At its best, flags can be powerful symbols. Flags can represent pride, hope, resilience, history, and the future. At the worst, they are symbols of hate and can incite fear and trigger trauma. Regardless of the use, like language and culture, flags are a vital aspect to any group of people’s identity. Given the history of Black people in United States—ascending from chattel slavery to free American citizens—the journey to establishing an identity for ourselves has been laborious. As the Black identity is constantly changing, the icons that represent us have too.

Here is the growing list of flags that have sewn the Black experience into the fabric of American history:

01

Pan-African flag — 1920

Created by Marcus Garvey in 1920, the Pan-African flag is known to be the first flag for Black Americans. The Jamaican political activist and founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League created the flag to combat racism. It was in response to a hit song called “Every Race Has a Flag but the Coon,” which mocked and stereotyped African Americans. In 1927, Negro World published a 1921 speech from Garvey, stating, “Show me the race or the nation without a flag, and I will show you a race of people without any pride. Aye! In song and mimicry, they have said, ‘Every race has a flag but the coon.’ How true! Aye! But that was said of us four years ago. They can’t say it now.” In 1921, the UNIA published the colors of the flags meaning: Red is the color of the blood which men must shed for their redemption and liberty; black is the color of the noble and distinguished race to which we belong; green is the color of the luxuriant vegetation of our Motherland. The Pan-African flag extends beyond the Black American experience as the colors would appear in newly liberated nations like Saint Kitts and Nevis, Kenya, South Sudan, Libya, Angola, Biafra, and Malawi.

02

Black Panther Party flag — 1966

In 1966, comrades Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in Oakland, California. That same year, Newton and Seale met SNCC leader Stokely Carmichael, who championed the call for “Black Power” at a conference. At the time, Carmichael was promoting the armed organizing efforts of the Lowndes County Freedom Organization (LCFO). The LCFO’s logo was black panther. According to Red Wedge magazine, Lowndes County had extremely conservative right-wing politics fueled by white racists. Due to high illiteracy rates, the white racists of Lowndes were able to go to court to get a symbol of a rooster put on the ballot so illiterate whites would know how to vote for without even being able to read or write. Black people in the town did the same thing; they chose a local varsity mascot of a black panther. Newton and Seale adopted the black panther from Carmichael. However, the panther from Lowndes was too fat for the duo. Newton and Seale asked one of their early recruits, a student-artist, Emory Douglas to redraw the Panther symbol smaller to reflect that the party was about serving the underserved and undernourished.

03

Black American Heritage Flag — 1967

Melvin Charles and Gleason T. Jackson designed the Black American Heritage Flag in Newark, New Jersey. The inspiration was purely birthed out of a lack of representation during parades and not identifying with the American flag. Charles told PBS, that the gold blunted sword invoked pride and the fig wreath symbolized peace, prosperity, and everlasting life. Following the UNIA, the red represents the bloodshed of Black people, and the black represented the pride in black pigmentation.

04

Juneteenth Flag — 1977

With the assistance of illustrator Lisa Jeanna, the Juneteenth flag was created in 1977 by activist Ben Haith, founder of the National Juneteenth Celebration foundation. The red, white, and blue color scheme is a direct homage to both the American flag and the Texas (Lone Star State) flag. Split between a blue and a red stripe, the two colors are meant to replicate a horizon. Blue above and the red is symbolic of the ground soaked with blood; the blood which was shed by the African American slaves for the United States. The white five-pointed star inside of a 12-point star, represents a nova, to symbolize the birth of a new star. The new star symbolizes a new beginning for the newly freed African Americans. The flag was updated in 2007 by Haith to include the date, June 19, 1865, marking the last of the enslaved to be freed.

05

13 Stripes — 1989

Little can be found about this flag. However, it did appear in Louis Cameron’s “The African American Flag Project.” The 2009 exhibit was a suite of paintings of African American flags with the purpose to explore the dialogue of symbolic representation within the African American community. According to an online archival catalogue, the 13 stripes flag was developed in 1989 in South Central L.A. It is believed to be a private venture. One could argue that the 13 stripes represent either the original colonies of America, or the 13th amendment which abolished slavery. Much of the red, black, and greens colors are universal with the Pan-African ideology. The yellow or gold stripes might represent the richness of Black people, or the gold from African mines.

