The flag of the Central African Republic was adopted on December 1, 1958. It was designed by Barthélemy Boganda, the first president of the autonomous territory of Oubangui-Chari, who believed that "France and Africa must march together." Thus he combined the blue, white and red of the French tricolour and the Pan-African colors red, green and yellow.
According to its official description, red symbolizes the blood of the people of the nation, the blood that was spilt in order to bring it independence, and the blood that they would spill to protect their nation. Blue represents the sky and freedom. White represents peace, and dignity. Green represents hope, and faith. Yellow represents tolerance.
From 1976 to 1979, during the existence of the Central African Empire, an imperial standard was designed for Emperor Bokassa I's personal use. The standard was light green in color, with a gold-colored eagle in the centre superimposed over a 20-pointed gold star, inspired by the eagle on the imperial standard of Napoleon I. The nation's national flag, however, remained unchanged.
Read more about Flag Of The Central African Republic: Former Flags
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“Swift blazing flag of the regiment,
Eagle with crest of red and gold,
These men were born to drill and die.
Point for them the virtue of slaughter,
Make plain to them the excellence of killing
And a field where a thousand corpses lie.”
—Stephen Crane (1871–1900)
“Swift blazing flag of the regiment,
Eagle with crest of red and gold,
These men were born to drill and die.
Point for them the virtue of slaughter,
Make plain to them the excellence of killing
And a field where a thousand corpses lie.”
—Stephen Crane (1871–1900)
“Columbus stood in his age as the pioneer of progress and enlightenment. The system of universal education is in our age the most prominent and salutary feature of the spirit of enlightenment, and it is peculiarly appropriate that the schools be made by the people the center of the day’s demonstration. Let the national flag float over every schoolhouse in the country and the exercises be such as shall impress upon our youth the patriotic duties of American citizenship.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)
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—Jacques Barzun (b. 1907)
“The sacrifice to Legba was completed; the Master of the Crossroads had taken the loas’ mysterious routes back to his native Guinea.
Meanwhile, the feast continued. The peasants were forgetting their misery: dance and alcohol numbed them, carrying away their shipwrecked conscience in the unreal and shady regions where the savage madness of the African gods lay waiting.”
—Jacques Roumain (1907–1945)
“While the Republic has already acquired a history world-wide, America is still unsettled and unexplored. Like the English in New Holland, we live only on the shores of a continent even yet, and hardly know where the rivers come from which float our navy.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)