Gazankulu, 1973

Gazankulu, consisting of one main parcel of land and three small exclaves in the northern Transvaal, west of Kruger National Park, was intended to be a semi-independent homeland for the Tsonga or Shangaan people. The name Gazankulu is derived from Lake Gaza and Gazaland in nearby Mozambique, where the same ethnicity lives. Gazankulu was granted internal self-government on 1 February 1973. Its flag, adopted on 8 December 1973, had horizontal stripes of blue-white-blue, and in the centre of the white bar were two traditional black wooden spoons, connected with a 15-links black chain. Blue refers to the infinity of the sky and limitless advancement and development. Shangaan people in ceremonies traditionally use the spoons linked by a chain: people who wish to eat with them have to be in harmony because they cannot be separate. The colours black and white allude to the cooperation between black and white people in the territory.