06

David Hammons’ African-American Flag — 1990

David Hammons African American flag was first created for the art exhibition “Black USA” at an Amsterdam museum in 1990. The flag is exactly what one would think of for the Black version of the American flag. Smithsonian magazine reported Hammons: “Marcus Garvey designed the African American flag, which looked like the Italian flag except that it is red, black, and green. But it is so abstract, so pure, that the masses were frightened by it. I made my flag because I felt that they needed one like the U.S. flag but with black stars instead of white ones.” Hammons seamlessly captures the double consciousness of the Black identity within an American experience. His rendition of the American flag caused great controversy. Just the year prior, Congress passed the Flag Protection Act, authorizing penalties to those that desecrated the flag. But, by 1990, the Supreme Court ruled that the Flag Protection Act was unconstitutional, as it violated free speech rights.

07

The Harvey African-American Flag — 1991

David and Tonya Harvey created a flag in 1991 to represent the African-American population as a whole, but not connected to any political movement. The idea sparked during a banquet while attendees sang the Negro National Anthem. The couple noticed everyone’s eyes were adverted everywhere because there was a lack of a focal point. They developed the African-American Flag. The red, white, and blue, stripes at the top and bottom border, represents African-American’s contributions to America. While Black people’s history on American soil is traumatic, there is an undeniable connection to this country. There are green, yellow, and black stripes on the side borders, the abundant life in Africa; the riches of Africa; and of course, the regality of African skin. The purple base of the flag represents the regal history of African-Americans. The eight-pointed black star in the center of the flag represents the eight letters in the word Africans—which is an acronym: Aspirations, Family, Righteousness, Individuality, Community, Ability, Nobility, and Scholarship. Outside of the black eight-pointed star, are four yellow diamond shapes, meant to symbolize flashes of light, for perseverance, love, knowledge, and spirituality. Harvey’s widow told Morgan Magazine in 2002, “He wanted the flag to help pull African Americans together…and to remind us that each one of us can succeed and do well.”

08

NuSouth — 1993

In the same vein of reappropriating negativity to reclaim power, in 1993, a Charleston, South Carolina clothing company, called NuSouth Apparel, remixed the confederate flag. Founders Angel Quintero and Sherman Evans plotted a marketing scheme for a local hip-hop group, DaPhlayva, to push Southern rap identity to the forefront amidst the brewing coastal beef between the East and the West. Much like Hammons’ African-American flag, the NuSouth flag pulled from Garvey’s Pan-African color scheme. The NuSouth presented three different variations of the confederate flag, one with a red background, another in black, and a third with green. Each of which also alternated the colors for the stars and bars. Controversy propelled the brand forward when a teenaged Black girl was suspended for wearing a NuSouth shirt to school. The principal said it was the wrong colors. The flag quickly became a symbol of rebellion in the ’90s—it can be seen in footage from the Million Man March on Washington, D.C. in 1995. The duo even went as far as proposing that the South Carolina State House replace the Confederate flag with the NuSouth flag. The NuSouth brand went under in 2003. However, the two can still be found curate the brand’s history on social media. In 2020, Evans addressed the usage of polarizing imagery stating, “There is a lot of fear in something that is so liberating and free… People say they want freedom but what does that look like?”

