I need to tell you guys about the time that the nation of Malawi, in southeastern Africa,
decided to change its flag one time... and then two years later, they changed it back.
It's a weird story.
This is Malawi's flag, adopted in 1964 when Malawi became independent from Britain.
It features three horizontal stripes; the black one representing the people, the red
one representing the blood of those who fought for freedom, and the green representing the
vegetation of Malawi.
And in the center of the black stripe on top is a rising sun image, which symbolizes the
dawn of a new nation and the hope for a good future.
In 2009, the President of Malawi was this guy: Bingu wa Mutharika.
He had already been President for about five years before that, and during this first term
he did a fairly good job.
People were satisfied with his success.
He was working on fighting government corruption–he even fired his own Vice President because
of corruption.
He also worked on helping the economy improve, and working on helping the agriculture of
Malawi improve.
And people were satisfied.
So, in 2009, he ran for reelection with a new vice presidential running mate named Joyce
Banda.
Together, they won the election.
Mutharika gained a second term as President of Malawi, and Joyce Banda became
the Vice President.
But in his second term, President Mutharika started to do some stuff that wasn't that
popular, and wasn't really that democratic either.
And one of those things he did was in 2010, when his government changed the national flag
without consulting the people of Malawi.
They didn't have a vote, they didn't have a referendum.
They just changed it.
And what did they change it to?
They changed it to this.
You can see they changed the order of the colors of the stripes in the background, but
the big change was to the sun.
They turned it from a red rising sun, at the top of the flag; to a white complete, full
sun in the middle of the flag.
When he was announcing the new design, President Mutharika said this: "We cannot continue to
be at dawn in 2010 as we were in 1964."
"We don't have to live permanently in the past.
There comes a time things have to change and the change of the flag was no exception."
He was basically saying that Malawi wasn't hoping to become a developed nation anymore;
Malawi WAS a developed nation.
Yippee!
We made it, everyone!
We are a great developed nation now!
Let's celebrate with a full sun instead of a rising sun!
That was basically what he was saying.
And his first term did help the economy a bit, but Malawi was a still a very poor country.
Like, one of the world's poorest countries.
It was a little early to celebrate, a lot of people were saying.
And, of course, the original flag was the flag they've had since independence.
He didn't ask anyone if they wanted to part with this in the first place.
And so a lot of people were very upset with this.
A lot of organizations in Malawi criticized the government for just changing it on everyone.
And the new flag that they adopted in 2010 was pretty unpopular with Malawians.
But then, two years later in April 2012, President Bingu wa Mutharika died of a heart attack,
leaving the Vice President of Malawi, Joyce Banda, to become the President.
Now, you'd think the Vice President under him would do a lot of the same stuff that
he did, right?
And keep up his policies and stuff?
Nope.
No.
Because, in the middle of Mutharika's second term, he had some major disagreements with
Joyce Banda.
And these disagreements got so huge that Mutharika's political party kicked Joyce Banda out of
the party.
So, you had this weird situation in Malawi at the time of Mutharika's death, where the
President and the Vice President had two different parties and were fighting with each other.
So when Joyce Banda became President after Mutharika's death, she started undoing a ton
of the stuff that Mutharika had done.
She got rid of his presidential jet that he bought.
She fired his cabinet.
And, of course, she brought back the original flag of Malawi.
And to this day, this is still their national flag.
So, through Malawi's entire history as an independent country, this has been their flag
except for those two weird years at the end of Bingu wa Mutharika's presidency.
So what's the moral of the story?
I guess, don't change your national flag without consulting the people first, or else they'll
change it back after you die.
I guess that's the moral of the story.
It's a good lesson in case any of you become President someday.
Thanks for watching, everyone!
Bye.
♪ Here comes the sun, doo doo doo doo ♫