A horizontal tri-colour of black, blue (half-width), and white, with two red right scalene triangles on opposite sides. On the black band is a yellow half-sun with nine rays
A white field with a red cross, the national flag in the canton
Antigua and Barbuda flag on a pleasure craft
Thenational flag ofAntigua and Barbuda was adopted on 27 February 1967 to mark the achievement of self-government. A competition to design the flag was held in which more than 600 local people entered. The winning design was put forth by nationally well-known artist and sculptor Sir Reginald Samuel.[1]
The design is a red field with an inverted isosceles triangle based on the top edge of the field pointed toward the bottom edge of the field bearing the horizontal tricolour of black, light blue (half width) and white with the rising sun centred on top of the black band. The rising sun symbolises the dawning of a new era.[2]
The colours have different meanings: the black is for theAfrican ancestry of the people; the blue for hope; and the red for energy or life of the people. The successive colouring of black, yellow, blue, and white (from the sun down) also stands for the soil, sun, sea, and sand.[1] The blue also represents theCaribbean Sea, and the V-shape is the symbol of victory.[2] The seven points on the flag represent each of the sixparishes and the island ofBarbuda.[3]
Thestate ensign, which is used only by the national coast guard, consists of a white field, a red cross, and the state flag in the canton.
From the beginning of European settlement on the islands in the 1630s, the flags ofEngland (pre 1707),Great Britain (1707–1800),United Kingdom (1801–1871),British Leeward Islands (1871–1958) andWest Indies Federation (1958–1962) were used over the islands. The first flag representing the territory of the present-day nation was created in the late 1950s, at which time Antigua and Barbuda were reorganized into a province of theWest Indies Federation. This flag consists of aBlue Ensigndefaced with the coat of arms. The coat of arms depicted the landscape of the island with analoe-plant on the shore and asugar mill on a hill. It is not known exactly when the coat of arms was developed, however, since 1909 this design has been used to represent Antigua on the largercoat of arms of the British Leeward Islands.[4] The Blue Ensign defaced with the local coat of arms is the common design oncolonial flags throughout theBritish Empire, adopted by all the other provinces of the West Indies Federation. The original flag design included a white circle behind the coat of arms, but this element disappeared over time.
The flag based on the Blue Ensign was replaced by the current design on 27 February 1967. This was 11 days after theRoyal assent to theWest Indies Act 1967, which changed the status of the islands fromBritish colonies to states infree association with the United Kingdom. The flag adopted at that time was the design of Sir Reginald Samuel, which had won a public competition. Apparently it was one of the last projects admitted to the competition. After gaining full independence on 1 November 1981, the flag was retained.[3]
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