Last modified: 2023-06-24 by ian macdonald
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image by Tomislav Todorovic, 3 October 2022
In a news article about the International Day of Toubou Culture there's a
photo of a flag I've never seen before: light blue over yellow, with a black
star in the centre. It seems like this is the flag of the Toubou people, who
live in Chad, Niger and Libya.
https://www.alwihdainfo.com/Tchad-la-culture-Toubou-celebree-au-Ouaddai_a117049.html
Brendan Hennessy, 2 October 2022
This is the cultural Toubou flag. The blue mean the sky and the water,
the yellow is the land, and the black star is the tubu african man. The
proportion is 5:8. The size of star is give only in cms, 16 cms for a flag 50 cm
high.
It seems these "official" proportions are not followed in the flags we
can see on photos. When yellow is above, star is upside down if is a
manufactured flag, but many flags are handmade and some are made all upside
down.
Jaume Olle, 2 October 2022
The dimensions and the signification given by Jaume can be seen here:
https://www.facebook.com/Touboumedia/posts/1119578011802637
The flag has
been observed in Libya, Niger, Chad.
Some more pictures:
https://www.facebook.com/WasalToubous/
https://www.facebook.com/WasalToubous/posts/117592590511633?locale2=sw_KE
https://www.facebook.com/WasalToubous/posts/121441593460066/
https://www.facebook.com/AltbwAbnaAlshra/photos/a.353511281441345/3907527999372971
https://www.facebook.com/AltbwAbnaAlshra/photos/4527950370664061
https://www.tchadpages.com/libye-tripoli-accueille-un-symposium-pour-celebrer-la-journee-internationale-de-la-culture-toubou/
Olivier Touzeau, 3 October 2022
As the listed sources reveal, the star has a regular shape on manufactured
flags and the shades of blue and yellow are somewhat lighter on them as well,
close to the FOTW colors B- (slightly more inclined towards cyan/green) and Y,
respectively. The "star size" is actually the diameter of the circumscribed
circle; that is another detail which varies a lot in the hand-made flags, as do
the star shape and its precise position.
Tomislav Todorovic, 3 October 2022
While the general design of the flag is well-known among its users, there is
also much carelessness regarding its correct implementation. For example, the
flag is often turned upside-down, usually when being hand-held with no staff,
but there are examples of such use even with the staffs:
https://www.facebook.com/WasalToubous/photos/233892552214969
https://www.facebook.com/WasalToubous/photos/389228780014678
(Note that
in the above examples, the flag of Libya is hoisted correctly.)
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 5 March 2023
The
disregard for correct placement of blue and yellow fields has further led to
frequent incorrect orienting of the star, which is often displayed upside-down:
https://www.facebook.com/WasalToubous/photos/272865928317631/
https://www.facebook.com/WasalToubous/photos/313059970964893/
https://www.facebook.com/AltbwAbnaAlshra/photos/4714739531985143/
This variant can be displayed upside-down as a whole, too:
https://www.facebook.com/WasalToubous/photos/312323724371851
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 5 March 2023
The
star may also be rotated for 90 degrees, usually pointing towards the hoist, but
sometimes it points towards the fly:
https://www.facebook.com/WasalToubous/photos/205781678359390
https://www.facebook.com/WasalToubous/photos/250341063903451
https://www.facebook.com/WasalToubous/photos/380522410885315
https://www.facebook.com/WasalToubous/photos/388459973424892
https://www.facebook.com/WasalToubous/photos/412366877700868
The
lack of regard also means that an incorrect variant may be displayed together
with the correct one, or that two incorrect variants be displayed together:
https://www.facebook.com/WasalToubous/photos/332497885687768
https://www.facebook.com/WasalToubous/videos
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 5 March 2023
images by Tomislav Todorovic, 5 March 2023
The field colors may
also be arranged vertically, typically with blue at the hoist, while the star
may be oriented either upright or sideways, pointing into the blue field in the
latter case; these, too, may be hoisted upside-down:
https://www.facebook.com/WasalToubous/videos
https://www.tiktok.com/@hissein__mi_bic/video
https://www.facebook.com/CultureGourane/videos
https://www.facebook.com/WasalToubous/photos/
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 5 March 2023
Lastly, to illustrate
how far the design variations can go, the flags will be presented with unequal
sizes of yellow and blue vertical fields and a "wide" black star pointing into
the yellow field, but being centered within the flag, only the tip of one ray
being placed upon yellow:
https://www.facebook.com/WasalToubous/photos/418634687074087
https://www.facebook.com/WasalToubous/photos/418634727074083
https://www.facebook.com/WasalToubous/photos/424875463116676
These
irregularities seem to vary between individual flags.
Tomislav Todorovic,
5 March 2023
A flag with a very different design is frequently presented online as the flag of Toubou people: a blue-white-green horizontal triband, with a large star surrounded with eight smaller ones, all yellow on the white field. The depictions of this flag vary. Until more information is revealed, all the variants below may be considered as equally valid candidates for the correct design.
Version based on source 1
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 14 May 2023
Typically, three stripes are of equal width [1, 2], the shade of
blue is light (close to that of the bicolor Toubou flag) [1, 2, 3] and the
shade of yellow is dark [1, 2].
Tomislav Todorovic, 14 May 2023
Version based on source 2
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 14 May 2023
The position of smaller stars varies, but they are usually depicted as being
placed upon the eight points of an imaginary decagon [1, 2].
Tomislav Todorovic, 14 May 2023
Version based on source 3
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 14 May 2023
However, blue and green stripes may be half
as wide as white one, with a lighter shade of the stars [3, 4], while the
shade of blue may be darker [4]. The orientation of the stars also varies, being either upright
[2, 3] or pointing away from the flag center [1].
Tomislav Todorovic, 14 May 2023
Version based on source 4
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 14 May 2023
The only photo which
currently displays the use of this design, although the object might actually
not be a flag [4], does not reveal the orientation of the stars clearly, although the
zooming seems to reveal that the latter is the case.
Tomislav Todorovic, 14 May 2023
Sources:
[1] Flags of the Stateless Nations website
http://stateless-nations.com (image:
http://stateless-nations.com/files/pasted-graphic-240-4.jpg
[2] Libyan
Notes blog at Tumblr:
https://libyannotes-blog.tumblr.com/post/49104733056/drapeau-toubou-tebu-flag
[3] Picture of Libyan and alternate Toubou flags at Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=215231307503696&set=a.215231290837031
[4] Photo of alternate Toubou flag(oid) at Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/AltbwAbnaAlshra/photos/365566173569189
Tomislav Todorovic, 14 May 2023
