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![[RENAMO flag]](../images/m/mz-rnm.gif)
image
by António Martins, 21 Sep 1997
See also:
Base of Operation: Mozambique; South Africa;
Zimbabwe (when still Rhodesia).
Founding Philosophy: The Mozambican National Resistance (Resistencia
Nacional Mocambicana – RENAMO) was formed in 1976 by the then Rhodesian
military forces. Rhodesia's white minority government feared that the regime
in newly independent Mozambique ( under Front for the Liberation of
Mozambique –FRELIMO) would support rebels fighting to overthrow the
Rhodesian regime. To pre-empt this possible interference, Rhodesia
created RENAMO to operate against the Mozambique-based rebels FRELIMO.
The Rhodesians created RENAMO out of disenchanted ex-FRELIMO members,
opponents of the Marxist FRELIMO regime, and former soldiers of the
former Portuguese colonial army. Most members were Ndau speakers from
the East-Central provinces of Mozambique.
RENAMO's sponsorship changed in 1980 with Zimbabwean independence.
South Africa took control of the group and used it to destabilize
Mozambique, essentially a punishment for the FRELIMO regime's support
of the African National Congress (ANC). In line with apartheid South
Africa's aim of destabilizing frontline states, RENAMO focused its
attacks on communications and trade infrastructure of Mozambique and
Zimbabwe, including railways, pipelines and roads. Forced to
reconsider its support for the ANC due to the brutal tactics of
RENAMO, Mozambican President Samora Michel signed the Nkomati Accord
of 1984 with South Africa, which pledged to end Mozambican support for
the ANC in return for an end to South African support for RENAMO.
South African commitment to the accord was questionable, however, and
violence continued.
Current Goals: Despite a drop in support from South Africa, RENAMO's
reign of terror continued throughout the 1980s, reportedly killing at
least 100 000 and creating at least 1 000 000 refugees. Particularly
hard hit were Mozambique's railways, for which the government had to
bring in foreign troops to protect from RENAMO attacks. The
combination of these attacks, the government's failed Marxist
policies, and natural disasters led to Mozambique's economic and
social deterioration. These pressures on the Mozambique government led
to governmental reform and the expansion of the political process to
other parties. RENAMO's armed insurgency against the FRELIMO regime
officially came to an end on October 4th, 1992, when the two groups
signed a peace accord, formally ending the civil war.
Despite continuing disagreements over the implementation of the peace
accord and the integration of RENAMO into the Mozambican political
process, the disarmament of RENAMO progressed in the early 1990's with
the help of the United Nations, and thousands of its fighters were
integrated into the Mozambican Armed Forces. RENAMO finally
participated in nationwide elections in 1994, gaining 37.7 percent of
the vote and maintaining a generally regional base of support in the
North and Central regions. Despite periodic complaints of violent
voter fraud and intimidation, RENAMO appears to have successfully
transformed into solely a political organization. (Source: http://www.tkb.org/Group.jsp?groupID=314
with additional information at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renamo).
Esteban Rivera, 09 Mar 2006
The flag of RENAMO (Resistëncia Nacional Moçambicana, the opposition
party / army that controls some parts of the country) is horizontal 5:7
blue over red bicolour, with a large (5/7 hoist diameter) white circle placed
at the same distance from the hoist and the top and bottom borders. On
the circle, witch has a wide white and black fimbriation five large arrows
pointing down (the middle one larger than the side ones) and in the center
a blue circle fimbriated red and white charged with an 5 pointed
yellow star, charged with a smaller black circle charged itself with a
ring of 8 white sectors. The five arrows are said to be based on the colonial
arms.
Antonio Martins, 21 Sep 1997
The RENAMO insurgent movement flew (flies?) a flag of its own. It was
predominantly red and light blue with a circular device in the centre on
which were a number of red arrows.
Stuart Notholt, 29 July 1996
On TV I saw some conversations between representatives of the government
and of RENAMO. Above the table are two small flags: one of the state of
Mozambique, the other having a vertical white in the hoist third, and the
rest divided horizontally red over black (similar in arrangement to the
flag of Madagascar). Is this not the flag of RENAMO?
Jaume Ollé, 29 July 1996
I thought RENAMO used a flag similar to the flag of Madagascar but with
the black stripe in the place of the green - i.e., white vertical stripe
in hoist and two horizontal stripes in fly, red over black.
Željko Heimer, 29 July 1996
Has Renamo changed their flag?
Some days ago in Portuguese RTV a representative of the organization
spoke with a flag in the background. The flag was not the old Renamo flag
but blue over red separated with a narrow white stripe.
Jaume Ollé, 16 Sep 2000
"The Five Arrows" on the Renamo Flag: Antonio Martins has made some great contributions to this page but there is one incorrect assumption which he propagates: the arrows do not come from the "the colonial past" (ie colonial coat of arms) but from the handle of a Beretta automatic pistol (ie the logo of Beretta (see http://www.beretta.it/))
The flag was designed in Johannesburg circa 1975/6. I know because I was there - I know a lot about its history and its two flags - and why there are two flags.
Around 1975/76 a flag was needed for a fund raising campaign; under
pressure by the printers a couple of the guys sat down and came up with
the "insignia" to assemble over the red and blue. The red was for the blood
that would be shed to regain freedom and the blue for the blue of the great
African sky - as described by Jardim (the funder of the original Mozambique National Resistance
(MNR) (later Renamo) in his book.
Pedro Buccellato, 01 Dec 2002
![[RENAMO new emblem]](../images/m/mz})rnm.gif)
image from this
website, reported by Gary Selikow, 17 Dec 2001
The small letters below the logo mean "President's Cabinet", and are
not part of the logo. It is interesting to note that the colonial origin
arrows keep showing, this time reduced to three: the previous
flag had already only five, derived from the colonial
arms showing St. Sebastian's bunch of seven arrows.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 17 Dec 2001