The RED BLACK and GREEN Flag
As I mentioned in an earlier article, symbols have a way of uniting a people. The Black community has a number of symbols and my favorite one is the Red, Black, and Green Flag. I have one in my home and everyday (sometimes twice a day) I recite the Black Pledge.
"WE PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE RED, BLACK, AND GREEN, OUR FLAG, THE SYMBOL OF OUR ETERNAL STRUGGLE, AND TO THE LAND WE MUST OBTAIN; ONE NATION OF BLACK PEOPLE, WITH ONE GOD OF US ALL, TOTALLY UNITED IN THE STRUGGLE, FOR BLACK LOVE, BLACK FREEDOM, AND BLACK SELF-DETERMINATION."
But how and where did this flag originate and who created it? And what does the Red, Black, and Green represent? The answer is Black Knowledge that I would like to share with you.
The flag was created by the Honorable Marcus Garvey and the members of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League. It was unveiled on August 13, 1920 at the UNIA-ACL International convention. These men of vision realized that Black people all over the world needed a symbol to call their own. A symbol that united Black people world wide. So from this realization the flag was born.
The RED represents the blood that was shed by MILLIONS of Africans and their descendants. From dying in the slave holding pens on Africa's shores, to the inhumane conditions on the slave ships, to the crack of the whip on the plantations of the world, to the rope of a KKK hanging, to the bullet of a gun during a 20th century race riot. From where ever and from whom ever the blood flowed, the RED represents the lives lost.
The BLACK represents the strength of the Black people. The accomplishments of the Black people. The love and freedom of the Black people. The BLACK represents the Black race. All the trials, joys, frustrations and beauty of what it means to be Black in the days of African kingdoms, to the days of slave bondage, to the present day.
The GREEN represents the motherland, AFRICA. Her soil that is the resting place of so many African kings and queens. Her soil that witnessed the capture and forced departure of her children who never returned. Her soil that endured the decades of colonial occupation. Her soil that welcomed her children's children back to her shores when they decided to set up a Freed Black colony. TheGREEN also represents the right that Black people living in the dispora have to a land of their own. Even if it is just the front and back yards of their house. It is still their land to raise a Black family upon.
The Black community should embrace the Red, Black, and Green flag as a symbol of Black unity. Which by the way is what Harambe! means. Unity and Togetherness.
Harambe!
Click HERE to visit the website for the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League
Black Knowledge is Black Power
Back to Articles & Poems
Home, Guest Book & Feedback
