The Namibia flag is a diagonal red band with on both corners a triangle. On the left upper triangle is a sun. The used colors in the flag are blue, green, red, yellow, white. The proportion of the Namibia flag is 2:3. The Flag of Namibia was adopted in 1990. The first use of the current flag design was in 1990. The last change to the current Namibia flag design was in 1990.
The flag of Namibia was adopted on 21 March 1990 upon independence from South Africa.
Design
The National Symbols Sub-Committee received 870 entries for the national flag. Six designs were short-listed; this was reduced to three, those of three Namibians – Theo Jankowski of Rehoboth, Don Stevenson of Windhoek and Ortrud Clay of Lüderitz. These three designs were combined to form the Namibia national flag, adopted unanimously on 2 February 1990 by the Constituent Assembly. The three designers were publicly acknowledged by judge Hans Berker, the chairman of the subcommittee, at the unveiling ceremony on 9 March 1990.
However, two other claims were made – South African Frederick Brownell claimed that he had designed the flag in his role as South African State Herald. The other claimant was Briton Roy Allen, who claimed that the flag design was the result of a competition run by Hannes Smith of the Windhoek Observer, and that he had won.
The colours of the Namibian flag are described in the Government Gazette. This document also details construction of the Presidential flag. The tone or specific shade for white has not been specified.
| Color model | Blue | Yellow (gold) | Green | Red |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pantone | 294 C | 116 C | 347 C | 186 C |
| Coates SP | 5 809 | 1 802 | 65 | 35 |
| RGB[5] | 0, 47, 108 (#002F6C) | 255, 205, 0 (#FFCD00) | 0, 154, 68 (#009A44) | 200, 16, 46 (#C8102E) |
Symbolism
The chairman explained the symbolism of the flag’s colours as follows:
- Red – represents Namibia’s most important resource, its people. It refers to their heroism and their determination to build a future of equal opportunity for all.
- White – represents peace, unity, tranquility, and harmony.
- Green – symbolises vegetation and agricultural resources.
- Blue – represents the clear Namibian sky and the Atlantic Ocean, the country’s precious water resources and rain.
- Golden-yellow sun – life and energy
Description
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Dimensions of the flag.
The flag has a white-edged red diagonal band radiating diagonally from the lower hoist-side corner. The upper triangle is blue with a gold sun with 12 triangular rays and the lower triangle is green.
In Blazon: Tierced per bend sinister Azure, and Vert, a bend sinister Gules fimbriated Argent and in dexter chief a Sun with twelve straight rays Or charged with an annulet Azure.
References
- ^ Kangootui, Herman; Amagola, Elizabeth (14 June 2018). “The Namibian flag: Its origins and spirit that inspire the nation”. New Era. Archived from the original on 30 June 2018.
- ^ Jump up to:a b (reported by) FG Brownell (December 1990), Coats of Arms and Flags in Namibia (A series of 8 articles.)
- ^ Schütz, Helge (23 October 2015). “Allen from Plymouth … The man who designed the Namibian flag”. The Namibian.
- ^ “Government Gazette of the Republic of Namibia, No. 6807” (PDF). Government of the Republic of Namibia.
- ^ Find a PANTONE color. Pantone LLC. Pantone Color Picker [Retrieved 10 January 2020].