09

African-American Flag House Flag — 1995

The African American Flag House created their flag between 1993 and 1994 in Charleston, South Carolina. According to the archived website, the Foundation hoped that the flag would become “a positive and unifying symbol that would represents the enormous historical investment of African Americans.” The First Star announces that all humankind was born out of the womb of Africa. The Second Star informs with pride that the African gave rise to the first civilizations and kingdoms of the world. The Third Star depicts the cruel abduction of Africans from their original roots. The Fourth Star vows that African Americans will never forget the holocaust of the Middle passage and the millions of Africans who suffered and died during the terrible crossing.
The Fifth Star recalls the unholy bondage of African Americans prior to the abolishment of slavery in America. The Sixth Star praises all those African Americans who defied and rebelled against injustice and genocide in America. The Seventh Star is a memorial to African Americans who have silently or aggressively defended and preserved the Constitution of the United States of America. The Eighth Star recognizes the strength of the African American family and its inner spiritual belief in universal brotherhood. The Ninth Star is a testament to the strength and tenacity of African Americans to emerge victorious despite any adversity or challenge. The Tenth Star honors African Americans for their accomplishments in making the American dream a reality. The Eleventh Star calls for African Americans to probe their history and to celebrate their culture and heritage. The Twelfth Star signifies the achievements of African Americans through hard work, scholarship, and determination. The Thirteenth Star is the symbol of Pan African unity. The Fourteenth Star leads African Americans into the future with honor, truth, and the dream of a greater tomorrow. The Green Stripes remind us of our living earth and the roots of all humanity buried deep in African soil. The Yellow Stripes symbolize the moral excellence and spiritual wealth of African Americans as they interact with all diverse cultures of America. The Black Stripes underscore African American families and their significant economic, spiritual, social, and political contributions to America. The White Stripes warn African Americans to be constantly vigilant of forces that call for death of freedom and the surrender of rights guaranteed to all by the Constitution of the United States of America. The Blue Stripes illustrate lofty skies that will always extend a bridge between African Americans and Africa. The Red Stripes tell of the passionate and soulful fire within the hearts of African Americans and that their blood shed in defense of freedom shall not be in vain.

10

African-American Flag of Inclusion — 1999

In 1999, the “African American Flag of Inclusion” was designed by Cecil W. Lee, a New York-based painter, photographer, and digital artist. He presented it at a one-man art show at Gallery X in Harlem. Lee’s rendition of the flag is a fusion of the American flag and Garvey’s Pan-African flag. By replacing the top seven stripes of the United States national flag with the Black Liberation flag pattern, Lee intended to represent “all African Americans regardless of their individual beliefs or political affiliations.” Per Lee’s website, he suggests, the elements of the African American Flag of Inclusion stand for: red is for life/blood, family, vitality & oneness, black is for the people, strength, depth, and influence. Green, represents earth, evolution, growth, and progress, while the stars and stripes represent equality and unification.

11

Black American Flag — 2003

This flag dates to as early as 2003. Proposed as the flag for African Americans or Black Americans population. The base of the flag is Black, meant to symbolize two aspects of the Black identity: the backbone of the history in America, rooted in slavery and unity toward social change. The lone white star in the top left corner is the North Star. While the North Star navigated our enslaved ancestors out of slavery, it can also guide Black Americans toward a better future.

12

Foundational Black Flag — 2020

Popularized online by controversial media personality, Tariq Nasheed, Foundational Black Americans are descendants of Black slaves who built the United States from the bottom. The movement is considered divisive for it’s anti-Pan-African sentiments. According to the website, FBAs believe that the origins and history of Black people in America did not begin at the start the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in the early 1600s. Instead, they propose that FBAs settled in North America in 1526, when they were allegedly brought over from the Caribbean by a “colonizer” named Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón. FBAs have two flags. The first of which is a maroon flag with a gold emblem of two axes and a torch underneath five gold stars. The maroon color is a nod to the Maroon Africans, or Africans in American who formed settlements away from slavery—they are often mixed with Indigenous people. The torch and axes represent the weapons used to fight for freedom. The five stars represent the states where many maroon societies were established: Virginia, North/South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana.

13

Foundational Black American flag — 2020

The second flag, possess the American color scheme, a nod to Grace Wisher, the free African American woman, who was indentured as a child to the famous Star-Spangled Banner flag seamstress, Mary Pickersgill. The three white stars represent the three ethnic groups that make up Foundational Black Americans: Black aboriginal people of North America, Black explorers and traders who explored the Americas before Columbus, and the captives brought to the Western Hemisphere from Africa. The center is the Black power fist from the 1960s. The red and blue olive branches represent the unity amongst Black aboriginals and Black enslaved people. The nine red pillars symbolize the significant slave rebellions, one of which is commonly hidden, hence why one of the red bars is behind the fist.

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Adebayo Obajemu

The past one decade has been a mixed grill for lovers of literature and the arts on the African continent.

