Flag of Angola

Meaning and history of the flag of Angola

The flag of Angola is divided horizontally into two equal stripes, red on top and black below. At the center sits a golden emblem made up of half a cogwheel, a machete, and a five-pointed star. Red represents the blood shed during the struggle for independence, while black stands for the African continent.

The central emblem carries strong socialist symbolism. The cogwheel represents industrial workers and production, the machete stands for peasants and agricultural output, and the five-pointed star symbolizes international solidarity and progress. Together they clearly evoke the Soviet hammer and sickle, reflecting the ideological leanings of the MPLA (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola), which led the country to independence in 1975.

The flag was adopted on November 11, 1975, the date of independence from Portugal. There have been several attempts to modify the design to remove its Marxist overtones, but none has succeeded so far. The red-and-black combination with a golden central symbol makes it visually similar to the flags of some other postcolonial African states, though the machete-and-cogwheel emblem is unique to Angola.

You can view the flag of Angola in high resolution above and download it in several sizes for personal, educational or reference use. To explore more, visit the full Angola profile, its map, or the current local time in Luanda.