Botswana - Current

The flag of Botswana is azure blue with a black horizontal band across the centre, with white fimbriation. The colours on the flag correspond to those on the national coat of arms. The blue represents water specifically rain, and comes from the motto on the Botswana coat-of-arms, which states Pula, the Setswana word for "Let there be rain".[8] The white-black-white bands depict the racial harmony of the people as well as the pluralist nature of the society. They are inspired by the coat of the zebra, the national animal.[1]

The design of the flag is as follows. “Five horizontal stripes having colour and width as follows, that is to say taken from the top: 1st Stripe - azure blue having a width equal to 9/24ths of the total depth of the flag. 2nd Stripe - white having a width equal to 1/24th of such depth. 3rd Stripe - black having a width equal to 4/24ths of such depth. 4th Stripe - white having a width equal to 1/24th of such depth.
5th Stripe - azure blue having a width equal to 9/24ths of such depth.”[4]

The colour shade for the blue used on the national flag is being discussed by the Botswanan Cabinet. There has been a problem with standardisation and so flags with various shades of blue (from different manufacturers) are seen and the government wants to change this.[2][5] The Legislation on Botswana emblems Act of 1966 states azure blue[4] which The British Navy's "Flags of all nations" gives to be Pantone Azure blue 549C[3].

The origins of the flag are recounted by George Winstanley[6]. Winstanley arrived in the Bechuanaland Protectorate in 1954. After being a District Administrator at several stations, he was transferred to Headquarters in 1962. He was a Clerk to the Legislative and Executive Councils and later Clerk to the Cabinet where he worked closely with Sir Seretse Khama where he helped to organise the first general election in 1965 and the second in 1969.

Regarding the Botswana flag, he states:
"...But I became much involved in selecting a national anthem and in the design of the coat of arms and the flag... It was decided to hold competitions for all three to try and involve the population at large. I issued the necessary notices and received several entries for each category...” (p.235). "The entries received in the flag competition were hopeless so I designed the flag myself. I wanted to make it easy to draw hence the all the straight horizontal lines. The blue background of the flag represents water – vital to the country's agriculture - and the black central strip bordered with two white strips represents racial harmony" (p.236).[6][7]

Whitney Smith’s interpretation of the flags symbolism is as follows:
“Bechuanaland had no distinctive national symbols of its own prior to independence. The national flag, adopted in 1966, symbolically contrasted with the flag of neighbouring South Africa, where the policies of apartheid (racial segregation and the subjugation of nonwhites) were in effect. Botswana proclaimed in the flag’s central black stripe and its white bordering stripes a belief in racial cooperation and equality. The light blue background of the flag is associated with the sky and with water, a scarce and precious commodity in the vast Kalahari desert…”[9]



Construction Sheet

[1] Nick Artimovich, Flags of the World - http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/bw.html
[2] Bruce Berry, Flags of the World - http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/bw.html
[3] Sebastia Herreros, Flags of the World - http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/xf-colo.html
[4] Santiago Tazon, sourcing Legislation on Botswana emblems Act 25,1966, Flags of the World - http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/bw.html
[5] Permanent Secretary to the President of Botswana. Molosiwa Selepeng, BOPA Daily News Archive - http://www.gov.bw/cgi-bin/news.cgi?d=20000901
[6] George Winstanley -Under Two Flags in Africa: Recollections of a British Administrator in the Bechuanaland Protectorate and Botswana 1954 to 1972 - Colchester: Blackwater Books, 2000
[7] Gerald Noeske, Flags of the World - http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/bw.html
[8] Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Botswana
[9] Whitney Smith - Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1355079/flag-of-Botswana
[Fig 1] S Kopp - Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Botswana
[Fig 2] Željko Heimer - Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Botswana