on it of an animal, a place or an idea, or any com-
bination of these may signify that it represents a
particular group of people who have a special rela-
tionship to what is depicted. Sometimes one or
more long, thin pieces of cloth are attached to the
flagpole, mostly below the flag. These are called
streamers. If flown on their own (without a flag),
they may be referred to aspennantsand may carry
an emblem.
Many African families and clans, sometimes
occupying entire communities and even districts,
take their family names from the ancestral person
or the sacred animal or object represented and
recalled in the emblem and displayed on the flag.
The members of a particular group do not eat
their representative animal or a particular part of
it. If the representative thing is an object, then it
must be avoided. Each of these representative ani-
mals and objects is taboo to those it represents.
The penalty for not respecting this rule may be ill-
ness or some other form of punishment to some-
one, not necessarily the one who made the
infraction, but one related to him or her. The
practices of species protection, without borders,
and of environmentalism in general that were
instructed by this worldview are of tremendous
importance.
Evidence from the earliest times (e.g., the
Narmer Palette) suggests that at first the actual
object or body of the animal thus sacred to and
representative of the group was placed atop a long
pole and carried aloft to represent the group,
either permanently at institutions and/or on cere-
monial occasions. Whatever the facts, over time,
the visual image of the person, animal, or object
came to be artistically represented, often stylized,
on a piece of cloth, which was then placed at one
end of a long pole and flown as a flag or standard
to represent the group.
Historical RecordIn Kemet (ancient Egypt), these flags, standards,
ensigns, pennants, or streamers were flown just
outside of buildings that housed representative
institutions of the group: the family home, the
tomb of a leading ancestor, the shrine of the
family, clan, district, and state, or the residence
of the nsw: nesu or Pharaoh. On ceremonial
occasions (e.g., at theheb sed or rejuvenation
and jubilee ceremony of answ), the standard or
pennants, as well as the shrines, of all the divi-
sions or sections of the greater entity represented
by their coming together, were taken to the loca-
tion of the ceremony. Thus flown together in one
place, the flags represented a great demonstra-
tion of unity and strength.
When it was decided to write the language of
Kemet, the inventors of the nTr:Medew Netjer
(hieroglyphs) chose the flag—nTr: netjer(singu-
lar); nTrw:netjeru(plural)—as the symbol that in
the written language would also represent ideas of
divinity and the divine. The significance accorded
the flag by the inventors of the Medew Netjer
demonstrated the special importance the
Kmt(y)w: Kemetyu (the people of Kemet) attached
to this object. The sign of the flag is always writ-
ten first in words containing the sounds it repre-
sents irrespective of whether these sounds were
pronounced first. This change in the written order
of the signs, in general called transposition, indi-
cates that the idea, things, or beings represented
by the flag are of the greatest importance, even
sacred, and must therefore be shown to be so.
Another type of standard evolved as a wooden
framework attached to a long pole and supported
an emblematic animal or thing, often a religious
object. The inventors of the Medew Netjer
deployed the picture of a standard, especially
those used for carrying religious symbols, to rep-
resent the idea of “religious standard” and related
ideas such as the names of particular divinities.
The word forstandardin the Medew Netjer isiAt:
iat. The fact that there is the termiAt sryt, which
translates as “military standard,” indicates that
different military forces of Kemet and/or parts of
that country’s army and navy were identified by
standards peculiar to them.Kimani S. K. NehusiSee alsoAncestors; FamilyFurther Readings
Armah, A. K. (2006).The Eloquence of the Scribes:A
Memoir on the Sources and Resources of African
Literature. Popenguine, Senegal: Per Ankh.
Erman, A., & Grapow, H. (1982).Wörterbuch der
Aegyptischen Sprache:Vol.I. Berlin: Akademie Verlag.
Gardiner, A. (1988).Egyptian Grammar:Being an
Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs(3rd rev. ed.).
Oxford, UK: Griffith Institute, Ashmoleum Museum.Flag and Flag Planting 269