The flag of the unrecognised and now-defunct State of Katanga, a regime in the southern part of the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

that briefly existed during the

Congo Crisis The Congo Crisis (french: Crise congolaise, link=no) was a period of political upheaval and conflict between 1960 and 1965 in the Republic of the Congo (today the Democratic Republic of the Congo). The crisis began almost immediately after ...

, was designed by an architect Louis Dressen, former manager of ''

Banque du Congo Belge The Banque du Congo Belge (1909-1960), Banque Belgo-Congolaise also known as Belgolaise (1960-2012), Banque du Congo (1960-1971), Banque Commerciale Zaïroise (1971-1997), and Banque Commerciale Du Congo (BCDC, 1997-2020) all refer to a banking gr ...

'' in

Elisabethville Lubumbashi (former names: (French), (Dutch)) is the second-largest city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, located in the country's southeasternmost part, along the border with Zambia. The capital and principal city of the Haut-Katanga ...

(modern-day Lubumbashi). Components of the flag had to represent the motto of Katanga: ''Force, espoir et Paix dans la Prospérité'' ( en, Power, Hope and Peace in Prosperity). The red component is for power, green for hope, white for peace and the croisettes (based on the area's traditional currency, the Katanga cross) for prosperity. Despite an official guide having been published as to the flag's design and dimensions, due to the state of affairs in the region at the time, this was not enforced, and variants were common, including ones of different ratios (such as 2:3 or 3:5), ones with golden coloured croisettes, and ones where the croisettes were replaced with saltires (diagonal crosses).

References

Historical flags Flag State of Katanga Flags introduced in 1960 {{DRCongo-stub

See also

References