#1. The Republic of Kenya

“The National flag must be a symbol of unity and freedom”. This is the most intrinsically conspicuous statement in the hearts and minds of proud patriots like me in Kenya.?I think you too for your country:)

I grew up and found this multi-colored high flying piece of cloth common outside government institutions and offices. It has black, green, red and white horizontal stripes with a piece of art in the middle–a shield and two spears blended to capture the four colors. The respect accorded to it always kept me wondering what it really is.?

When I was taken to school at the age of 5, we had mandatory daily school meetings at the school assembly, and the most important was Mondays and Fridays where we could have the flag raised systematically by specific students which I later realized are supposed to be uniformed scouts. The schools I studied from were just behind in this one.?

While the flag went up the special pole, we all stood straight with hands perfectly clinged on our side laps, heads held high with eyes rising with it as if escort, and in unison we sang sang:?

“O god of all creation, Bless this our land and nation,

Justice be our shield and defender, may we dwell in unity,

Peace and liberty, plenty be found within our borders.?

Let one and all arise, with hearts both strong and true,

Service be our earnest endeavor, and our homeland of Kenya,

Heritage of splendor, firm may we stand to defend.

Let all in one accord, in common bond united,

Build this our nation together, and the glory of Kenya,

The fruits of our labor, all every heart with thanksgiving”

_A moment of silence for the words to sink_

This is worth a whole amazing book already, and so I will consider expounding on every word in future.?

The Swahili version of it was the most common and easy, especially for us in local village public schools where English was not our thing. However, for discipline, we had either of the days in English and Swahili on the other. Honestly I didn’t know what these words meant but I knew they were so powerful.?

It’s been more than two years since my maturity level directed me to rethink my life purpose as a junior but senior citizen of Kenya, and a girl of the African soil. These national identities are my favorite of the season.?

It feels nice in world athletics when I see our athletes raising the Kenyan flag and if they happen to be the gold winners, respect is accorded to the nation by singing its national anthem. This is just one example and the most common for us. It is so emotional for me who now understands the power of the words being recited.?

Let us dive into the history of the beautiful Kenyan flag.?

While scrolling through the books of Development Geography (Potter et al 2012 and others), I landed on some interesting facts of how the world has specific principles and strategies on how ‘development’ is meant to happen. After World War II, the advanced countries in infrastructure found it ‘ethical’ as US President Truman said in 1947, “to help or mold” the ,less advanced’ countries to become like them.?

We then landed in the modernization era in the ‘50s where as the global south, this time Kenya, were taken as backward societies that needed to be pulled up into development as the north saw it. Great Britain was our colony. However, this put so much pressure on us and our socio-cultural lives that we felt enslaved. Having projects running in your homestead by an external person without involving you as the owner? Worse if they will not benefit you! To me this is a social crime.?

The Mau Mau movement and other groups and individuals faced the risk and went on to fight for the independence of Kenya. We were tired. While hoping to win against the ‘whites’ in the country, of course our people began preparing for new local leadership. And we had two major parties: Kenya African Democratic Union (KADU) led by the late President Daniel Moi (became 2nd President) and the Kenya African National Union (KANU) led by the late President Jomo Kenyatta (became the first president of Kenya).

Each of the parties of course wanted their flag to be the national flag and resulted in a heated political pressure. But then there was this legal guru of the time; the late Thomas Mboya, the then Justice and? Constitutional Affairs Minister who is one of my secret heroes. Amidst the two fuming lions, he stood against it and pushed for a neutral flag.?

Learning from other neighboring countries which had modified the flags of the winning parties into the national flag after independence, Mr. Mboya opted for that idea. KANU was the winning party.? First both parties had three horizontal stripes (KANU- black, green and red and KADU -? black, green and white). The difference was red and white.?

On a common ground, Mr. Mboya and other justice-oriented people settled on black, green, red (of the winning party) and two white stripes (as a magnanimous gesture towards the opposing party). To me, this is one of the wisest decisions made despite the possible smashed interests. This is the national identity we received as Kenyans on the 12th December 1963 after being given independence as the Republic of Kenya.

Mr. Mboya called for protection of the flag and the national anthem too. A perfect reason for the awe whenever they are on stage. Other words to be respected included ‘Harambee’, ‘Jamhuri’, ‘Nyayo’ among others. We appreciate that as a reminder of how much we must value ourselves as makers of our country.?

In a more deeper and specific way beyond the initial, the symbolic meaning of the components of the Kenyan Flag are:?

=>BLACK is a representation of the people. We are dark-skinned and thanks! We appreciate our beauty and importance even in our cultural diversity.??

=>GREEN is a representation of our land and rich natural resources, our all-time bank for meeting our basic daily needs.?

=>RED is a representation of the struggle for independence. Blood was shed in the process as an indication of how expensive freedom is. The stripe centered to also indicate special love on the other hand after independence especially amongst us as citizens, with an extension to other people. Kenyans are lovely human beings.?

=>WHITE is a representation of peace. Surrounding the red stripe on both ends reflects how much we value peace. This, I can attest as a Kenyan. There are usually exceptionals but I know the majority of my country love and embrace peace.?

=>THE SHIELD AND TWO SPEARS are a representation of defense. Independence is not if there if no guaranteed security. And because we didn’t use bombs, our locally made spears and shields are our defense toolkit that we used.?

It gives me great pleasure that we can finally make our own decisions although we are always in a fix of northern influence. It is a gradual process to finally be independent economically, socially and politically. Some of the internal repercussions of colonization and the whole uncertain concept of progress/’development’ will take a while, but we are hopeful for better days ahead. We are approaching 60 years of age since the paradigm shift happened.?

The current heat of an economic crisis with many of us young people struggling in the transition between the old socio-cultural and economic responsibilities; and the new trends of globalization, social media pressure, limited opportunities, environmental challenges such as climate change partly questions what independence really is. But anyway, that is why we are still growing every day. Remembering our national anthem words: plenty is found within our borders.?

< Dear all, Let us arise with strong and true hearts >

I love our Kenyan flag!?

NB// I chose to start with my country's flag intentionally:-). Expect different a format for each flag just as diverse as they are.

See you in the next national flag!

?Girl of the African Soil