French Guiana (Territorial Collectivity, France)

Guyane

Last modified: 2024-11-30 by olivier touzeau
Keywords: french guiana | guyane |
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left, French national flag - Image by Željko Heimer, 22 September 2001;
right, French Guiana local flag - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 26 June 2023.

The green and yellow flag, officially adopted by the departement on 29 January 2010, was not any more in use de facto between 2015 and 2021, and observed again in use in an official context after 2022.

Olivier Touzeau & Jean-Marc Merklin, 26 June 2023

• Administrative data
• Status of French Guiana
• Flag of French Guiana
• Territorial Collectivity of Guyane
• Former entities
  • Region Guyane
  • Department of Guyane

See also:

• French Guiana: Index of all pages
• France
• France: Overseas entities

Administrative data

Code: 973
Bordering countries: Brazil (state of Amapá), Suriname

Area: 83,846 km²
Population (2018): 276,128 inhabitants

Préfecture: Cayenne
Sous-préfecture: Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni
Subdivisions: 2 arrondissements, 22 municipalities.

Status of French Guiana

French Guiana is officially known as the Collectivité Territoriale de Guyane (CTG), established on 1 January 2016.
The status of Guyane is prescribed by Law No. 884, adopted on 27 July 2011 and published the next day in the French official gazette, No. 173, p. 12,821 (text).

Article 2.
To Part 7 of the General Code of Territorial Collectivities shall be added Book I, written as follows:

Book I. Territorial Collectivity of Guyane.
Title 1. General prescriptions.

Article L 7111-1. Guyane forms a Territorial Collectivity of the Republic, as prescribed by Article 73 of the Constitution, which exercizes the competences assigned to an Overseas Department and to an Overseas Region, as well as all competences granted by the Law to account for its specific characteristics and constraints.
Article L 7111-2. The Territorial Collectivity of Guyane succeeds the Department of Guyane and Region Guyane in all their rights and duties.

Article L 7121-1 prescribes the organs of the Territorial Collectivity of Guyane as the Assembly of Guyane [made of 51 members] and its President, assisted by the Economical, Social, Environmental, Cultural and Educational Council.

Registered voters  67,460
Actual voters      32,486
Valid ballots      31,729
Voter turnout              48.16%
Yes                 9,448  29.78%
No                 22,281  70.22%

Registered voters  67,258
Actual voters      18,519
Valid ballots      17,241
Voter turnout              27.42%
Yes                 9,912  57.49%
No                  7,329  42.51%

Ivan Sache, 5 June 2016

Flag of French Guiana

The national flag in French Guiana is the French national flag.

Pascal Vagnat, 31 January 2010

Territorial Collectivity of Guyane

left, Flag of the CTG - Image by Ivan Sache, 5 June 2016;
right, French Guiana local flag - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 26 June 2023.

The flag of the Territorial Collectivity of Guyane is white with the collectivity's logo.
The Territorial Collectivity of Guyane was inaugurated on 18 December 2015 in Cayenne ((photos), Rodolphe Alexandre being elected its first President. The flag was inaugurated the same day; flags were hoisted on the stand behind the speaker as follows, from viewer's left to right: European Union, Suriname, France, Brazil, Guyana, and CTG.

The logo of the Territorial Collectivity of Guyane was unveiled on 29 April 2015. A call for proposals yielded 97 submissions. Along the five submissions by an ad hoc commission, Carole Mathée's design was selected by a public vote. The four other finalists were Mathieu de Rivoyre, Pierre-Laurent Kichenama, Thierry Chantel, and Morgane Gonidou.
Carole Mathée explained the logo as follows (Territorial Collectivity of Guyana):

Guyane, the creative spirit.
The logo represents Guyane as a whole, proud of its major assets, which are the base of its development. The new logo is an evolution of the two logos of the former collectivities (colours). The whole is self-styled dynamic and serious. Adaptable ad libitum for the sake of communication (logo, poster, t-shirt, website, actions...), the logo can also evolve in the next decades, being easy to transform.

Elements.
The map of Guyane has been kept for geographical identification. The outline has been stylized to represent opening to the future, as well as the potential, skills, projects and ambitions of Guyane.
The stylized bow and arrows, ready for launching, are a nod in the direction of the spatial industry. Each of them represents assets required for projects and action.
These elements refer to Amerindian peoples, the first inhabitants of the territory who aspire to recognition. The logo is a tribute to their history and aspiration, as well as to their willingness of empowerment. The black writing, simple and clear, names the collectivity, highlighting the word "Guyane".

