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Shaba / Katanga (Congo)
Last modified: 1997-12-10 by rob raeside
Keywords: zaire | shaba | katanga |
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by Zeljko Heimer, 1996-05-12
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Description of the flag
I think the Katanga crosses should be red, although one sometimes one sees them in copper brown. The proportions are 2:3.
Harald Müller, 1996-05-10
Meaning of the Couped Saltires
The couped saltires in the flag of Katanga were intended to represent copper bars. Katanga is the copper belt of Southern Africa.
William M. Grimes-Wyatt, 1996-05-09
They are a kind of money. In central Africa, from Congo down to Zambia/Zimbabwe, copper has been cast into cross-shaped bars for trade. Those Katanga (or Baluba) crosses came up in various sizes, from a couple of centimetres to nearly half a metre in diameter.
Harald Müller, 1996-05-10
History
The province, then known as Katanga, attempted secession from in 1960, only a few days after Belgian Congo became independent. The rebel government was put down after a war lasting three years. The state of Katanga had its own flag.
More recently, unrest seems to have been aimed at gaining limited autonomy within Zaire. Autonomy was declared in December 1993, but the government in Kinshasa gave no response. The bid for autonomy was led by the Union of Independent Federalists and Republicans (UFERI).
Jan Oskar Engene