Continuing reflecting on the flags of people who have come to our church in London
Some flags are boring, some are cheerful, some are weird, but the flag of Angola seems to me to be, well, scary.
It owes its general form to those who fought in its civil war, and to the supporting Soviet Union. But as Angola reinvents itself as a tourist destination I can't help thinking it is missing a trick or two with the flag. It looks like some grim European industrialised nation instead of an expansive sunlit African coastal country. The black stands for Africa, the red (as usual) for blood shed in the fight and the peculiar reinvention of the hammer and sickle representing agriculture and industry. The latter might have worked for the USSR but Angola is notably poor at both agriculture and industry which makes it a little ironic.
And my mind turns to church and the way we are quite inclined to dress up the good news in ways that are well-intentioned but not very inviting.
Maybe we and Angola could learn together.
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