The cutting tool shown with a cogwheel on Angola’s national flag is a machete.
The yellow emblem places a machete across a half-cogwheel, beneath a five-pointed star. In the symbolism defined for Angola’s national emblem, the machete represents peasants, agriculture, and the struggle against Portuguese colonial rule. The half-cogwheel represents workers and industry, so the two objects together evoke both rural and industrial society.
Angola adopted the flag on 11 November 1975, when it became independent from Portugal after a thirteen-year war of independence. The flag has a red upper half and a black lower half. Red refers to blood shed during colonial oppression, the independence war, and the defense of the country; black represents Africa. The emblem is yellow, a color associated with Angola’s wealth.
The machete can be mistaken for a sickle or axe because it is a curved agricultural cutting implement. It is not merely decorative: its inclusion connects the flag to farming and to the armed liberation struggle. The design is also politically and historically linked to the MPLA, whose flag influenced the national design.