Tanzania

Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania / United Republic of Tanzania

Last modified: 2015-12-10 by bruce berry
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• National Flag
• Coat of Arms
• Variant of the national flag

• Tanzania : national index

National Flag

On 26 April 1964, Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form a new republic, the name "Tanzania" being adopted on 29 October 1964. Like the name of the country, the new flag was a merger of that of its constituent parts. The lower green stripe of the former Tanganyika flag took the blue of the Zanzibari flag, and the stripes were re-arranged diagonally to give them equal status.
Stuart Notholt, 19 Jun 1996

image by Željko Heimer, 28 Mar 2003

National Flag. CSW/CSW 2:3
Flag divided by a yellow fimbriated black rising diagonal with green at hoist and blue at fly. Source: Album 2000.
The colour specifications are officially provided in British Standard Range, and Armand approximated them in Album as:
Green Pantone 361c
Yellow Pantone 116c
Blue Pantone 299c
These are, of course, rather standard shades of colours except for the blue, which is lighter than "normal" blue, but not as light as "light blue".  I don't know how much it matches the B.S. standard. 
The width of the black stripe is 13/48 of the hoist size, the width of the yellow stripes is 3 of the same units each.
Željko Heimer, 28 Mar 2003

Ratio length to breadth: three to two e.g. 3' x 2', 6' x 4', 12' x 8'
Description:
Green - Yellow - Black and Blue, having the black centre stripe centred on (the) diagonal raising from flag mast to top edge of the fly, two smaller yellow stripes dividing the upper triangle portion which is green and the lower triangle portion which is blue.
Proportions of colours:
Black centre stripe, centred on diagonal of flag of 6' x 4', is 13/48 of fly and 13" wide (my note - 4 feet = 48 inches).  Yellow stripes are each 1/16 of fly and 3" wide.
Colour code and significance:
B.S. (referring to the British Standard Range of colours now redundant) No. 2660, 1955
Black   BS No, 9-103 = the People
Green   BS No. 0-010 = the Land
Blue     BS No. 0-012 = the Adjoining Sea
Yellow BS No. 0-002 = the Mineral Wealth
Source: Tanzania National Symbols', Dar-es-Salaam; Information Service Division, Office of the Prime Minister and First Vice-President, (no date).
Christopher Southworth, 27 Mar 2003

The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) site includes also the National Flag and Coat of Arms Act of 1971 dated 07 May 1971 (but validity backdated to 26 April 1964).
Željko Heimer, 05 Feb 2012

The protocol manual for the London 2012 Olympics (Flags and Anthems Manual, London, 2012 [bib-lna.html]) provides recommendations for national flag designs. Each National Olympic Committee was sent an image of their flag, including the PMS shades, by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) for their approval. Once this was obtained, the LOCOG produced a 60 x 90 cm version of the flag for further approval. So, while these specifications may not be the official, government, version of each flag, they are certainly what the National Olympic Committee believed their flag to be.

For Tanzania : PMS 361 green, 116 yellow, 299 blue and black. The vertical flag is simply the horizontal version turned 90 degrees clockwise.
Ian Sumner, 10 Oct 2012

Coat of Arms

The Emblem (Nembo)
Emblem Description :
The central feature of the Coat of Arms is the Warrior’s Shield which bears a portion on the upper part followed underneath by the United Republic flag of Green, Golden, Black and Blue; and a red portion under which are wavy bands of blue and white.
Colours Significance:
The Golden portion represents minerals in the United Republic; the red portion underneath the flag symbolises the fertile red soil of Africa; while the wavy bands represent the land, sea, lakes and coastal lines of the United Republic. The Shield is set upon a representation of Mount Kilimanjaro. On each side of the Shield there is an elephant tusk supported by a man on the left (as you look at the emblem) and a woman on the right symbolising both the theme of co-operation and gender and equality of the people of Tanzania. At the feet of the man is a clove bush and at the feet of the woman is a cotton bush symbolising agriculture in the Republic. Superimposed features on the Shield are flames of a burning torch which signifies freedom, enlightenment and knowledge; a spear signifying defence of freedom and crossed axe and hoe being tools that the people of the United Republic use in developing the country.
The Uhuru Torch symbolises freedom and light. It was first lit on top of mount Kilimanjaro (5,890m) in 1961, symbolically to shine the country and across the borders to bring hope where there is despair, love where there is enmity and respect where there is hatred. Yearly there is the Uhuru Torch race, starting from different prominent places in the Republic.
The United Republic motto: "Uhuru na Umoja" = Freedom and Unity, is written in Kiswahili: the National Language of Tanzania.
Info from this website.
Jarig Bakker, 05 Jan 2002

Variant of the national flag

In a list of notes by G. Pasch, made in 1981, he reports an information according to which the lower yellow stripe of the Tanzanian flag would have been changed to a white stripe. Has anybody heard of this? If it actually occurred, how long did it last? It does not seem to be a plain optical mistake, for it is specified that the upper stripe remains yellow.
Thanh-Tâm Lê, 10 Dec 1998

I can tell that the national flag that appears as fin flash at Tanzanian airforce planes remain the same since its establishment in 1964, a fact that indicated that there was no flag change. Could it be just a poor manufactured flag?
Dov Gutterman, 11 Feb 2000