It has been a period that has witnessed a flowering of new talents, but also tragically a decade that has seen the passing on of giants of our culture and literature, icons that have made Africa proud .

Each of the departed literary greats in the last one decade has enriched through their writings our literary heritage, and contributed in their own way towards building African literary culture as we know it today.

Their passing though painful, but we are consoled by the fact that they have entered the pantheon of immortality.

And as Famished Road writer, Ben Okri writes: “The real literature of a people begins with the passing of writers into the realm of ancestors. Literature begins with the dead.”

Biyi Bandele Thomas belongs in the generation of writers following Ben Okri’s, the emergent writers of the 90’s who began to bloom and flowered enriching our literary repertoire.

Bandele cut his novelistic and dramatic teeth at the then University of Ife, where he had the privilege of being coached by avant-garde such as Biodun Jeyifo and others, and in 1989 he won the prestigious BBC writing competition.

He had forged an affinity and lifelong attraction to the theatre working with the Royal Court Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, in addition to writing radio drama and screenplays for television. Among his rich repertoire are: Rain; Marching for Fausa (1993); Resurrections in the Season of the Longest Drought (1994); Two Horsemen (1994), which had the honour of a selection as Best New Play at the 1994 London New Plays Festival; Death Catches the Hunter and Me and the Boys (published in one volume, 1995); and Oroonoko, an adaptation of Aphra Behn’s 17th-century novel of the same name.

In 1997, Bandele undertook an an ambitious project which turned out a success, the highly acclaimed dramatization of Chinua Achebe’s classic, Things Fall Apart. Brixton Stories, Bandele’s stage adaptation of his own novel The Street (1999), premiered in 2001 and was published in one volume with his play Happy Birthday Mister Deka, which premiered in 1999. He also adapted Lorca’s Yerma in 2001.

He was a writer-in-residence with Talawa Theatre Company from 1994 to 1995, resident dramatist with the Royal National Theatre Studio (1996), the Judith E. Wilson Fellow at Churchill College, University of Cambridge, in 2000–01.

He also acted as Royal Literary Fund Resident Playwright at the Bush Theatre from 2002 to 2003.

Talking about influences in one of his interviews, he mentioned the impact of John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger on him.

Among his prose endeavors are: The Man Who Came in from the Back of Beyond (1991) and The Street (1999), which have been described as “rewarding reading, capable of wild surrealism and wit as well as political engagement.”.His 2007 novel, Burma Boy, reviewed in The Independent by Tony Gould, was called “a fine achievement” and lauded for providing a voice for previously unheard Africans.

His directorial debut film, Half of a Yellow Sun – based on the 2006 novel of the same name by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – was screened in the Special Presentation section at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, and received a “rapturous reception”. His passing is yet another sad blow to African writing.
But then, in the last one decade, the continent has tragically travelled the tortuous road of loss and despair.

Ferdinand Oyono started the round of losses in 2010 when he died . The popular author of House Boy was one of Cameroon’s greatest diplomats. He once served as the country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Culture. His first novel, Une vie de boy was published in 1956 and translated as Houseboy by John Reed for the Heinemann African Writers Series in 1966.
2010.

Lewis Nkosi was a great South African author whose works were under censor and total ban under South Africa’s Suppression of Communism Act. He was the first black South African to receive Harvard’s Nieman Fellowship and spent 30 years in exile abroad. His novel Mating Birds (1983), which examines an interracial affair, is perhaps his most notable work. His Home and Exile is an influential work.His most popular play The Rythm of Violence is a powerful indictment of the evil of apartheid. He died in 2010.

In 2011, the African writing lost Kenyan writer,Margaret Ogola, whose first novel, The River and the Source, won The Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book, Africa region, in 1995. Get this: she was also a pediatrician and the medical director of a hospice for HIV and AIDS orphans! Google honored her with a Google Doodle on her 60th birthday.

Does Chinua Achebe really need an introduction? No! The doyen of African literature departed this planet earth in 2013 to commune with the ancestors. He will be remembered for a number of earth-shaking works like Things Fall Apart, Arrows of God and others. Arguably the most famous African author.

