deliriouslove1970. The life & times of Gary and Denise Flanders. (Free and worth every penny. If you would like to compliment the editor, send to garytheflan@deliriouslove1970.com. If you would like to complain, call your mother.)

The Republic of Zimbabwe, a land locked country in Southern Africa. It is a relatively new country with 16 official languages.

The land has a long and unfortunate history and was the area that saw the worst of the British system of colonization. In 1890 a British Trading Company owned by Cecil Rhodes walked onto the land and said, ‘this is mine now – I don’t care if people have been here for thousands of years, we now claim it.’ The Rhodes company ‘owned’ the land until 1923 when it officially became a British Colony called ‘South Rhodesia’. The British ruled the colony until 1965 when a right wing ultra conservative white minority unilaterally declared independence as ‘Rhodesia’. International condemnation and a 15 year gorilla war ensued. Finally in 1980 the ‘new’ country of Zimbabwe was formed.

The flag is 7 horizontal stripes of green, gold, red and black with a white triangle containing a red 5 pointed star with a Zimbabwe bird. It was officially adopted in 1980. The basic design follows the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front flag.

The bird represents a statuette of a bird found at the ruins of the Great Zimbabwe. It is most likely a Bateleur Eagle.

The Zimbabwe flag was the first African flag I added to my collection many years ago. It is an excellent example of a good flag.