Ndola (Zambia)

Last modified: 2022-10-22 by bruce berry
Keywords: ndola | zambia |
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• Background
• Description of the flag

• Zambia
• Zambia - national index

Background

Ndola is Zambia's third largest city. It was founded in 1924 and became a municipality in 1932.  It is the commercial and industrial centre of the Copperbelt region, the main copper producing area of the country.  It is located in the north of the country, 10km from the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).  It is the capital of the Copperbelt Province.
Tomislav Šipek, 31 July 2018

Description of the flag

The flag of Ndola is white with the municipal coat of arms in the centre.
Tomislav Šipek, 31 July 2018

image sent by Tomislav Šipek, 31 July 2018

The municipal coat of arms for Ndola were granted by the English Kings-of-Arms by Letters Patent dated 18 June 1953 with the following blazon:

Arms:            Barry wavy of eight Or and Azure a pale Vert charged with three mullets Gold.
Crest:            On a wreath Or and Azure, on a mount a fig tree fructed the lower branches entwines with a steel chain the links broken at each end pendent on either side all proper.
Mantling:        Azure doubled Or.
Supporters:    On either side a lion holding in the mouth a steel chain the links broken at each end pendent and reflexed over the exterior fore leg all proper.
Motto:            Indola Nec Indolerntia (Character not Indolence)

The green vertical bar in the shield represents the tropical vegetation which surrounds Ndola, and the three gold stars represent the principal groups into which the residents of the city can be divided - commerce and industry, the civil service and the railways.  They also recall that the town was originally divided into three wards.  On either side of the green stripe are wavy blue lines symbolising rivers and alluding to the fact that Ndola sits on the watershed of rivers which run north into the Congo River and south into the Zambezi River.  The gold portion of the shield represents the wealth derived from copper mining.  The wild fig tree forming the crest is a representation of the 'slave tree' which existed in Ndola, but the chains of slavery have been wrenched loose by the two lions which support the shield.

image sent by Bruce Berry, 09 Sept 2018

A stamp issued in 1987 featuring the Ndola arms showed the motto as "Tiyende Pamodzi".
Bruce Berry, 09 Sept 2018