We’ve had fireworks at midnight, today canons have fired, and all around the city fresh Angola flags are flying. The national flag of Angola came into use at independence on November 11, 1975 and was initially politically associated and Soviet influenced. Nowadays it has a more general connection with the red being the spilt blood of Angolans, the black representing Africa and the symbol in the middle is of a crossed cog wheel (representing workers and industry) and machete (representing the peasantry, agricultural production and the armed struggle). There are several international newspaper articles documenting some of the struggles that have been and are still faced in Angola.