Global African Quad Flag: A Visual Signifier Of African-Related Matters

Will this flag mean anything to people by the end of 2018?
As we enter the 4th year of the UN's IDPAD (International Decade For People Of African Descent) 2015-24 initiative, a new symbol aims to provide a quick, short-hand, visual representation of all things African, be it good or bad!

Global African Quad Flag

UDPATE: At the 2020: Marcus Garvey @ 80: Moving Towards A Unifying African Identity meeting on June 10 2020 it was decided that the 4-stripe configuration be the finalised Global African Quad Flag:
http://taobq.blogspot.com/2020/06/four-band-global-african-quad-flag.html

The Global African Quad (GAQ) Flag was officially launched on November 18 2017 at the BTWSC/African Histories Revisited organised African History Month UK Network Conference at Unite The Union’s headquarters in Holborn, London.

It combines the four common colours of the two pan-African tri-colours – the Ethiopian, Ghanaian and Rastafarian green, gold and red, and the Universal Negro Improvement Association/African Communities League’s red, black, and green.


TAOBQ co-ordinator Kwaku unfurls GAQ flag at the conference, whilst book-seller Emmanuel Amevor is the first to publicly wear a GAQ badge. November 18 2018 @ Unite The Union HQ, London

In an age where logos and other visual symbols are meant to provide instant meaning, it is hoped that the GAQ colours will come to be recognised as representing African-related interest and issues, be it expressing African pride, Afriphobia*, or atrocity, such as the recently revealed incidents of Africans being enslaved in Libya or protests against African deaths in state custody.

For background and the development of the flag, click here to read ‘August 31 Declared African History Reflection Day’, and click here to read ‘Colours For African Pride And For Marking Atrocities Against Africans?’ Although ideally there should be a single black stripe representing all Africans, when the two black stripes version representing Africans of the continent and the diaspora was shown at the 2017 African History Reflection Day event, it was favoured by a small majority. It’s a small compromise to make and one hopes we’ll reach a time when we’ll revert to a single black stripe because most diasporan Africans will recognise that they are African, period.

* Africans For and TAOBQ define Afriphobia as: The prejudice or discrimination against; fear, hatred, or bigotry towards people of African heritage and things African.

It is also racism specifically against Africans. For more, click here to read ‘Call It By Its Name: Afriphobia Is Racism Against African People’.

For more information or merchandising enquiries: jointheaobq@gmail.com.

First published in December 2017 on the TAOBQ (The African Or Black Question) blog by TAOBQ co-ordinator Kwaku