Six Small Island Flags and the Stories Behind Them
Some of the most interesting flags in the world belong to places most people could not find on a map. A student's design, a contest with hundreds of entries, a compass rose for sailors, a harp for Irish settlers: here are six small islands and the stories behind their flags.
Saint Kitts and Nevis: a student's design
The flag of Saint Kitts and Nevis was designed by a student. Edrice Lewis's design was picked from 258 entries in a national contest, and it was first hoisted on September 19, 1983, the day the country became independent.
A black band edged in yellow runs diagonally across the flag, with two white stars on it for the two islands, Saint Christopher (as Saint Kitts is formally known) and Nevis. The upper triangle is green, for the fertile land, and the lower is red, for the struggle against slavery and colonialism. Yellow stands for sunshine and black for the African origin of the people.
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines: three gems, one letter
The three green diamonds on the flag of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines form the letter V, for Vincent, and refer to the islands' nicknames: the Gems of the Antilles and the Jewels of the Caribbean. The flag came into official use on October 21, 1985, replacing the design used since independence in 1979, which carried the coat of arms on a breadfruit leaf.
It has three vertical bands: blue for the sky and the sea, gold for warmth, the spirit of the people and the sands of the Grenadines, and green for the vegetation and the agricultural promise of the islands.
Aruba: a flag chosen from hundreds of designs
When Aruba prepared to take its own place within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, a commission opened a public contest for a flag and received hundreds of proposals, many from schoolchildren. None was adopted as it was. The commission asked an American flag expert, Whitney Smith, for a design, and the final flag was refined from there. The island council approved the design on March 16, 1976, and the flag was first raised on March 18, 1976. Aruba still celebrates Flag and Anthem Day on March 18.
The blue field is the sea around the island. The red four-pointed star in the corner is read as the four points of the compass and the more than forty nationalities that live on the island, and also as the blood of the ancestors. The yellow stripes are read in several ways, including the island's openness to the world and its sun and wealth. The meanings vary by source, and that is part of the charm. Aruba became a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands on January 1, 1986.
Bonaire: a compass and six villages
Bonaire's flag was set by an island ordinance dated December 11, 1981. At its center is a black compass rose, a reminder of the sailors who crossed the seas. Beside it is a red six-pointed star that stands for the fighting and surviving spirit of the island's six traditional villages: Antriol, Nikiboko, Nort Saliña, Playa, Tera Korá and Rincón, according to the account cited by flag historians.
The colors echo the Dutch tricolor. Yellow is the sun and the flowers, blue the sea, and white peace, freedom and calm. Since October 10, 2010, Bonaire is a special municipality of the Netherlands.
Montserrat: the Emerald Isle of the Caribbean
Montserrat is a British overseas territory, and its flag is a Blue Ensign with the territory's badge on the right side. The current version, with the badge enlarged and edged in white, dates from 1999.
The badge shows a woman with a golden harp, holding a cross. She is Erin, the personification of Ireland, and she is there because Irish settlers arrived on the island from 1632. That heritage is why Montserrat is nicknamed the Emerald Isle of the Caribbean, and why since 1985 it has made March 17, Saint Patrick's Day, a holiday. It also recalls a failed uprising of enslaved people in 1768.
British Virgin Islands: Saint Ursula and her lamps
The flag of the British Virgin Islands is a Blue Ensign with the territory's badge, granted by Royal Warrant on November 15, 1960. The badge shows Saint Ursula holding a golden oil lamp, surrounded by eleven other lamps, twelve in all. According to tradition, the eleven stand for her eleven thousand companions, and the motto beneath is "Vigilate", Latin for "be watchful".
The same story gave the islands their name: tradition says that Columbus, in 1493, named them Santa Úrsula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins, a name later shortened to Virgin Islands.
Small places often have the most carefully chosen symbols, because every color and every star had to say something about a few thousand people. If you come from one of them, have family there, or fell in love with one on a trip, a flag is a way to carry it with you.
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