Friday, December 18, 2009

Ghana & Ethiopia

Flag of Ghana
The code for red, yellow, and green is perhaps the only universal communication system that the entire world agrees upon. Red means stop, yellow means caution, and green means Go! Nations drive on different sides of the road, use thousands of different languages, and have different measuring systems. But at least with traffic lights we all agree the meaning of each colour. No nation has it backwards, as of yet.

In the United States the pattern of traffic lights positioned vertically matches the flag colours of Ghana, or rather an upside down version of Ethiopia!

Coincidentally by the good fates both of these flags have stars in the central position. Ghana has a black star reflective of night, while Ethiopia has a yellow star on a blue circle reflective of day.

Historically Ghana and Ethiopia are the leading black African nations of the world. Just as the United States has the Mason-Dixon division, Africa has a Arabic-Black division. North Africa is obviously a part of Africa but in the big picture it is Mediterranean in ethnic dimentions.



Flag of Ethiopia

Ethiopia was never completely colonized by Europe, but a good go at it, was attempted by the Italians. In fact Ethiopia gave Europe her first defeat when it ousted the Italian invaders in 1896.

Ghananians are proud to be the first black African nation set free from European Colonialism in 1957 (UK), the same year Eisenhower ordered integration at Little Rock Central High in Arkansas. Just as the United States underwent radical racial integration in the 1960s the world of Africa too underwent a radical reconstruction from European hegemony.

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