Last modified: 2001-09-22 by rob raeside
Keywords: union of african states | stars: 2 | stars: 3 | star: 5 points (black) | ghana-guinea union |
Links: FOTW homepage |
search |
disclaimer and copyright |
write us |
mirrors
![[GGU flag]](../images/u/uas_59.gif)
![[GGU flag]](../images/i/int-uasb.gif)
by Ivan Sache, 25 March 2001
As yet we have not enough data to choose between the two reconstructions shown here. There is uncertainty about what these flags were supposed to look like, or even if they were ever made.
Zeljko Heimer, 27 March 2001
On 23 November 1958 a Ghana-Guinea union was formed with a flag like that
of Ghana but with two black stars. In May 1959 it was announced that the
union would be renamed Union of African States with a flag like that of
Ghana "with as many black stars as there were members". In April 1961 Mali
joined this union, so the flag would have three stars from then.
Mark Sensen, 20 Jun 2000,
quoting from [cra89i]
According to French Larousse Great Encyclopedia (chapter Ghana),
the Union des Etats africains was born in 1961 when Ghana chose to
get closer with marxist Guinea and Mali.It is said that the Union was very
short. I first thought it lasted until Nkrumah lost power in Ghana
(February 1966: there was a coup while he was in Guinea, where Sekou
Toure had named him “co-president”). But French Quid Encyclopedia
says (chapter Guinea) that the project of Union Guinea/Ghana was born in
november 1958, and that a project of Union Guinea/Ghana/Mali existed in
december 1960. Well, if it was “very short”, I’d say the project was
stopped in 1962, when Guinea decided to have (temporarly) more
relationships with the United States and less with USSR. What is sure is
that the flag has never had more than 3 stars! But how were they displayed:
in V? a horizontal line?
Olivier Touzeau, 20 Jun 2000
The Ghanean president Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1972) was a promoter of panafricanism. Shortly after the decolonization, he proclaimed during the Accra conference (1961) the Union of African States between Ghana, Mali and Guinea. The Union was dissolved in 1963 when the Organization of African Unity, also promoted by Nkrumah, was established. According to K. Fachinger, the Union of African States used a flag made of three horizontal red-yellow-green stripes, with two black stars placed horizontally in the yellow stripe. The two stars stand for Ghana and Mali. What about Guinea? Not yet included or already left?
Source: Franciae Vexilla #21/67, March 2000.
Ivan Sache, 25 March 2001
This is all quite confusing, as the article in Vexilla Franciae is mixing up two things: Fachinger's flag of 1958 and the union of 1961. Fachinger's flag with two stars is the proposed flag of the union between Ghana and Guinea of 1958 and not of the union of 1961. Fachinger named the flag "Union of West African States (Ghana - Guinea)" and he notes that the union was dissolved in 1958.
Fachinger's source is Arnold Rabbow's "dtv-Lexikon politischer Symbole", which states that a union was decided on 23 november 1958 between Ghana and Guinea. This planned union was to be the first step to a United States of West Africa. The union flag was to be the flag of Ghana with as many stars as there are members in that union. - Thus Fachinger shows the flag with two stars. This flag was only a proposal. The union was not realized, but a federation on economic/commercial basis came into being. In 1961 Mali joined. This union was called the Union of African States, but there was no flag, as far as I know.
Ralf Stelter, 26 March 2001
|