I'm in Uganda right now. Whenever I go to a new country,
I research the history of the flag. But when that turned into the rabbit hole
of researching all African flags, it brought me straight back to elementary school and the trouble
I had in memorizing all of them. Why do so many African flags
have the same colors? For the answer,
we have to look at history. What was the situation before all this? Colonialism. European powers had carved up the whole
of Africa in a matter of decades, and the flag design
was decided by the colonial powers. They want to show owns the place. The British are in love
with their union Jack. So that really dominates the flags
they put up there. You have this tiny little part
reserved for a symbol of the place they are occupying. Mostly
something to do with nature or animals. The French are actually more subtle
with their flag design than the British? But wait, I was in Uganda. So what about the Ugandan flag? It looks different, and I don't really
know why, but I'm going to find one. And I'm going to show you. Let’s
find some flags. Yeah, let's do it. We're on the hunt the whole day. Finding flags. Come on. Finding flags. Finding flags. Koen what are we eating. Rolex. And what's a Rolex? You think it's a luxury watch,
but actually, it's a luxury pancake. A rolls egg. Oh, nom nom Eat it. I heard that
some people don't put up flags because they don't like the government. It seems that we can't find it for now. So let's get back to the story. So you have all of these colonial flags. But if you look at the map of Africa
and you look closely, there's one place isn't part of any major
colonial empire. There was a place that held back
the might of the European advance, a place people called Abyssinia,
and that we now know by the name of Ethiopia. Ethiopian kingdoms have been independent
for centuries. They're even the second nation
ever to adopt Christianity. And so when the Italians come in, they're
like, We're going to conquer you now. The Ethiopians are like, Well, maybe not. They rallied
and soundly defeated the Italians. And they did this on their sort of banner
with three colors red, yellow and green. Sometimes after the battle, they made this
banner in a European style flag. And this is a big deal. An African nation, inferior
in the eyes of the West, decidedly defeats
a European power in open combat. Europeans had been defeated before. Sure, but not been held off for good. It immediately put Ethiopia on the map. The country became an icon in Africa,
where all of these people are dominated by colonial powers, but
also for black people around the world. Ethiopia showed a potential future
of Africa not dominated by white people. It even influenced an ideology
on the other side of the ocean. An ideology called Pan-Africanism. Pan-Africanism will have a big influence
on the flags of independent African countries. Black Americans develop the idea that all people of African descent
have a common history and future. They believe that Africa should be free of colonial
suppression, that Africa should be united. Africa should be for the Africans. So if you look for a flag of this
movement, Ethiopia is that obvious choice. Right. But this is Americas Pan African flag. It's red, green and black. So what happened here? Enter Marcus Garvey. This is a black rights
activist, visionary and prophet. This is not a nice time in America. It's a time of racism.
It's a time of segregation. It's a time of lynching. And while a lot of people are trying
to get better rights for black people. Garvey just doesn't believe
black people have a future in the U.S.. He thinks they will be forever
discriminated against. You kind of see where he's coming from. And he actually wants to start a new
nation in Africa for black Americans. And to make it happen
he starts his own initiative. Citizens of Africa. I greet you in the name of the Universal
Negro Association. It's really popular. At the peak it has 2 million followers. And Garvey puts his idea in practice. He starts a shipping company,
the Black Star Line. And this will take black
Americans to Africa. But he has a problem. It's all fine
that black people have a common destiny. But they don't really have a symbol
to rally behind. This is even something that is made
fun of by racists of the time. You even have a song that is called
The Only Race Without a Flag is the Cppm. And Garvey thinks, you know what. You’re right. And so he designs this flag of black,
red and green. There are different theories about what
Garvey thought the flag stood for, but nowadays,
people say that the red stands for blood spilled to protect Africa,
the green for the continent and the black for its people in Africa
and also outside of Africa. Garvey's flag is still
a very powerful symbol in America today. So now we have two flags
that show Pan-Africanism. You have Ethiopia's flag
and you have Garvey's flag. That gives countries that believe in
Pan-Africanism something to choose from. And there are a lot of countries
about to gain independence, including the new nation of Uganda. But wait did we already find the flag? We're driving 20 minutes
and still not a flag in sight. I still wanna win. So I keep searching. Let’s go Koen road rage. I’ve been looking all around no flags. You look very active. Yeah. Yeah. So Eline know what happened here? Yeah, well, we didn't see any flags. How come? There are no flags in Uganda? Okay, so after the Second World War,
we have a time of decolonization. It's the crumbling of the big European
colonial empires. First, it happens in Asia,
but soon in Africa as well. And you have millions of people that
become part of new independent nations. You can really see that in the membership
of the United Nations. In 1945, there are 51 member states. Fast forward 20 years
and this ballooned to 117 countries. And a lot of these countries
come from Africa. So all these countries gain independence. But what will they choose as their flag? At long last. The battle has ended. Ghana is one of the first countries
to gain independence, and its president is influenced
by the ideas of Pan-Africanism. He even met Garvey in America. So it's clear cut right? Garveys flag. In the end,
the president doesn't design the flag. A young girl
taking part in a competition did. This girl turned to the great example
of the continent, Ethiopia. In Ghana's flag, you have the green
that stands for the fertility of Africa, the red, the struggle for independence
and goals for mineral wealth. But Garvey's influence is still there. You see the star? Well, she added the black star
for the people of Ghana. It's also a nod to the Black Star line. A flag is the soul of every country. You can’t stand without a flag, otherwise people will not notice
that this is this country or the other. Ghana really sets the scene
and a lot of countries follow it. Nations like Guinea, Mali and Cameroon,
and even some countries that have changed their flag by now or exist in a different way,
such as Rwanda, Zaire and Tanzania. Overall, Garvey's flag is a bit
less influential than Ethiopia's, but you can still see it in Kenya, Malawi
and some flags that don't exist anymore. Like the short lived state of Biafra,
but also really new ones like South Sudan. What I personally find so interesting
is that if you look at all these flags,
it shows you the history of the continent. It shows so many stories. In North Africa the green is about Islam. The red is from the long gone
Ottoman Empire. And in other parts
you see the influence of communism. Like, for instance, Angola's flag,
which has a design inspired by the Hammer and sickle. So how does the Ugandan flag
fit in all this? Turns out it's actually really hard
to find a Ugandan flag in Kampala. This is why I'm sitting on the ground here
next to a car, because you can find a flag on number
plates. You have three rows of three black,
yellow and red. The bird is actually a holdover
from colonial times. There were so many cultures,
kingdoms and languages in Uganda that the British needed something neutral
and they came up with the crested crane, which is now
the national symbol of Uganda. And the colors, these were actually
just from the ruling party that was in power
when Uganda got independence. Might as well use
just our own flag for the entire nation. I guess. Where the ruling party
got their inspiration from. That's I couldn't really find out. It's probable that the UPC was inspired
by Pan-Africanism. Maybe they use part of Garvey's flag
and part of the Ethiopian flag. I really don't know that for certain,
though. Flags can have a very big impact. For better or for worse. But I think in this case, they show how
a flag can inspire nationhood in states that in many instances where jumble
of different people and customs. And I think that's pretty cool looking
through the origin stories of these flags. I had to go through a lot of different
explanations and compare sources. As a historian,
that's what you're trying to do. Who is the author? Why did you write this? And what are her biases for the past? That's hard enough,
but it's even harder for current events. There are so many different media outlets
covering stories that have some misinformation, bias,
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