Flags of the World #19: Benin!
Hello fellow Steemians and welcome to my review of the Beninese flag! This is the 19th flag that I will be covering in my series to cover most of the flags of the world! Benin is a sub-Saharan country located to the west of Africa and it has a weird shape as a consequence of the colonization era and the weird shape of the predecesor nation, the Kingdom of Dahomey.
Today's Flag is the Flag of Benin!
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The flag of Benin is interesting, it has a green vertical stripe and two horizontal stripes, one red and the other one yellow. This flag was adopted initially by the Republic of Dahomey in 1959 to replace the French Tricolour after they declared independence, then it was readopted on August 1, 1990 after the communist regime ended and the People's Republic of Benin fell.
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Meanings
The colors of each stripe in the flag of Benin not only have their own meaning but as a whole the colors green, yellow and red represent the colors of the pan-African movement, most colors have 2 meanings, a national meaning and a continental meaning.
The yellow and green nationally represent the savannas to the north and the palm groves located at the south.
The red nationally represent the blood shed by the warriors of the Kingdom and Republic of Benin.
On a continental level, as mentioned before the 3 colors represent the Pan-Africanist movement, these colors where used by the African Democratic Rally, a political party that represented French West Africa on the times of decolonization in the French National Assembly.
The colors come originally from the Flag of Ethiopia and the Flag of Liberia, the only two countries to never be colonized by the European powers during the Scramble for Africa that started with the Berlin Conference in 1884.
Coat of Arms of Benin
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The coat of arms of Benin has a lot to show off! on the bottom you have the motto of the country "Fraternité, Justice, Travail" which means"Brotherhood, Justice, Work" outside on the shield in the middle you have two interesting looking leopards supporting the shield, on top you have two horns filled with corn.
Then there is the shield on the middle inside it you have, on the top left, a representation of Somba Castle, on the top right you have the star of Benin, on the Bottom left: A palm tree and on the bottom right you have a ship representing the arrival of Europeans to Benin.
Other Flags!
This is the flag that used to represent the country while the country was under a communist dictatorship, even though the flag looks pretty simple, its a unique flag because for most communist flags in the world, the main color is red but the main color in this one is green.
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This is the flag of the Kingdom of Dahomey, this Kingdom was conquered by the French after the Berlin conference and it was annexed to the French territories of West Africa.
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Facts
The capital region of Benin used to be referred as the "Slave Coast" since a large number of slaves where shipped from this region to the new world.
The last slave ship departed from the coast of Dahomey (Benin) to Brazil in 1885.
Benin only has 1 post secondary education center that being the University of Benin and it has over 12,000 enrolled students.
Location
Benin is located along the West African coast.
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Thanks for reading this far down! I hope you enjoyed the read! Help me improve by leaving a comment with suggestions and if you liked it please upvote, reesteem and follow me for more in the future! Here's a list of my other posts if you feel like checking them out!
- Our Steem Spirit: Support & Cooperation!
- Patrolling the Mojave Almost Makes You Wish For a Nuclear Winter...
- Flags of the World #18: Belize!
Come hang out with us at the Crypto Empire Community!
I have never heard of Benin before (probably not surprising). Fun facts!
So now it's Democratic? Or "Democratic"?
They have become a relatively stable multiparty democracy, compared to most African countries they are doing pretty good thanks to their close relationship with France.
Really beautiful flag
Drunk and horny leopards harassing the poor coat of arms!!! Now I'm scared of tongues. I would be cool to have a post that explains a little about the Pan-African movement and the flag patterns.
Or even a post about vexillology itself and some analyzing patterns that are not very well known for normal people!
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