In 2014 we lost Kofi Awoonor to the madness of terror when he was tragically killed in the Westgate shopping mall attack in Kenya.

He was a Ghanian poet, novelist, and scholar whose works include translations of Ewe dirge singers. He was imprisoned in 1975 on the suspicion of being involved in a coup, but released in 1976. He served as Ghana’s ambassador to Brazil and Cuba. He was one of Africa’s greatest poets and dramatists.

Mbulelo Mzamane was a South African author, poet, and academic who, like many anti-apartheid activists, spent a fair amount of time in exile. Among his awards are the African Literature Association’s Lifetime Award and the Mofolo-Plomer Prize for Literature. Nelson Mandela called him a “visionary leader and one of South Africa’s greatest intellectuals.” He died in 2014.

Nadine Gordimer was a white South African writer who won Nobel Literature Prize. Like most writers critical of apartheid, her works were also once banned by the South African government. In interviews, she admitted that she never intended to be a writer whose works are considered political, but she came to realize that South African society didn’t allow for apolitical writing.

Chris van Wyk , a South African novelist, poet, and children’s books author died in 2014. He’s most widely known for his poem “In Detention,” a poem which satirizes the bizarre reasons provided by the apartheid government for the deaths of political prisoners. His poetry collection It’s Time to Go Home (1979) won the Olive Schreiner Prize.

In 2015, André Brink, the South African author also died .He began writing in Afrikaans but turned to English when his works became censored by the South African government. He was part of Die Sestigers (“the Sixtyers”), a literary group that aimed to revolutionize Afrikaans literature. His novel A Dry White Season (1979) was adapted into a film starring Marlon Brando.

Also died in 2015 was Grace Ogot , a Kenyan author who was a nurse by profession and who later became a member of Kenya’s National Assembly. She was the first woman whose fiction was published by the East African Publishing House and her numerous short stories offer insight into traditional Luo life and its conflict with colonialism and modernity.

Chenjerai Hove was a Zimbabwean novelist, poet, and essayist whose works shone light on the lives of his fellow citizens under colonialism and Robert Mugabe’s rule. Surveilled and harassed under Mugabe’s rule, Hove left Zimbabwe for exile in Norway in 2001, where he remained until his death in 2015.

Elechi Amadi was a Nigerian playwright and novelist renowned for his historical trilogy about traditional life in the villages: The Concubine (1966), The Great Ponds (1969), and The Slave (1978). His only nonfiction work, Sunset in Biafra (1973), recounts his experiences as a soldier and civilian during the Biafran War.He joined his ancestors in 2016.

Isidore Okpewho was a Nigerian author and critic whose works won him the 1976 African Arts Prize for Literature and the 1993 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book (Africa Region). His scholarly work on African oral literature garnered him, among others, a Guggenheim Fellowship. Tragically we lost him in 2016.

Peter Abrahams was a South African journalist and author whose writings addressed the intricacies of racial politics and the injustices of apartheid. In the introduction to his memoir, The Black Experience in the 20th Century: An Autobiography and Meditation (2001), Nadine Gordimer declared him “a writer of the world, who opened up in his natal country, South Africa, a path of exploration for us, the writers who have followed the trail he bravely blazed.” This pioneering writer who authored the famous Mine Boy died in
2017.

Buchi Emecheta really needs no introduction. She is one of Africa’s most popular female writers. She wrote The Slave Girl and the Joy of Motherhood among others. She died in 2019.

Miriam Tlali was the first black South African woman to publish a novel in English in South Africa itself in 1975. Originally titled Muriel at Metropolitan and reissued in 2004 under the title Between Two Worlds, the novel depicts daily life under apartheid, particularly how it hinders black women’s employment opportunities. For her writing, Tlali was persecuted by the apartheid government and brutally beaten at her home in Soweto several times, but she bravely refused exile. Her death was a big loss to African writing.

Abiola Irele was a Nigerian scholar perhaps best known for his work on the concept of Négritude. His books include The African Experience in Literature and Ideology (1990) and The African Imagination: Literature in Africa and the Black Diaspora (2011). Upon his death, Wole Soyinka wrote a poem titled “Olohun-Iyo” as a tribute to him. He was widely considered the doyen of African literary criticism, and his influence on African writing is often compared to that of Northrop Frye in European literature. Tragically we lost him in 2017.

