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Gabon: Pre-Independence Flags

République Gabonaise

Last modified: 2005-07-30 by rob raeside
Keywords: gabon | equator |
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[Flag of Gabon]
by Mark Sensen

See also:

Pre-independence flags

[Pre-Independence Flag of Gabon] by Antonio Martins

During less than a year (1959.06.29-1960.08.09), Gabon had a somewhat different flag, according to Crampton's The World of Flags (1990).
Instead of the current 3:4 horizontal tricolor green-yellow-blue, this pre-independence flag had a French tricolor in the canton and narrower yellow stripe (4 green, 1 yellow, 4 blue).

According to Eve Devereux' Identifying Flags, the French tricolour was superimposed on the green band.

I've also seen a version with no tricolor in an Angolan newspaper of that time, a very sketchy black and white hand drawing with color hatch indications (it could be a mistake).

[Pre-Independence Flag of Gabon, Possible Variant] by Antonio Martins

Still according to Devereux, the colours mean respectively the forest, the Equator line (which crosses the country) and the sea.

Antonio Martins, 30 May 1997

I've seen a picture [can't remember where :-( ] with the Tricolore also partly over the yellow stripe. Did anyone else?
Mark Sensen, 31 May 1997