Last modified: 2006-11-04 by antónio martins
Keywords: paigc | star: 5 points (black) | pan-african | pusd |
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Recently, after the civil war that torn the country apart, the guinean governmental party PAIGC (Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné e Cabo-Verde — I think this is still its name) held a convention to decide on its future. The decisions aren’t interesting for us (except that the party continues and keeps the same symbols), but the flag is. This flag was hanging from the table of the convention presidency (a common practice in Portugal also), so I suppose that it as official as one can get. The source for this are TV images.
The flag is just the national flag in a proportion of 1:2 with the sigla of the party beneath the black star, also in black.
This party flag is particlarly important because it gave birth to not one but two national flags: that of Guinea-Bissau and the old national flag of Cape Verde. The Cape-Verdian party PAICV, that nowdays has a different flag, used also a flag in these lines. The reason for this is that Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde constituted a short-lived confederacy after independence under the leadership of the PAIGC, a party that had cape-verdian and guinean membership and was winning the war against the portuguese colonial forces in Guinea-Bissau by the time of the portuguese revolution.
The union broke apart because there were conflicts between the cape-verdians (with a much more european culture — Cape Verde is basically a mixed country, racially, culturally, linguistically, etc.) and the guineans (who in the vast majority didn’t speak portuguese) inside the party, that immediately were reflected at state level. The symbols, however, remained very close until the democratization of Cape Verde and the consequent change of national symbols in this country.
The symbolism of this flag is just like that of the national flag and inherited from the symbolism of Ghana, from which it comes: an arrangement of the pan-african colours with the black star of Africa added.
Jorge Candeias, 02 Nov 1999
PAIGC was defeated in latest elections. Following that was issued in
Cabo Verde can we expect a flag change?
Jaume Ollé, 26 Jan 2000
Maybe, but the recent role and style of the P.A.I.G.C. in Guinea-Bissau
was not at all like the P.A.I.C.V. in Cape
Verde in 1992. And the Cape Verde flag was
changed mostely because it looked too much like the flag of
Guinea-Bissau, not because it looked like the
P.A.I.C.V. flag (which in turn was also changed somewhen later).
António Martins, 27 Jan 2000
PUSD means Partido Unido Social Democrata (United Social
Democrat Party).
António Martins, 08 Mar 2005
Just saw a newspaper article (Diário de Notícias
48926 (2003.03.09):1,6. Lisboa) on the coming back of former
Bissau-Guinea Prime Minister Francisco Fadul, after a 2 year exile in
Portugal. A bodyguard’s tee-shirt shows what might be a party
flag design.
António Martins, 09 Mar 2003
At the official web site, the
flag of Bissau-Guinean party “Nô-Djunta-Mon” / Partido dos
Trabalhadores da Guiné-Bissau, lead by Aregado Mantenque. It is a
green over red descending diagonal bicolor with a large yellow sun with 26
rays on the center. On it a light purple nine-pointed star on which there is
a how an a machete, both in thei natural colors. On the hoe, three dettatched
human hands: pink over orange over brown. Below the sun, the inscription
"PT" in black sans serif capitals.
António Martins, 08 Dec 2005
This photo appeared in Público (Portugal) newspaper, without caption, illustrating an article about the elections held there last March. Later, the same photo illustrated another article on the same subject, but now with a caption identifying the demonstrators as PAIGC supporters.
So, it’s related with the PAIGC but it is not the flag of the party, unless it changed flags recently without telling us. The flag is plain with a very large symbol occupying almost its entire surface, with includes a rising sun and the portrait of Amílcar Cabral, the national hero and former leader of PAIGC.
Speculating a bit, the fact that most of the people in the photo is young may mean that the flag might belong to some sort of youth organization.
Jorge Candeias, 27 Nov 2004
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