Last modified: 2010-11-13 by bruce berry
Keywords: bakonjo | uganda | congo | ruwenzori | monkey | baamba | ruwenzururu |
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![[Ruwenzori Bakonjo flag]](../images/u/ug_rubak.gif)
image
by Jaume Ollé, 03 Jan 2002
![[Ruwenzururu Kingdom flag]](../images/u/ug-ruwen.gif)
by Pascal Gross, 13 Feb 2000, based on a scan by Bruce Berry
Another regional flag is from 1962 and is purported to represent the
Bakongo people of the Ruwenzori (a mountainous region straddling
Uganda
and Congo). The flag is green over blue over yellow. A white disc is centred
on the green and blue stripes (i.e., on the upper third of the flag). On
this disc is an image of a black monkey on a branch. I've no information
regarding the status of this flag nor the intentions of those who supposedly
used it.
Stuart A. Notholt, 15 September 1996
I did a quick search on Ruwenzori - there is only one people which share
that area in DR Congo and Uganda, and that are the Amba, see Ethnologue.
However, it is quite likely that the people on this page have been mis-spelled
and in fact are *Konjo*, an Ugandan tribe, see Ethnologue.
There are at present 16.000 BaAmba people and 361,709 BaKonjo people in
the Southwest Ugandan Ruwenzori area.
Another question: where did Stuart Notholt get his data from?
And of course: what kind of monkey?
The flag is on this
website. info:
30 Jun 1962 Rwenzururu Kingdom unilateral declaration of independence
from Bunyoro-Kitara (not recognized by Uganda).
Kings (title Iremangoma)
30 Jun 1962 - 1965 Isaaya Mukirane (d. 1965)
1965 - ? Charles Wesley Mumbere (to 1998 in exile)
Jarig Bakker, 01 Jan 2002
I did find a rather definitive answer on whose flag is the one with
the cute monkey. In November 1962,one month after Uganda's independence,
the Bakonjo-Baamba under the leadership of Mukirane declared Ruwenzururu
an independent state in the letters to Prime Minister Milton Obote, UN
and OAU.(They didn't last long). The whole story, pretty interesting, can
be found on this
webpage.
Chrystian Kretowicz, 01 Jan 2002
The trouble started in the 19th century (?), when the Bakonjo and Baamba,
who were then independent, refused to be a part of the Batoro kingdom,
but they were made part of it; when the British came they supported the
Batoro kingdom (divide and rule), and crushed a Bakonjo rebellion in 1919.
In c. 1950 the Rwenzururu Movement became a force to be reckoned with.
In 1991 the movement was disrupted by the splinter group NALU (National Movement for the Liberation of Uganda), and in 1994 the last rebels surrendered,
later to be replaced by Chris' Allied Democratic Forces.
The ADF is apparently on the FBI's list as a terrorist organization.
It is unknown, where it gets its support; however its main activities have
been carried out in the old Batoro area, which is hundreds of kilometers
away from Sudan... (info from quite a few websites)
Jarig Bakker, 01 Jan 2002
Are we sure of the source of all of these flags?
I said that the first image sent to the list matched the one in the
Flags of Aspirant Peoples chart - in which the disc with the monkey is
skewed to the top of the flag. Note that the chart I referred to is Bartlett's
one, not Jackson's one.
It would be interesting to have a primary source (i.e. a photography)
of the original flag, if any preserved.
Ivan Sache, 06 Jan 2002
The Rwenzururu Secessionist Movement flag.
It represents Love (blue), Fecundity (green), and brother Sun (yellow),
surrounding a white disc (the snows of Ruwenzori), with a Colobus monkey
- added later - (emblem of the inner inviolability of the Bakonzo tribe's
territory).
Information by the designer of the flag, Tom Stacey, as recorded on
this webpage.
Parren Plytra, 06 Mar 2004
image
by Jarig Bakker, 07 Mar 2004
On Tom Stacey's site is the
first flag of the Rwenzururu kingdom: plain blue - green - yellow, with
in the center of the green stripe a white circle.
Jarig Bakker, 07 Mar 2004
![[Ruwenzururu Aspirant People's flag]](../images/u/ug-ru.gif)
by Dirk Schönberger, 02 Jan 2002
I send you my version of this flag. I do not think the colours are quite
right, but I believe the monkey
image is quite better. The original image was from the "Flags of Aspirant
Peoples" flag chart.
Dirk Schönberger, 02 Jan 2002
From the "Flags of Aspirant Peoples" chart, flag #9, captioned: RUWENZURURU,
Bakongos, 1962, Zaire & Uganda
The image shown there is similar to the one provided to FOTW. The monkey is black, except the end of its tail, which is white.
Captain Haddock would call it "cercopitheque".
Ivan Sache, 02 Jan 2002
![[Ruwenzururu variant flag]](../images/u/ug-ruw62.gif)
image
by Chrystian Kretowicz, 01 Jan 2002
I don't know what kind of monkey it is, but I have in my files a basic
image of the full flag. I don't remember where I got it.
It might be the flag of the rebel group called the ADF (Ruwenzururu)
active in Western Uganda. They do appear to be based in the Ruwenzori mountains, obviously.
ADF stands for "Allied Democratic Forces". It was formed after the split
in a Muslim separatist group in Northern Uganda, one faction became the
ADF. Nobody knows exactly what the ADF are fighting for, but they are most
likely supported by the government of
Sudan. This is plausible since Sudan
and Uganda have long been fighting a proxy war, sponsoring rebels in each
other territory. The LRA, Lord's Resistance Army (Christian fundamentalist),
another Ugandan rebel group, are certainly based in Sudan.
Chrystian Kretowicz, 01 Jan 2002
Sometime in 1981 Mr. Alfred Znamierowski let me copy some flags of unusual
or long-forgotten countries from his enormous files (paper ones). The sketches,
like the one of Ruwenzururu were pretty rough. I want to stress that the
image I sent has absolutely nothing to do with Jackson's chart of the
flags of Aspirant Peoples.
Chrystian Kretowicz, 05 Jan 2002