Between 2010 and Bandele’s death in 2022, there are other eminent writers that left us for the great beyond.

Keorapetse Kgositsile was a South African poet and essayist whose writing explored the idea of Pan-African liberation. His verse distinctively combines South African and Black American structural and rhetorical traditions. He was named South Africa’s poet laureate in 2006. 2018.

Ahmed Khaled Tawfik was one of the few Egyptian authors to publish extensively in science fiction, fantasy, and horror. A doctor by profession, Tawfik once said that “[his] English was not good enough to read horror literature, so [he] started writing it [himself].” He has published over 100 books. He died in 2018.

David Rubadiri who died in 2018 was a widely-anthologized poet and diplomat who served as Malawi’s first ambassador to the US and the UN. He left government service in 1965 following disagreements with then-president Hastings Banda and subsequently taught at Makerere University, the University of Nairobi, and the University of Ibadan.

Seydou Badian Kouyaté was a Malian politician and writer who composed the lyrics for Mali’s national anthem. He won the 1965 Grand prix littéraire d’Afrique noire for his book, Les dirigeants africains face à leur peuple. He was exiled to Senegal following the 1968 coup. He left the world in 2018.

Charles Mungoshi was a Zimbabwean author who wrote novels and
short stories about colonial and post-colonial struggles in both Shona and English. His works have won him the Noma Award, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and International PEN Awards. He also left in 2019.

Pius Adesanmi was a Nigerian scholar and columnist whose satirical writings for Premium Times and Sahara Reporters took for their target various aspects of Nigerian society and politics. His works include a poetry collection and several essay collections. He was, unfortunately, a victim of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash.

Bernard Dadié was an Ivorian poet, dramatist, and novelist whose works explored African oral traditions. He was the founder of the National Drama Studio in Côte d’Ivoire and served as the country’s Minister of Culture between 1977 to 1986. In case you didn’t notice from the dates above, he lived till the grand old age of 103! In 2019.

Gabriel Okara who died in 2017 was a Nigerian poet and novelist often dubbed the “first Modernist poet of Anglophone Africa.” He is perhaps best known for his novel The Voice (1964), which distinctively imposes Ijo syntax onto English. He was also the director of Rivers State Publishing House in Port Harcourt from 1972 to 1980.

Binyavanga Wainaina was Zimbabwean Caine Prize winner. A TIME 100 Most Influential Person and founding editor of Kwani?. He was the author of “How To Write About Africa.” He was an avid champion of gay rights. He left us in 2019.

Molara Ogundipe who died in 2019 was a Nigerian poet, critic, and editor perhaps best known for the concept “Stiwanism” (Social Transformation in Africa Including Women) which refers to, among other ideas, a resistance of Western feminism and the foregrounding of an indigenous feminism that has always already existed in Africa.

Tejumola Olaniyan was a Nigerian academic who held the position of Louise Durham Mead Professor of English and Wole Soyinka Professor of the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His books includeTaking African Cartoons Seriously: Politics, Satire, and Culture (2018) and Arrest the Music!: Fela and His Rebel Art and Politics (2004). He left us in 2019.

Harry Garuba who breathed his last in 2020 was a Nigerian poet and professor who served as the Director of African Studies, among other positions, at the University of Cape Town. His books include the poetry collections Shadow and Dream & Other Poems (1982) and Animist Chants and Memorials (2017) and the academic monograph Mask and Meaning in Black Drama: Africa and the Diaspora (1988).

Elsa Joubert was a South African author who was also a member of “Die Sestigers” and was known for her anti-apartheid novels. Her novel, The Long Journey of Poppie Nongena (1978) was adapted into a film in 2019. She passed away from Covid-19-related complications.

John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo, more popularly known as J.P. Clark, was a renowned poet, playwright, and professor. His work focused on themes such as insitutional corruption, violence, and colonialism, and he was also an outspoken activist for the rights of the Ijaw ethnic group. He received the Nigerian National Order of Merit Award for literary excellence in 1991. He was the third leg of the quartet of Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe, all archetypal figures in African writing.

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