After 40 years of independence, Lesotho gets another new flag

Amid celebrations for 40 years of independence, from Britain in 1966, the tiny landlocked African nation of Lesotho has unfurled a new flag, which has been coined the 'peace' flag.

The flag has three colors:
• a upper band in blue, signifies rain (Sesotho word: pula) - water is a big political issue in Lesotho since so much of it gets exported to South Africa,
• a central band in white, signifying peace (Sesotho word: khotso) - Lesotho's Deputy Prime Minister Lesao Lehohla has said the flag showed "a nation at peace with itself and at peace with its neighbors", and
• a lower band of green, signifying prosperity (Sesotho word: nala) - in a country wracked by poverty and a high HIV rate (approximately 29% of the adult population), half its workforce is employed in textile manufacture, almost all of which is exported to the US.

(The previous flag had the same colors but as a triangular tricolor going from white in the top left, through a central band of blue to a green triangle in the lower right.)

Whereas the previous flag was emblazoned with a traditional Basotho shield crossed by a spear and knobkerrie (club) in the white triangle, the new 'peace' flag has a traditional cone-shaped Basotho hat to signify unity amongst the Basotho people. The shield and weapons were placed on the flag following a military coup in 1986 which installed a Military Council friendly to the Apartheid regime in South Africa. (South Africa had imposed a blockade on the country for three weeks until the coup was completed.) The Basotho hat is a return to the symbol which emblazoned the county's first flag.

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