Colours.
The set of colours alludes to the Tembé art*, as a reference to the Maroons, other autochthonous peoples aspiring to visibility.
Green (map and bow) represents the exceptional natural environment, protective, provided its intrinsic properties are preserved, and its services (agriculture, leisure, forestry, health, well-fare...).
Red represents the men and women living on the territory, as the first resource (knowledge, generations, culture, traditions, diversity, sustainable responsibility) of a true land of welcome, generous thanks to its living environment.
Blue represents water of any kind (sea, rivers, rain, water production...) as a nourishing resource (fishing, leisure, electricity production...). Yellow represents the underground resources, either exploited or potential (gold washers, traditions...).
Black represents the promising resources for the future, such as oil (technological innovation, economical development, skills...).

*Tembé is the sculpture art developed by the Boshinengue, the Maroons of Guyana. Tembé is better known as Boni art, named for one of the six Maroon tribes that fled Suriname to Guyane, crossing river Moroni, in 1713-1715: Saramaca, Hatawai, Quinti-Matanai, Boni (Aloukou), Paramaca and Aucaner (aka Youca or N'Djuka). Their specific art was recognized and popularized by the ethnologists Richard and Sally Price, the geographer Jean Hurault and the historian of Guyana Pierre Servin. While some scholars consider the Tembé art as locally borne in the 19th century, Pierre Servin highlighted the influence of the Afro-Egyptian art.
The master of Tembé is Antoine Aouegui, aka Lamoraille (b. 1944). active since 1983 and president of the Mama Bobi association, which aims at the preservation of Tembé as an art, beyond folklore.
[Marie-Isabelle Merle des Isles. Les symboles de l'art tembé]

Ivan Sache, 5 June 2016

The flag adopted by the former department in 2010 is hoisted in the headquarters of the territorial council in Cayenne: photo, photo, photo, photo, video (2023), photo, photo, video, video (2022).
The following videos dating from February 2022 do not feature the Yellow-Green flag: video, video.

Juan Manuel Gabino Villascán, 26 June 2023

The green and yellow flag of the UTG workers' union had been officially adopted by the departement on 29 January 2010. This flag is considered as a leftist emblem and at this time, the president of the departmental council was left-wing (Alain Tien-Liong), and the president of the region was right-wing (Rodolphe Alexandre).
In 2015, when the department and the region were replaced by the new territorial collectivity, the new president was the former regional council's président, Rodolphe Alexandre. The UTG flag was not any more seen in official use, and was not adopted by the new entity.
In July 2021, Gabriel Serville (Péyi Guyane, left-wing) was elected president of the territorial collectivity, with a new assembly with a leftist majority. This explains the gradual return to de facto use of the green and yellow flag.

Olivier Touzeau, 26 June 2023

Former entities

Region Guyane

Flag of Region Guyane - Image by Ivan Sache, 31 January 2010

The flag of Region Guyane (photo, photo) was white with the logo of the Region in the middle.

The logo of the Region is explained as follows (Regional Council):
- The upper blue field symbolizes new technologies (Kourou), the yellow star representing the future of the Region;
- The green middle field symbolizes the local fauna and flora;
- The human silhouette and the pirogue symbolize the local culture and history;
- The waves symbolize rivers and communication.

Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 31 January 2010

Former flag of Region Guyane - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 23 October 2017

The former flag of Region Guyane, used not later than 2002, was white with the former logo of the Region.

Olivier Touzeau, 23 October 2017

Department of Guyane

Flags of the former Department of French Guiana - Image by Ivan Sache, 25 October 2009

The General Council of French Guiana has adopted unanimuously on 29 January 2010 a flag for the department. Unsurprisingly, this is the flag diagonally divided green-yellow with tyhe red star of the middle, until now the official flag of the UTG workers' union.
"The upper green triangle symbolizes forest while the lower triangle, yellow like gold, represents the numerous underground resources. In the middle, the five-pointed red star symbolizes the socialist orientation of the country". According to the ad hoc commission, the meaning of the star should be modified to "the blood in the middle".
Alain Tien-Liong, President of the General Council, said that "the flag should be hoisted together with the French and European Union flags".
[General Council of Guyane, 29 January 2010]

According to an opponent to the flag, the session of the General Council took actually place on 22 January 2010; three General Councillors were not present, all from the opposition group (right), but another five opposition councillors voted for the flag together with the majority.

Flags of the former General Council of French Guiana - Image by Ivan Sache, 5 June 2016

The flag of the former General Council of Guyane (photo) was white with the General Council's logo. The logo features a yellow sun disc, a green map of Guyana outlined by a yellow border ending with an arrow, the white letters "CG", and the writing "CONSEIL GENERAL" (black) / "Guyane" (green, in cursive font).

Ivan Sache & Pascal Vagnat, 5 June 2016