Angola

The national flag of Angola is a horizontal bicolour of red and black, charged in the center with a yellow emblem consisting of a machete crossed by a half-cogwheel and crowned with a five-pointed star. It was adopted on 11 November 1975, when Angola became independent from Portugal following the thirteen-year Angolan War of Independence. The original meanings of the flag's colours and symbols accordingly referenced the war and colonial period, but they have since been reinterpreted to represent the Angolan people and society more broadly.

Annex I of the Angolan constitution outlines the design of the flag and gives its colours and symbols significance. The flag is a horizontal bicolour consisting of a red upper band and a black lower band. Black represents Africa, while red represents the blood shed by Angolans during the colonial period, the war of independence and in defence of the country. The flag is charged in the center with a machete crossed by a half-cogwheel and crowned with a five-pointed star. The machete represents peasants, agriculture, and the war of independence; the half-cogwheel represents workers and industry; and the star represents international solidarity and progress. The charge is yellow, which symbolises the wealth of Angola. In the original constitution of 1975, "defence of the country" was "revolution", and "international solidarity" was "internationalism". American vexillologist Whitney Smith notes that the Angolan flag's charge is similar to the star, hammer and sickle of the Soviet flag. Parameters in which the flag should be constructed are specified in section 2.1 of the Angolan government's manual of graphic and protocol standards for national symbols. The position and size of the…