THE HISTORY OF THE FLAG AND
OTHER NATIONAL EMBLEMS OF
TRINIDAD AND
TOBAGO
Newsday Historical digest
October 29, 2000
Pages 13,14
Dr.
Eric Williams said in his ‘Broadcast to the Nation’ on Independence
Day, August 31, 1962: “Our National Flag belongs to all our citizens.
Our National Coat of Arms, with our national Birds inscribed therein,
is the sacred trust of all our citizens… Let us always be able to say, with
the Psalmist: ‘Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell
together in unity’.”
Williams’
appeal for unity is by no means new in the cosmopolitan society of
Trinidad. More than 200 years ago, long
before the first arrival of Indian, Chinese, Portuguese or Arab immigrants,
even before the British settled here, Sir Ralph Abercromby, who took Trinidad
from the Spanish crown, gave the island of Trinidad its ‘Old Motto’, a verse
from the Latin Aeneid of Virgil, Book IV, line 112: ‘Miscerique probat populos
et foedera jungi.’
(He
approved of the mingling of peoples and their being joined together by
treaties).
[After
the famous Roman poet Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro, 70-19 B.C.), who wrote:
‘Miscerive probet populos, aut foedera iungi’.]
The
concept that a group of people uses a flag, a song and maybe a verse as a
symbol for pride, patriotism, reverence and a sense of belonging can be seen in
the widest sense as a western concept.
It goes back to army warfare, when the legionnaires or soldiers had to
be able to identify who is where and where is who by coloured pieces of material
affixed to long sticks – the idea of a ‘flag’ was born. The ‘Coat of Arms’ was another highly
visible identity mark for men who were covered from head to foot in protective
metal. Friend or foe looked very
similar in armour, yet were identifiable by their coat of arms on their
shield. Little, by little, as regions
wee welded together by generations of war faring tribes and family feuds, those
flags and coats of arms became symbols for all the inhabitants of that region.
The
original Amerindian inhabitants of the Americas had no idea of flags or coats
of arms, at least not in the European sense.
They would paint symbols on their skin, and worship certain totems as
symbolic for their tribes. When the
Europeans – in Trinidad’s case, the Spanish, in Tobago’s case, the Dutch – came
to these shores, one of the first things they did was to unfold the standard of
their respective royal house. In the
case of Spain, this procedure was enhanced by the firm planting of yet another
symbol on the beach of Eric Point: a wooden cross, in the name of His Most
Catholic Majesties, King Ferdinand and his wife Ysabel of Spain. It must have seemed a strange spectacle to
the Amerindians who witnessed it, but being master embroiders themselves, they
must have surely appreciated the fine workmanship in the Royal Standard of
Spain that Columbus brought: the gold castle of Castille and the lion rampant,
appliquéd on red and silver. With the
cross, the Amerindians had probably no relationship whatsoever, having never
seen it before. With the
‘requerimiento’, Columbus declared their land as Catholic, Papal and a grant to
his King.
Columbus
himself was made governor of Trinidad, and indeed, admiral of the whole
Caribbean. Thus he also unfurled his
own flag in Trinidad, a green cross on white ground with the letters ‘F’ and
‘Y’ (for Ferdinand and Ysabel).
Columbus was thus the first governor of Trinidad and Tobago, which the
discoverer saw from far away on the horizon and named ‘Bellaforma’. Columbus had a coat of arms as well, which
was bestowed on him after his first voyage in 1493. It comprised the golden castle of Castile and the lion rampant of
the Spanish standard, with some gold islands, waves of the sea and his own
arms. Later on he altered the coat of
arms slightly.
Columbus
might have been the first governor, but the first resident governor to come
here was Don Antonio Sedeno in 1530. He
settled in Cumucarape (today Mucurapo) and doubtlessly flew the Spanish
standard over his ajoupa. Some 60 years
later, in 1592, Domingo de Vera founded San Jose de Oruna (St Joseph) as the
first capital, and the flag of Spain again was hoisted there. It was the time of the conquistadors, and
Governor Antonio de Berrio, who followed his agent de Vera to San Jose,
intended to use it as a safe haven for the exploratory trips into the South
American mainland in search of El Dorado.
