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Caprivi (Namibia)
Last modified: 2001-04-06 by jarig bakker
Keywords: namibia | caprivi | south africa | africa | unita | elephants: 2 | whisks:2 |
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![[flag of Caprivi]](../images/n/na-ec.gif)
by Mark Sensen, 10 Oct 1995
This was the flag of East-Caprivi adopted in 1977.
Mark Sensen, 10 Oct 1995
See also:
Design of Caprivi's flag
The design of the flag of Caprivi is set out in section 2 of the Caprivi Flag Act, 1977 which reads as follows:"The Caprivi Flag shall be a flag consisting of four horizontal stripes of equal width from top to bottom of black, white green and blue, on which there shall appear, in the centre of the flag on the white and green stripes, two black elephants of equal size facing each other with their trunk raised, the front halves entwined once around each other with only the tips thereof raised above the height of their heads.
The height of the elephants shall be two-thirds of the width of the two stripes.
The width of the Caprivi Flag shall be equal to two thirds of its length"
The two elephants represent the two principal tribes of the Caprivi area, the Mafwe and the Basubia. The black and white stripes on the flag are said to represent the people of the area, the green for agriculture and the blue for the waters surrounding this area, namely the Zambezi, Chobe, Linyandi and Kwando rivers as well as Lake Liambezi.
An original design for a flag of Caprivi consisted of blue, white and blue horizontal stripes, charged in the centre with two crossed black whisks. This design was not adopted, presumably because of the similarity with the flag of the Gazankulu in South Africa.
Caprivi was re-incorporated into Namibia at independence on 21 March 1990 and this flag is no longer in use.
Bruce Berry, 25 November 1998
History of Caprivi
In 1893 the Germans, who ruled what is now Namibia, decided it would be nice to have access to the Zambezi River, some 250 km to the east. The British ceded a strip of land which was extruded from the North East corner of Namibia to Kazungula on the Zambezi at on what is now the Zambia/Botswana border. Unfortunately when the Germans got round to actually visiting the site they found that the Zambezi isn't navigable at that point! The strip became of geopolitical importance during the 1980s when it was used as a jumping off point and re-supply route for South African support of the UNITA movement in Angola.Stuart Notholt, 8 Oct 1995
Pre-1977 flag of Caprivi
![[pre-1977 flag of Caprivi]](../images/n/na_ec1.gif)
by Jaume Oll�, 28 November 1998.
Prior to 1977 another design was used: horizontal blue-white-blue (1:2:1)
with on the white two black spoons crossed. This was very similar to the
flag of the South African homeland Gazankulu,
but the latter having equal bands and a chain between the spoons. The west
of the Caprivi strip was part of the homeland Okavongo wich used a green
flag with in the middle a small triband orange-white-blue.
Mark Sensen, 10 Oct 1995
I post the version of Flag Bulletin XVI:5. In other Bulletins is reported
with stripes 1:2:1
Jaume Oll�, 28 November 1998.
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