Cabinda (Angola)

Cabinda is a province that happens to be an Angolan pene-exclave (three fourths foreign lands, one fourth the sea). It's an area of conflict between Angolan government and secessionists, that believe that, in the terms of the Treaty of Simulambuco and other documents, although de facto administered as part of Angola it was a de jure separate subject to Portuguese republic before Angolan independence.

As far as I know, there isn't a Cabinda flag. Those flags one can find actually pertain to certain to those secessionist movement. So I decided to create a flag that represents Cabinda uniqueness, but as neutral as I could.

My inspiration for this flag is the Monument of Simulambuco, located where the treaty of same name, incorporating Cabinda as a then-Portuguese Crown's protectorate.


The three spears in front of it represent the kingdoms of Kakongo, Loango, and N'Goyo. I incorpotated them in the flag, but in a different way:


The blue color represents the Atlantic Ocean. The design could be mirrored, if one prefer:


I like the visual experiment with the arrows. The result is surely striking.

Comments and suggestions are welcome.
Sorry for the delay, again.

Angola

After my post about Luanda, the capital of Angola, an anonymous commenter asked me about a "less politically loaded" flag for the country.

It's the current flag of the country:


The flag is strongly inspired by the flag of MPLA, the ruling party of Angola since its independence. Red used to stand for socialism, but, in current representation, represents courage and the blood shed; black stands for Africa. The central elements, inspired by the Soviet flag, represent the workers of the country.

An interesting starting point can be the flag that Angola almost adopted last decade:


The red color has the same symbolism of current flag. Blue stands for freedom, justice and solidarity; white, for peace, unity and harmony. The central element is a sun drawn in native art style. I think the sun element is too logo-ish to stand in the national flag.

So, my attempt resulted in the following flag:


The white fimbriations are purposedly big, representing the intended peace and harmony between the people and the parties after the end of the civil war. The blue, from the proposed flag, represent principles (freedom, justice, solidarity) that should be seeked; the red is present in the flag of Angola's three main parties (MPLA, UNITA and FNLA), and stands for the courage, heroism and blood; black stands for the African and Angolan people, and is an additional link for Pan-African colors.

My proposal presents only a tiny similarity to current national flag, and I hope it's acceptable both by likers and dislikers of current one. Its boldness and strong symbolism is, of course, something essential to a successful national flag.

Comments and suggestions are welcome.
The surprise I prepared to this week had to be postoponed to reasons out of my control. I'm sorry.

Luanda (Angola)

Luanda is the capital of Angola. Brazil and Angola, being two parts of Lusophony with shared history, developed a close friendship. Luanda, for example, is friend city of my hometown, São Paulo.

As far as I know, Luanda doesn't have a flag. It acquired a coat of arms while still part of Portuguese Angola, but I couldn't check if it's still used:


This flag showed Our Lady of the Assumption in a blue field, and St. Paul in a red field. Those were the patron saints of Luanda, and its full name was "St. Paul of Assumption of Luanda".

Inspired by the coat of arms, I designed the following flag:


The symbol in the middle of the flag is a stylized cowry, formerly used as currency in many parts of Africa and the world. It represents the shell money extracted in the island of Luanda, but also the wealth of the city and its African roots; it's also related to one of probable origins of city's name.

Comments are welcome.
I have exciting news for next week. Wait!