In 1595, San Jose was ‘conquered’ by a British conquistador, Sir Walter
Raleigh, but Trinidad did not (yet) become a British possession. The Spanish flag remained on the staff,
fluttering a bit sadly above the smoking cinders of San Jose de Oruna in
Raleigh’s wake. Somehow, its pride was
a bit tarnished, since Dutch and English flags wee unfurled in small enclaves
in the south, Punta de Galera and Moruga.
In the 1650s, Governor Lopez de Escobar put an end to those ‘alien’
settlements.
Not
so in Tobago, which changed hands frequently.
Dutch, French and English flags succeeded each other. In 1628, Jan de Moor started the first
settlement where Plymouth now is, called it ‘New Walcheren’ and, if he was so
inclined, would have hoisted the Dutch flag.
In the following centuries, the Dutch flag would have given way to the
English, Spanish and French flags, and intermittently even the Courland
standard crayfish on scarlet ground – would have graced the island.
Around
the turn of the 19th century, both Trinidad and Tobago finally
remained in British hands. From 1606 –
1800, the British flew the ‘Grand Union Flag’ wherever they went, which was
amended slightly in 1801 and remained so until today.
It
was not until 1959, more than half a century after the annexation of Tobago
with Trinidad, that the twin-island crown Colony received its first distinctive
flag. The Colony Flag had the Union
Flag on the top left corner and the Armorial Ensigns (with the aforementioned
Latin motto) on blue ground. The days
of the British Empire were slowly coming to an end, and the day of the
inauguration of the Cabinet system in Trinidad, the 10th July 1959,
the Colony Flag was hoisted.
Interestingly,
the Armorial Ensigns had been given to Trinidad and Tobago only a year earlier,
on the 13th October 1958. It
shows a seascape with a mountain in the middle, a jetty and ships on the water,
flying the Colony Flag.
The
design of the Armorial Ensign of 1958 was based on the Great Seal of the colony
of 1803, which looks just like it and bears on its circumference the words:
‘Sigillum Insulae Nostrae Trinitatis’ (Seal of Our Island of Trinidad). On the reverse the seal reads: Georgius Tertius
Dei Gratia, - Britanniarum Rax, Fidei Defensor’ (George III by God’s Grace,
King of Britannia, Defender of the Faith’).
Tobago’s
Great Seal dates from at least 1815, also from the reign of George III. It shows on one side four ships, three at
anchor and one sailing. A coconut palm
is on the left, hills, buildings and more palm trees are in the
background. A sun with rays and a face
smiles above all. The motto is:
‘Pulchrior evenit’ (‘It emerges more beautiful’). The Flag Badge of Tobago is similar, with one ship, a hill and a
palm tree in the foreground.
Interestingly, albeit the fact that after Tobago’s unification with
Trinidad in 1889 the common governor of both islands flew the Trinidad Flag
Badge emblazoned on the Union Flag as his standard, the Tobago Flag Badge was
impressed upon currency notes of the government of Trinidad and Tobago until
many decades later.
On
June 8, 1962, it was announced in London that Trinidad and Tobago would be
granted independence on the 31st August of that same year. Feverishly, a new flag needed to be
designed. A committee was appointed to
choose a design and a new motto, and in no time on 26th June, to
be precise the committee submitted a design, which the Cabinet approved.
Since
then, the official flag of Trinidad and Tobago is on a red field, ‘a bend
dexter sable bordered silver’. And
while there may be as many symbolic meanings of this design as there are people
in T&T, the official one of 1962 reads:
The
Black represents for us the dedication of the people joined together by one
strong bond. It is the colour of
strength, of unity of purpose, and of the wealth of the land. Red is the colour most expressive of our
country. It represents the vitality of
the land and its peoples, it is the warmth and energy of the sun, the courage and
friendliness of the people. White is
the sea by which these lands are bound, the cradle of our heritage, the purity
of our aspirations and the equality of all men under the sun.
(Source: ‘Our Flag’ – Independence Publication –
Government of Trinidad
and Tobago, 1962).