Shield of David (Star of David) with a cross, at each corner and in the bottom middle of the Holy emblem.
This royal emblem is holy insignia for all Rastafarians. The Bobo Ashanti section prefers the older red on top of the flag while the Nyabinghi mansion opts for the green on top used by Emperor Tafari Makonnen himself.
Generally the Rastafari Empire does not recognise the cretin decorations that followed after the Emperor’s holy emblem with the Conquering Lion of Judah and Shields or Stars of David.
Ethiopia is the original rainbow nation and the rest followed. Most countries and territories in Africa, the Americas and Caribbean Islands adopted the colours into their flags as a result of direct influence from pan-African ideology and Ethiopia’s uniqueness and antiquity in terms of freedom and sovereignty.
The phrase pan-African colours, greatly inspired by Marcus Garvey founder of the Universal Negroes Improvement Association UNIA and the African Communities (Imperial) League ACL refers to two different sets of three colours all used by Rastafarians.
There is the obvious red, gold and green from the holy Ethiopian Lion of Judah Imperial flag. Then there is the red, black and green derived from Garvey’s Islamic influence from whence he also derived the expression “One God, one aim, one destiny”.
The UNIA flag was designated the official colours of Black Africans by the UNIA at its convention in Madison Square Garden on August 13, 1920 in New York City.
The first African state to adopt a red, gold and green flag upon independence was Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana in 1957. This testifies to the fact that the former was inspired by the Emperor and Garvey and not the other way around as commonly mistaken.
The following are countries and territories that use one or both sets of pan-African colours in their official flags. From Africa we have in alphabetical order: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo-Brazzaville, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
From the Caribbean we have Jamaica and Saint Kitts and Nevis. From the continent of South America we have French Guiana (unofficial), Guyana and Suriname.
Former flags bearing the colours are: Rwanda (1961-2001), Zaire (1971-1997), Cape Verde (1975-1992), Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe (1979).
Former nations include Biafra (1967-1970), Benin (1967), and South Kasai (1960-1961).
Indeed the Lion of Judah broke every chain and Emperor Haile Selassie inspired a whole lot more than any single person’s imagination can contain including the founding of the United Nations organisation a subject of which we shall bisect soon.
Do not drink and drive.
