Last modified: 2023-12-16 by rob raeside
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image by Paraskevas Renesis, 9 November 2023See also:
According to the CIA World Factbook, Antigua and Barbuda
comprises six parishes and two dependencies, the two dependencies
being the islands of Barbuda and Redonda. Evidently all the
parishes are on Antigua.
Joe McMillan, 9 April 2003
"In order to quell secessionist sentiment in Barbuda, the
writers of the Constitution of 1981 included provisions for
Barbudan self-government, constitutionally protecting the Barbuda
Local Government Act of 1976. The elected Council for Barbuda is
the organ of self-government. Acting as a local government, the
council has the authority to draft resolutions covering community
issues or domestic affairs, in the areas of defense and foreign
affairs, however, Barbuda remains under the aegis of the national
government. The council consists of nine elected members, the
elected Barbudian representative to the national Parliament, and
the Government appointed councilor. To maintain a rotation of
membership, council elections are held every two years."
The above information was obtained from the California Office of
Trade and Investment in Mexico City.
Chrystian Kretowicz, 9 April 2003
Here's is a story about a Barbuda flag:
https://www.facebook.com/photo/
But in a photo from Thomas Hilbourne
Frank's ( a former Barbuda Council chairman) funeral back in
2020 we see a
flag with no blue stripe in the middle:
https://www.facebook.com/photo/
The flag of Barbuda is a symbol of patriotism and a pledge to build a unified Barbuda.
Designer Mr. Hakim Akbar and Ms. Darlene Beazer
Date designed: 1997 blue added 2018
Symbolism of colors:
Green represents our land and growth
Red represents the passion, power and love of country
Yellow represents hope signifies by the rising sun
Blue represents the sea /ocean that feeds and sustains us; it also represents the tranquility of our island.
Black frigate bird flying into the sun represents the determination and freedom of Barbudans.
Paraskevas Renesis, 9 November 2023
image by Jaume Ollé, 19 November 2020
See
photo located by Paraskevas Renesis, 9 November 2023
image by Jaume Ollé, 19 November 2020
The Barbuda Council flag is red on horizontal green with a yellow disc in the
center that occupies almost 80% of the height of the flag; inside the disc there
is a typical island bird the "Frigate bird" with its characteristic red maw.
In 1996 I wrote to all the parties on the island and to the Island Council
asking for the local flag. I got no answer. I also asked friends in the
Caribbean and one of them informed me of a red, black and blue flag (that could
correspond to the Barbuda Independence Movement), although the blue color could
be green, and on television the two colors are easily confused. These three
colors are used by various independence movements in some Caribbean islands as
they are the traditional colors of African Americans, colors popularized by
Marcus Garvey (1919).
Not getting an answer from the island I sent a
second set of letters in 1997 and this time too I was left with no answer. I
took it for granted that my question had been ignored.
Actually at that
time no flag represented the island. Apart from the possible colors of the
Barbuda Independence Movement (founded in 1983) the flags of the other parties
existed, but did not represent the island. The green color was typical of the
Barbuda Peoples Movement (BPM) with yellow letters (and the yellow color is used
by the youth branch), the New Barbuda Development Movement probably the color
orange and the Barbuda National Party color is unknown to me (maybe blue?) .
Already in the 21st century a new political party emerged, the "Barbudans for a
better Barbuda", the colors of which I do not know. Only the BPM has
parliamentary representation (only one MP from the island goes to St Johns
Parliament)
It is possible that my letters or one of them came into the
hands of Council member Hakim Akbar, a local businessman (now deceased) who was in charge of the Economy Department, who decided to design a
flag to fill the gap that the letter revealed. This flag was presented to the
Council with the support of the councilwoman Darlena Beazer, the current
spokeswoman for the Council, and this body adopted the flag (1997); over time it
has gained popularity to become an unofficial symbol of the island. On the web
you can find several sites where the flag is drawn. The drawings do not
correspond exactly to how they look in the photos because surely the sizes of
the central disk and the exact design of the frigate bird are not regulated and
flags have been manufactured with certain differences.
Red represents the
land of Barbuda and green its vegetation. Between the two there would be a blue
stripe representing the main sea or the lake but it is so thin that it is
omitted in many flags. The yellow central disk represents the Caribbean Sun. The
bird is the most characteristic animal of the island. I had news of the Barbuda
Council flag in the third quarter of 2017; at that time I was very busy trying
to implement the results of the referendum on self-determination in Catalonia
(1-10-2017) and to take actions of peaceful resistance against the political-police-judicial
coup that the violent far right is going unleash on those dates. In addition,
the 2018 edition was closed, as subscribers who receive Flag Report by ordinary
mail, receive the 4 annual journals together on the first days of each year so
they must be sent in December (2017). It was finally included in the bulletin
#91 of July 1, 2019. At that time I had some photographs and I reconstructed the
bird in the best possible way; it’s not much different from how it really was,
but later I did a new reconstruction that looks better on the whole but isn’t
located exactly the same way as in the photos in which the wings and tail
protrude off the yellow disk.
Jaume Ollé, 19 November 2020
image by Ben Cahoon, 17 January 2022
I found an image labeled as Barbudaflag.jpg similar to those above:
https://barbudaful.net/nothing-to-celebrate-on-barbuda/.
I am not sure
if this is the official flag or a home-made design of it.
Ben Cahoon,
17 January 2022
Barbuda, with a small population, has 4 independentist
parties, but only one has 1 seat (the single one reserved to the
island) in the parliament. It is not clear what is the flag of this
main party. I believe that no insular or autonomous flags exist,
even I believe that Barbuda has no autonomous status i.e. like
Nevis, but only special situation as separated island.
Jaume Ollé, 9 April 2003
In Barbuda (Antigua-Barbuda) the Barbuda Peoples Movement
pushes for independence. A Venezuelan newspaper published an
independentist flag of Barbuda (red, black and blue), but it did
not clarify if this flag is that of the BPM (Barbuda Peoples
Movement).
Jaume Ollé , 28 July 1996
