Coat of arms of Niger

The coat of arms of Niger shows a four-part flag draping in the national colors orange, white, and green. In the middle, the state seal is arranged. On a white or gold shield the four golden symbols are shown. In the middle, there is a sun, to the left there is a vertical spear with two crossed Tuareg swords, to the right are three pearl millet heads and underneath is the frontal view of a zebu head. Under the coat of arms, there is a ribbon bearing the name of the country in French: Republique du Niger. While the constitution of Niger stipulates the color of the symbols upon the shield, there is no uniformity on the color of the shield. The 1999 Constitution reproduces the text of earlier constitutions, making a distinction between the Seal of State (Le Sceau de l'État) for which no shield colour is stipulated and the Coat of Arms of the Republic (Les Armoiries de la République) for which Sinople is stipulated as the shield colour.^[1] Sinople is analogous to Vert (Green) in heraldry, but official buildings and documents do not display green shields. Embassies and official documents use white, with gold emblems. The website of the President of Niger uses gold or yellow with dark gold or black emblems. The National Assembly of Niger meets below a large coat of arms with the shield coloured gold and the emblems in a darker gold.^[2][3]

Meaning of the colors and symbols

There have been several meanings proposed for the colours of the Nigerien nation, but there is no constitutional reference to these meanings. Commonly, these meanings are described as

• Orange: stands for the Sahara Desert on the northern border of the country.
• Green: stands for the grass plains in the south and west, which the Niger River flows through.
• White: stands for hope. For the Niger State it additionally symbolizes the Savanna region.

References