During Black History Month, ICAEW is using the symbolic Pan-African flag – also known as the UNIA flag – to showcase and celebrate the African and Caribbean history of liberation.
The Pan-African flag was created in 1920 with the support of Marcus Garvey, founder of the UNIA (Universal Negro Improvement Association), in response to a racially derogatory song and the realisation that "every race has a flag but the black”. Garvey continued, “show me the race or the nation without a flag, and I will show you a race of people without any pride”.
The flag later became an African nationalist symbol for the worldwide liberation of people of African origin. As an emblem of Black pride, the flag became popular during the Black Liberation movement of the 1960s.
Black people around the world would be able to claim an identity in their own right under the flag.
Today, variations of the flag can and have been used in various countries and territories in Africa and the Americas to represent Pan-Africanist ideology.
As this flag continues to be a template for flags across Africa, ICAEW is proud to raise the flag!
Red: The blood that unites all people of Black African ancestry, and shed for liberation
Black: Black people whose existence as a nation, though not a nation-state, is affirmed by the flag
Green: The abundant natural wealth of Africa
Behind the Pan-African UNIA flag
During Black History Month, ICAEW is using the symbolic Pan-African flag – also known as the UNIA flag – to showcase and celebrate the African and Caribbean history of liberation.
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