All French colonies had no own flag over a long period. It had to be hoisted the French tricolor. This in principle usual until today. The status of the colonies changed over the years. Some of them are now overseas departments, and thus a ultraperipheric part of France and of the EU; others are overseas communities, autonomous, and not a part of France or the EU. Overseas departments belong – in contrast to the departments of the motherland – to no administrative region of France, they are a separate region. The territorial entity has therefore officially to use the flag of France. However, the General Council as the highest elected collegial body of a French Department and the Regional Council as the highest elected collegial body of a French Region can have their own flags. These flags of departments and regions, however, have oftenly the appearance of company flags with logos or even stylized images, appear carelessly, ahistorical, technocratic and modernist, because in the strictly centralist France is avoided any regionalism or even a historical subscription. Because of that these logo flags of regions are unpopular and are rarely used. But, there exist, for local and tourist purposes – usual in almost all French possessions - the famous and popular crest flags, where the image of the Coat of Arms of the country is transferred to a bunting. It shows with the three golden lillys on blue ground the heraldry of the Bourbons, the french king-lineage. Furthermore is to see a sugarcane plant and a large golden sun. The flag of the UPLG independence-movement shows the panafrican colours green, yellow and red. The combination of the colours green, yellow and red is called the Panafrican Colours: Perhaps in 1900 was the beginning of the Panafrica-Movement, wich wants to emphasize the commons of all people with black skin. 97% of the population of Guadeloupe are Blacks and Mulattoes. The colour-triad green-yellow-red, wich is used by many african and even american countries in their flags after the independence, stands for the political unity of Africa, of all black people. The first country was Ghana in 1957. As the origin apply the colours of Ethiopia (Abessinia), the oldest independent state in Africa.
The coat of arms shows with the three golden lillys on blue ground the heraldry of the Bourbons, the french king-lineage, in the head of the shield. Furthermore is to see a sugarcane plant and a large golden sun.
The name "Guadeloupe" could mean something like "Wolf River Island", because the name seems to be made up of two words. 1st) Wadi, Arabic for river, 2nd) Lupus, Latin for wolf.
