Mozambique: Mondlane urges removal of AK-47 machine gun, short-handled hoe from country’s flag

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Mozambique: Mondlane urges removal of AK-47 machine gun, short-handled hoe from country’s flag

12:14 CAT | 17 Nov 2025

Photo: Lusa

Politician Venâncio Mondlane on Friday submitted a proposal to the Mozambican parliament for a specific revision of the Constitution to remove the Kalashnikov (AK-47) machine gun from the Mozambican flag, claiming it is a military symbol, ending the event under heavy police guard.

“It is an obvious and clear issue, the psychological effects of using a bellicose element, an element of war, in a national symbol. This means that you are conveying a certain value. The national flag and national symbols are elements that convey values, behavioural patterns, personality patterns,” Venâncio Mondlane told journalists outside the parliament in Maputo.

During the statements, motorists passing by began honking their horns, drawing the politician’s attention and prompting the police to cut off traffic near parliament. Venâncio Mondlane then left on foot, with the police forming a strong security cordon around the parliament premises, with heavily armed riot police and an armoured vehicle from the Rapid Intervention Unit.

The draft bill for the specific revision of the Constitution of the Republic “regarding the issue of the national flag”, the current version of which dates from 1983, was authored by the Anamola party, which the former presidential candidate (Venâncio Mondlane) founded and leads, and was submitted to the parliamentary benches, which are responsible for legislative initiatives, with the knowledge of the speaker of parliament, Margarida Talapa, and the specialised committees.

Venâncio Mondlane explained that the flag proposal was the result of a consultation process over the last ten months, which began during the contestation of the October 2024 electoral process, which he led and which lasted until March. He received 5,000 proposals and awarded a prize of US$5,000 to the chosen proposal, which removes the rifle and hoe, replacing them with a book, while maintaining the rest of the format.

“Of these 5,000 flags, 144 were selected based on 14 basic criteria, and of those 144 flags, three reached the final,” explained Mondlane.

The dossier with the proposal taken to parliament will be made public, he said, as it contains “the historical and technical reasoning behind changing a flag”, claiming that “there is a lot of misinformation” and “a lot of manipulation regarding the idea of changing a national symbol.”

“We present general reasons in the world that lead to the change of the flag. One of them has to do with a dark past in the history of each of the countries. And we have concrete examples in Africa of countries that already had warlike elements in their flags and even made a specific rule that national symbols should no longer have militarised elements. I am talking about Kenya, I am talking about Uganda,” he pointed out.

He therefore argued that Mozambique must choose whether it wants a flag that “conveys a personality of prosperity and peace” with these “symbols”, or “a personality of war, militarism and crime”.

“If we are the only country in the world that has a modern weapon on its flag, the psychosocial interpretation is that we have a model of society that involves violence (…) bloodshed (…) crime,” he explained.

Regarding the removal of the hoe – replaced, like the AK-47, by a book – in this proposal, he justifies it by the fact that it does not fit in with modern agriculture: “the idea today has to go through the technologies applied to the country’s agricultural policy. If you have knowledge, if you have a book, it means that you have access today to the most appropriate technology for modern agriculture”.

“It is a short-handled hoe, which represents primitive agriculture, represents medieval agriculture,” Mondlane further explained.

The politician was speaking to journalists while, at the same time, a parliamentary session was taking place inside the parliament, with the government, including Prime Minister Benvinda Levi, providing information to MPs.

The former presidential candidate in the 9 October 2024 elections, who never recognised the announced results, in a context of violence that has caused more than 400 deaths in five months, as well as looting and destruction of public institutions and businesses, believes that the proposal submitted today could reach the plenary session of the parliament and that it could be included in the ongoing inclusive national dialogue process for the pacification of the country, which provides for the revision of other aspects of the Constitution.

“We are optimistic because the reasons behind the proposal are supra-partisan. They are reasons that have nothing to do with particular interests, partisan interests of anyone,” he concluded.

VM submeteu hoje um anteprojecto de alteração da Bandeira Nacional à Assembleia da República. O político diz que a proposta poderá trazer uma nova imagem internacional ao país.#simbolosnacionais #venanciomondlane #stvnoticias #gruposoico

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— stvnoticias (@stvnoticias_mz) November 15, 2025